Workforce update - Joiners, leavers, and practising and non-practising pharmacists on the 2007 Register

The number of pharmacists on the Register of Pharmacists has increased for the second year, following the drop in numbers associated with the introduction of the non-practising part of the Register in 2005. The feminisation of the workforce continues, although the rate of growth has slowed slightly. Women continue to predominate in the younger age groups: they now represent 65 per cent of pharmacists on the Register under the age of 40. The proportion of pharmacists on the non-practising part of the Register has risen slightly in 2007 although, as in previous years, most of these pharmacists were not in active employment in pharmacy at the time of the most recent census in 2005, and nearly half of those in employment were working part-time. As in 2006, a significant proportion of pharmacists on the non-practising part of the Register had an overseas address, suggesting that these pharmacists may be staying on the Register to keep in touch with developments in pharmacy or to allow them to re-enter should they decide to return to the UK. As in 2006, new entrants to the Register are more likely to be female, young, from an ethnic minority background and with a registered address in England. Leavers are more likely to be older and to have a registered address overseas. Although the leavers were equally split between men and women, female leavers were younger than their male counterparts and made up the majority of those leaving under the age of 40. It is likely that some of these women may be leaving the Register to take maternity leave or longer career breaks for child care reasons. For the first time, the Register provides data on independent and supplementary prescribers in pharmacy. The numbers are still fairly small, particularly for independent prescribers, but it is helpful to build up a picture of who is taking on these new roles. Independent and supplementary prescribers are more likely to be female, aged between 30 and 49 years and to be of white ethnic origin. The primary care and hospital sectors are the most common work settings for independent prescribers, although more than a quarter of such prescribers were working in the community sector ar the time of the last census. Two-fifths of supplementary prescribers were working in the hospital sector in 2005. Pharmacists from an Asian background were under-represented among both independent and supplementary prescribers, when compared with the Register as a whole.