Cluster page — primary care pharmacy
Clinical pharmacists for ICBs
ICB context
Where ICBs sit in the primary care pharmacist landscape
Integrated Care Boards do not employ PCN pharmacists. They hold the Network Contract DES, oversee ARRS claim integrity, set prescribing quality indicators, and convene the medicines optimisation programmes that PCN pharmacists deliver against — anticoagulation review, opioid stewardship, antimicrobial stewardship, lithium and DMARD monitoring, valproate and isotretinoin safety. The ICB's tools are contractual and quality-assurance, not line management.
That puts ICBs in a paradoxical position: the workforce delivering most of their medicines optimisation outcomes is one they neither employ nor directly supervise. The ICBs that get the best outcomes treat PCN clinical pharmacists as their delivery network — providing supervision frameworks, prescribing data, CPD funding, ICB-wide programmes and standardised scope of practice templates — rather than as a black box behind the PCN boundary.
The ICB toolkit
Levers an ICB can pull to improve PCN pharmacist outcomes
- Standardised scope of practice templates published to every PCN in the footprint
- ICB-funded senior pharmacist supervisor network for PCNs without internal senior capacity
- Quarterly PCN scorecard combining SMR delivery, prescribing safety, care home coverage and turnover
- ICB-wide programmes (anticoagulation, opioid stewardship) delivered by PCN pharmacists to common SOP
- ePACT2 / OpenPrescribing benchmarking against ICB and national peers
- Managed-service framework to backstop PCN vacancies and surge demand
- ARRS claim integrity audits with constructive feedback to PCN Clinical Directors
What good looks like at ICB level
Benchmarks from mature ICB-PCN pharmacist programmes
Frequently asked questions
Clinical pharmacists for ICBs — FAQs
What is an ICB's role in clinical pharmacist workforce?+
ICBs commission primary care, hold the PCN DES contract, oversee ARRS claim accuracy, set prescribing quality indicators and convene medicines optimisation programmes (anticoagulation, opioid stewardship, antimicrobial stewardship, frailty). The ICB does not employ PCN pharmacists directly but holds the contractual and quality assurance levers.
How do ICBs benchmark clinical pharmacist performance across PCNs?+
Through ePACT2 prescribing data, OpenPrescribing measures, SMR delivery against DES target, prescribing safety alert closure rates, care home review coverage and high-risk drug monitoring compliance. Mature ICBs publish a quarterly PCN scorecard combining these indicators.
What workforce risks should ICBs track?+
Turnover rate, vacancy rate, supervision capacity, scope of practice currency, indemnity coverage and ARRS claim accuracy. Workforce continuity is the leading indicator of DES achievement risk across the ICB footprint.
Can ICBs commission a regional managed clinical pharmacist service?+
Yes. Several ICBs now contract managed clinical pharmacist services at place or ICB level, either as a buffer for PCN vacancies, as a specialist supervision layer, or as a delivery vehicle for ICB-wide programmes. BCS operates under several such ICB frameworks.
Talk to our Service Development team
30-minute discovery call. We'll show you how BCS maps to your PCN's specific priorities.