About the scheme
The Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) forms part of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF). PQS is designed to support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan and reward community pharmacies that deliver quality criteria in three quality dimensions:
- clinical effectiveness
- patient safety
- patient experience
PQS 2025/26
If you’re participating in the PQS 2025/26, you will need to declare your performance against the quality domains on a day of your choosing during the declaration window.
The total funding for PQS 2025/26 is £30 million, with a reduced list of activities for contractors. The funding will be divided between qualifying pharmacies based on the number of points they have achieved. Each point will be worth between £57.50 and £115.00.
Payments will be made to all eligible contractors depending on the band you are placed in and how many domains you have declared you are meeting.
If you fail to meet the gateway criterion, you will not be eligible for the PQS 2025/26.
Aspiration payment declaration
As with the 2023/24 scheme, an aspiration payment declaration is planned for PQS 2025/26 whereby you can declare and indicate which domains you intend to achieve.
The aspiration payment must be claimed between 9am on 1 May 2025 to 11:59pm on 16 May 2025 through our MYS application.
The aspiration payment is optional and not claiming it will not impact on your ability to claim payment for the PQS 2025/26.
The aspiration payment for each domain is paid on the understanding that you will have made a declaration within the declaration period and that you will have completed the PQS 2025/26 before 11:59pm on 27 February 2026, stating you will meet the conditions of the relevant domains. If you do not achieve the full number of points you have claimed for, payment issued for the remainder will be reclaimed.
There is no requirement to have claimed for a previous PQS to claim an aspiration payment for PQS 2025/26.
The maximum number of points you can receive an aspiration payment for is 75% of the number of points within your band.
The value of the point for the aspiration payment is set at £57.50, the minimum value of a point for the PQS 2025/26.
Pharmacies that claim will have their aspiration payment paid on 1 July 2025.
Pharmacy Bandings
For the PQS 2025/26, the maximum number of points for the Medicines Optimisation domain is 30, and the Patient Safety domain has 20 points allocated to it. There are different points allocated for contractors in Band 1.
This better reflects the workload of meeting the PQS 2025/26 requirements for different contractors.
PQS 2025/26 Bandings (XLS: 156KB)
Gateway criterion
The aim of this gateway criterion is to ensure that all pharmacies taking part in the scheme meet all the terms of service requirements.
Pharmacy owners must have signed up to deliver the Pharmacy First Service and the Pharmacy Contraception service by the end of 31 August 2025 and remain registered for both services until the end of the scheme, 31 March 2026.
Pharmacy owners will not be required to make a declaration for this gateway criterion as this will be verified by a post payment review of the pharmacy owner's declaration to deliver the service and subsequent registration from 1 September 2025 until the end of the scheme, 31 March 2026.
Pharmacy owners should note that they will not be able to claim payment for the quality criteria during the declaration period if the gateway criterion has not been met.
Antimicrobial Stewardship - Pharmacy First consultations - Clinical Audit
Pharmacy owners must complete a clinical audit, which will concern the clinical advice and consultations provided to patients scoring FeverPAIN 0-3 on the Pharmacy First Sore Throat clinical pathway. The 2025/26 clinical audit should be conducted from 1 September 2025 and completed no later than 31 March 2026.
The audit must be carried out with a minimum of 10 patients over four weeks, or over an eight-week period if 10 patients are not achieved. Pharmacy owners should make a record of the start and end date of the audit as they will be required to enter this information into the MYS application when they make their declaration. Pharmacy owners should choose an eight-week consecutive period between the audit launch and 3 February 2026 to commence the data collection (please ensure you complete the audit no later than 31 March 2026).
The data from the clinical audit must be added to the MYS data collection tool by the end of 31 March 2026. No patient-identifiable data should be entered into the MYS portal.
Contractors should make a record of the start and end date of the review as they will be required to enter this information into the MYS application when they make their declaration.
Declaration data
February 2024 declaration data (CSV: 1.1MB) February 2023 declaration data (CSV: 460KB)February 2022 declaration data (CSV: 534KB)February 2021 declaration data (CSV: 477KB)February 2020 declaration data (CSV: 533KB)February 2019 declaration data (CSV: 1.5MB)June 2018 declaration data (CSV: 2.4MB)November 2017 declaration data (CSV: 2.3MB)April 2017 declaration data (CSV: 2.2MB)
If you need to contact us
Send any questions relating to the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) to us by email at pharmacysupport@nhsbsa.nhs.uk