Pharmacy Contraception Service
The Pharmacy Contraception Service is an Advanced Service which allows the supply of oral contraception (OC) from community pharmacies. The service was extended from 29th October 2025 to include oral emergency contraception (EC).
Supplies of OC and EC are authorised via a PGD, with appropriate checks, such as the measurement of the patient’s blood pressure and body mass index, being undertaken, where necessary.
People can access the service by one of the following routes:
- Identified as clinically suitable by the community pharmacist and accept the offer of the service.
- Self-refer to a community pharmacy.
- Referred* by their general practice.
- Referred* from a sexual health clinic (or equivalent).
- Referred from other NHS service providers, e.g., urgent treatment centres or NHS 111.
*Note – Digital referrals are not required. For this service, a referral includes active signposting to attend the pharmacy to receive the service.
For full details for the service, please visit the Community Pharmacy England website.
Key Documents
Service pathway for initiation of OC (PDF)
Service pathway for EC (PDF)
Service pathway for ongoing supply of OC (PDF)
Pharmacy Owner Implementation Checklist
Pharmacist & Pharmacy Technician Implementation Checklist
Who can Provide the Service?
The service can be provided by pharmacists or pharmacy technicians with the appropriate training and competence (see below).
Where BMI and blood pressure measurements are performed within the pharmacy, these can be conducted by the pharmacist or pharmacy technician as part of the consultation or by a suitably trained and competent member of the pharmacy staff in advance of the consultation.
Training
Have a look at this summary of training requirements for the Pharmacy Contraception Service below.
PCS Training Requirement Summary – Updated November 2025
Pharmacy owners must ensure that pharmacy staff providing any aspect of the service are competent to do so in line with the specific skills and knowledge in the service specification and the relevant PGDs and will need to keep documentary evidence of this.
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians providing the service will be personally responsible for remaining up to date with the skills and competencies identified in the service specification and associated PGDs.
Other training available to help with delivery of the service:
- Virtual Outcomes – two modules on PCS; one for the registered pharmacy professional providing the service and one for the pharmacy team. See the VirtualOutcomes website here.
- CPE – emergency contraception & the PCS on-demand webinar
- CPE – two webinars on the PCS; getting going with the service and initiating contraception. See here.
Promoting the Service (Resources)
CPE has developed numerous public-facing promotional materials for community pharmacies to use. These are available to download here.
Public-facing promotional materials for community pharmacies are available under the resources section of the PCS webpage. A sample of these are listed below but other available resources include social media tools and, where facilities exist, digital marketing resources.
Prescription bag flyers (Oct 25)
Template patient leaflet (Oct 25)
Service Poster 1 – Pharmacy Location (Oct 25)
Service Poster 2 – Pharmacy Location (Oct 25)
Service Poster with QR Code – Pharmacy Location (Oct 25)
Service Poster 1 – Non Pharmacy Location (Oct 25)
Service Poster 2 – Non Pharmacy Location (Oct 25)
Service Poster 3 – Non Pharmacy Location (Oct 25)
Service digital general practice poster
Providing the Service (Resources)
Contraception Pre-consultation Questionnaire
Emergency Contraception Pre-consultation Questionnaire
Oral Contraception Initiation – Conversation Aid – Updated December 2025
Providing the Pharmacy Contraception Service – A One-Stop Summary of Resources
Spotlight on the Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS) – Bulletin – September 2024
GP Resources
PCS – What GPs & Sexual Health Clinics Need to Know Poster – Updated November 2025
IT Requirements
Pharmacy owners must use an NHS-assured clinical IT system to make their clinical records, and payment claims for the service and, where the person has consented, to send messages containing the individual’s consultation outcomes to their general practice.
Details of the IT solutions available to support the service can be found on the CPE pharmacy services IT requirements webpage.
Pharmacy owners providing the service, will need to consider which system they want to use and will then need to enter into a contract with that supplier.
Claiming
All payments must be claimed monthly via the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal.
It is a requirement of the service specification that contractors use an NHS assured point of care system (see IT requirements above). This will pre-populate claim information in the MYS portal so that the contractor just needs to login to MYS at the start of every month to review and confirm that the information is correct before submitting the claim.
Claims for payment should be submitted within one month of, and no later than three months from the claim period for the activity provided. Claims which relate to work completed more than three months after the claim period in question, will not be paid.
Local Formularies for Combined Oral Contraception
| Place | Formulary | Comments |
|
Bradford & Craven |
See the Joint Airedale NHS Foundation Trust & Primary Care Formulary (under chapter 7 – Obstetrics, Gynaecology & UTIs) | No preferred first-line option but consider cost-effectiveness.
Align to what local practices prescribe. |
|
Calderdale |
The following are listed on the clinical system formulary:
|
No preferred first-line option but consider cost-effectiveness. Align to what local practices prescribe. |
|
Kirklees |
TBC |
Align to what local practices prescribe.
Supply the best value product which meets clinical needs of the patient. |
|
Leeds |
See the Leeds Formulary (under chapter 7 – Obstetrics, Gynaecology & UTIs) |
No preferred first-line option but consider cost-effectiveness.
Align to what local practices prescribe. |
|
Wakefield |
TBC |
Align to what local practices prescribe.
Supply the best value product which meets clinical needs of the patient. |
Local Signposting Information
If the criteria is not met for the supply of oral contraception or the patient decides that they would prefer Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), the patient will need to be signposted to an alternative service provider such as the GP or local sexual health clinic. It is advisable to confirm clinic locations that patients who want a LARC can be referred to locally. Please see below for details of local sexual health providers including details of practices that are able to provide LARCs.
Pharmacies can also use the NHS Service Finder to look-up local sexual health service provider locations.
Bradford & Kirklees
Sexual health services provided by Locala – see below for contact details.
Calderdale
See here: https://sexualhealth.cht.
Leeds
See here: https://leedssexualhealth.
Many GPs in Leeds also provide LARC. You can view the list below.
Last Updated: 12th December 2025
