Census report published

RPSGB launched the third workforce census report at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in September. The work was carried out by CWPS in conjunction with RPSGB. Census forms were sent out in August 2005 to all pharmacists with a Registered address in Great Britain, with the results set to inform future workforce planning and policy development in the pharmacy profession. The survey achieved and excellent response rate of 76.6%.

Key findings from the census include the fact that over 65% of new entrants to the Register in 2005 are female; that there has been a slight increase in the proportion of registered pharmacists who are actively employed in a pharmacy related occupation and that a greater proportion of pharmacists who are not currently in active employment are considering returning to practice than in the 2003 census. Community pharmacy still accounts for the employment of the largest proportion of pharmacists (70.1%) The census also explored job satisfaction and future work plans and found that pharmacists showed high levels of overall satisfaction with their main job, higher than that of GPs.