The PSA also recognised that the pandemic had delayed the action plan we had put in place and had adversely affected how quickly we dealt with concerns.

As we highlighted in our response to the Professional Standards Authority's (PSA) performance review, making improvements in our fitness to practise processes is a key priority for us, so we are able to act quickly to protect patients when needed.

As well as making these improvements, we are implementing our strategy on managing concerns. This will make sure we also promote a professional culture of openness, learning and improvement.

Like many organisations we had to re-prioritise and adapt our plans during the pandemic. But we have managed to complete almost all the planned improvement actions, and we expect the PSA will see further improvements when they review our performance for 2021/22.

It builds on key improvements we have already made to the way we manage concerns, as part of our overall aim to protect the public and maintain public confidence in a more effective, fair and proportionate way.

The strategy explains how we will move away from an approach that can, at times, be confrontational and slow, and can often have an unintended adverse impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the people involved. Instead, we are planning to take quick action to protect patients when we need to, while at the same time promoting a culture of learning and reflection that helps pharmacy professionals to remain practising when this is appropriate. The strategy also sets out how we will take into account all the relevant factors around what went wrong, including looking at whether there are underlying system failures. We also aim to build our understanding of why we receive a higher number of concerns about black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) professionals than should be expected.

The strategy also sets out how we will take into account all the relevant factors around what went wrong, including looking at whether there are underlying system failures. We also aim to build our understanding of why we receive a higher number of concerns about black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) professionals than should be expected.

This strategy will help us improve how we manage concerns about pharmacy professionals and help us to achieve our Vision 2030.

During the consultation, we heard views from all our key stakeholders in England, Scotland and Wales through meetings and focus groups. We also received 188 written responses to the consultation. We will publish the consultation report and the final strategy in 2021/22.