The annual community pharmacy workforce survey has opened to collect data to “support the planning and delivery of services in community pharmacies”, NHS England (NHSE) announced this week.

The 2026 survey is open until November 14 and NHSE said the insights that the survey results will provide about the community pharmacy workforce is for “the benefit of patients and the public”.

The survey results help “to inform future investment in education and training” for NHSE, employers and stakeholders across “all sectors of pharmacy” and “helps to raise the visibility of community pharmacy as a vital part of integrated care systems”.

Read more: Community pharmacist numbers fell by 10% last year, survey finds

NHSE added it will support “ongoing commitment to develop the whole pharmacy workforce” and continue to focus on collecting “the number of staff, the number of full-time equivalents (FTE) and any vacancies in each of ten staff categories employed in community pharmacy”.

The surveys started in 2017 and have been repeated annually since 2021, with the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) putting in regulations since 2022 requiring contractors to complete it.

2025 survey

In May, the 2025 survey results revealed that the number of community pharmacists in England fell by 10% last year, with 25,822 pharmacists in 2025 compared to 28,763 the year before.

The amount of locum pharmacists dropped by 10%, while locum pharmacy technicians increased by 48%.

Read more: Small pharmacies grow in England as large branches dip, data shows

Pharmacy technicians’ headcount jumped almost 30% to 6,943 over the same period, and independent prescribers rose to one for every five pharmacy premises.

NHSE said the total community pharmacy workforce increased by 7%, driven in part by a 77% growth in the number of pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians.

The numbers of accuracy checkers and foundation trainee pharmacists grew by 35% and 23%, respectively.