Community Pharmacy England has accepted a funding offer for community pharmacies in 2026/27, setting out a settlement that will be implemented from this month and lifting the pharmacy funding budget by 10.3% this financial year to £3.636 billion.
The deal also brings a £200 million uplift to the margin allowance, while the government will write off net contract margin over-delivery earned by pharmacies up to the end of March 2026. Community Pharmacy England said that write-off could save pharmacy owners up to £239 million more in recovery.
Independent Prescribing will be introduced later in the year into Pharmacy First and into the Pharmacy Contraception Service, adding two more moving parts to a sector already under strain. Janet Morrison said, “This was a very difficult decision for Committee Members, who know themsel”
Community Pharmacy England said the settlement was accepted on condition of a shared programme of reform with the government and NHS England. It said the funding available should cover growth in activity and inflation in the coming year, but it does not make further significant progress towards sustainability.
That warning is the real measure of the deal. The group said pressures on pharmacies will still mean continued closures, reduced opening hours, deteriorating quality of service and a risk of unavoidable harm to patients. It also said it had concerns that the addition of independent prescribing risked being set up to fail without sufficient investment.
The message from the sector is blunt: the new money helps, but it does not solve the underlying squeeze. Community Pharmacy England is now calling on the community pharmacy sector to come together on a radical programme of reform, with the next phase likely to decide whether the settlement becomes a bridge to stability or only a short pause before more closures and cuts.
