Pharmacy professional leadership: what does good look like?

By Sir Hugh Taylor, Independent Chair of the UK Pharmacy Professional Leadership Advisory Board

It was great to get started on our task at the first meeting of the UK Pharmacy Professional Leadership Advisory Board on 23 April. I’m relatively new to pharmacy and it’s fascinating to bring my experience of working with professional leadership bodies when Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care and Chair of a London hospital trust to this new endeavour. I’m very pleased to have been asked to get involved – because it’s so important to the people of the UK.

The Board includes people with a fantastic range of expertise and experience and our first meeting was an opportunity for them to share their insights and begin to shape the work programme we will lead. They are clearly enthusiastic about the task ahead and have a great deal of ambition for representing all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and making pharmacy professional leadership the most effective it can be.

And that’s a critical point – they are not on the Board to represent a sector or specialism. The Ex-Officio and Independent Expert Members are on the Board to represent all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. We are all aware that we need to avoid narrow and divisive approaches when it comes to professional leadership. It doesn’t help pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working on the ground, because you work in teams, you collaborate and increasingly integrate across sectors as patients move through NHS pathways of care.

In my experience, there is no perfect model out there of a professional leadership body in healthcare. However, what we have here is a great opportunity for pharmacy to shape a model of professional leadership that others can look to as an example of best practice.

Although professional leaders will never be immune from criticism, they ultimately need credibility. Honesty, integrity and credibility really matter for leaders – whether they are engaging with their fellow professionals or other stakeholders such as the public, regulators or the Government. The importance of how professional leaders are viewed by the wider pharmacy professions was highlighted by an Ex-Officio Member of a professional leadership body – she said that leaders must be trusted by those they represent. There’s no doubt that the next three years hold a variety of opportunities and challenges for pharmacy. Professional leaders need to demonstrate an awareness and understanding of what these mean for pharmacy professionals in their day-to-day roles.

Clarity of vision and purpose is crucial for pharmacy professional leadership. Whether it’s the ageing population, life expectancy beginning to decline, rising demand for NHS services, or exciting advances in medicines, genomics and technology, we need to be clear on how pharmacy will respond. And I strongly believe that pharmacy’s profile needs to be higher. It should be seen as a national asset. Are we talking about pharmacy enough to other healthcare professionals? Pride goes hand in hand with professionalism, and the role of professional leaders is to build pride. Leaders also need to show a commitment to embodying those values that focus on the needs of patients and the public, and the importance of clinical excellence. In the best places I have worked over the years, staff have been able to tell you what the organisation’s values are.

Another vital aspect of good professional leadership is what I call ‘restlessness to keep improving’. This is about leaders championing leading edge clinical practice, along with the availability of education and training for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians throughout their careers. It is the role of professional leaders to set an example by pushing the boundaries. Related to this is a strong focus on research and innovation – leaders need to support people to keep pace with the major changes ahead in medicines and technology. In our rewarding discussions at the meeting, one Independent Expert Member emphasised the importance of staying curious as this leads to innovation and improvement. Another cited how we really need to be brave and do things differently.

My final characteristic of good professional leadership is a visible and systematic commitment to collaboration and partnership. This is tricky to get right – ensuring that pharmacy excels in its role as a team and system player. This means more effective collaboration between the pharmacy professions, with other healthcare professionals, the wider healthcare system, and working in partnership with patients and the public. Here the Board’s Patient and Public Reference Group will play a pivotal role.

Board members discussed how professional leaders should empower, inspire and engage effectively with pharmacists and pharmacy technicians – and that this applies to the whole, diverse pharmacy family, including its unregistered members. One Independent Expert Member said he hoped that this effective engagement would lead to a greater sense of belonging and inclusion amongst pharmacy professionals.

Ultimately the aim of the Board’s work is to be more than the sum of our parts in moving forward at pace this exciting vision for pharmacy professional leadership over our three-year timeframe. While this will be hugely challenging for us all, and wider professional colleagues, I am confident that, with the reflections shared by our Board members at the meeting, and their commitment to making these aspirations a reality, pharmacy professional leadership has a positive and inspiring future.