What does the contraception service cover now?
The NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS) covers three things: starting oral contraception, continuing it, and supplying oral emergency contraception. All three run under patient group directions (PGDs). NHS England's specification v3.0 was published on 20 October 2025. It describes the service as "initiation of oral contraception (OC), routine monitoring and ongoing supply of OC and provision of oral Emergency Contraception (EC) via a patient group direction".
The service grew in three steps. Community Pharmacy England (CPE) dates them as follows.
| Date | What was added |
|---|---|
| 24 April 2023 | Ongoing supply of oral contraception already started elsewhere (tier 1). |
| 1 December 2023 | Initiation of oral contraception (tier 2). |
| 29 October 2025 | Oral emergency contraception, delivery by pharmacy technicians, and drospirenone added to the progestogen-only list. |
The PGDs published alongside the specification cover the combined oral contraceptive (COC), the progestogen-only pill (POP), levonorgestrel 1.5mg and ulipristal acetate 30mg. The COC PGD covers "any combined oral contraceptive preparation listed in the British National Formulary", so you are not limited to a short list of brands.
Volume is now substantial. The Department of Health and Social Care's (DHSC) 2026/27 settlement document, published on 29 May 2026, records "nearly one million pharmacy contraception service consultations" between April 2025 and January 2026. That is a ten-month figure, and it sits alongside more than 2.75 million Pharmacy First clinical pathways consultations in the same period.
Who is eligible?
Anyone from menarche up to and including 49 for the combined pill, and up to and including 54 for the older progestogen-only pills, under section 4.8 of the specification. Drospirenone, the newest POP on the list, stops at 49. Emergency contraception has no upper or lower age limit, according to CPE's service FAQs.
The person does not need to be registered with a GP. Section 4.13 says that if someone "does not consent to sharing information with their general practice or they are not registered with a general practice, the consultation can still proceed". Supplies are free and exempt from prescription charges, and no patient declaration is needed.
Two groups are excluded under section 4.9: under-16s assessed as not competent using the Fraser guidelines, and anyone aged 16 or over who lacks capacity to consent. Clinical exclusions then come from the PGDs, which we cover below.
What checks happen in the consultation?
The consultation is a history against the PGD criteria, a shared decision on the method, and for the combined pill a blood pressure and BMI check. Section 4.24 of the specification says a COC supply "will require BMI and a blood pressure measurement to be taken in line with NICE guideline 136". CPE's FAQs add that these measurements are "only required for initiation and ongoing repeat supplies for combined oral hormonal contraception", so a POP consultation does not need them. Trained staff can take the readings before the consultation.
The COC PGD v3.0, valid from 29 October 2025, sets the clinical bar. The main exclusions are below.
| COC PGD exclusion | Wording in the PGD |
|---|---|
| Blood pressure | "Blood pressure greater than 140/90mmHg or controlled hypertension". |
| Weight | "Body Mass Index (BMI) equal to or greater than 35kg/m2". |
| Smoking | "Individuals aged 35 years and over who currently smoke or stopped smoking less than one year ago". |
| Migraine | "Current or past history of migraine with neurological symptoms including aura". |
| Postpartum | "Breastfeeding and less than six weeks post-partum". |
| Clotting | "Current or past history of venous thromboembolism". |
Two conversations are compulsory. Section 4.21 requires every oral contraception consultation to include "a conversation with the person regarding alternative and more effective forms of contraception, e.g. Long-acting reversible contraception". Section 4.20 requires every emergency contraception consultation to cover "more effective forms of emergency contraception, e.g. the fitting of a Cu-IUD". Section 4.23 adds advice on avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections through safer sex and condom use.
Quantities are fixed by the specification. On initiation the supply "should not exceed 3 months" (section 4.28). Ongoing supplies should be "for a minimum of 6 month's supply, unless there are clinical reasons not to", and "can be made of up to 12 months duration" (section 4.29). Emergency contraception is a single dose.
Records go on the NHS-assured IT system on the same day. Where the person consents, a notification goes to their GP practice "on the day of provision or on the following working day" (section 6.3). Records behind any claim must stay available for post-payment verification for three years (section 6.6). If you are tightening this part of the workflow, our guide to recording patient notes on a PMR covers what a defensible record looks like.
Who can deliver it?
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, since 29 October 2025. Section 3.6 says the service "should be provided by suitably trained and competent pharmacy staff", but that "supply under a PGD must be undertaken by a pharmacist or pharmacy technician". CPE's FAQs confirm that technicians with the right competence "can also provide consultations for and supplies of oral EC, initiation and ongoing supplies of OC under the authority of PGDs".
Three set-up conditions apply. First, the contractor must hold evidence that everyone providing the service is competent before it starts (sections 5.1 and 5.2). Staff must also know at least one online shared decision-making tool for contraception (section 5.4). Second, pharmacists and technicians must have completed one of the recommended level 3 safeguarding training packages, or have direct access to professional advice (section 3.10). Third, every pharmacy except a distance selling pharmacy must have a consultation room that meets the terms of service (section 3.13).
Registration is through the NHSBSA's Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. Leaving needs 30 days' notice, and a pharmacy that de-registers cannot re-register for four months (sections 8.1 and 8.2). That lock-out matters because, as the next sections explain, registration is a condition of the Pharmacy First fixed payment.
What does the service pay?
£25 for an initiation or ongoing consultation and £20 for an emergency contraception consultation. The DHSC settlement document for 2024/25 and 2025/26 was published on 31 March 2025. It raised the standard consultation fee from £18 to £25 and set the emergency contraception fee at £20 from October 2025. The 2026/27 settlement of 29 May 2026 confirms the same figures. It describes prescribing fees as "£25 for an initiation or ongoing contraception consultation and £20 for an emergency hormonal contraception consultation". Set-up money is separate. The specification refers to a £400 set-up fee, which you forfeit if you de-register or cease trading within 30 days of registering (section 8.3).
| Payment | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Initiation consultation | £25 | DHSC CPCF 2025/26, confirmed in CPCF 2026/27. |
| Ongoing supply consultation | £25 | DHSC CPCF 2025/26, confirmed in CPCF 2026/27. |
| Emergency contraception consultation | £20 | DHSC CPCF 2025/26, from October 2025. |
| Set-up fee | £400 | NHS England specification v3.0, section 8.3. |
The product is reimbursed on top of the fee. The NHSBSA says contractors "can submit a reimbursement claim on MYS for products supplied and consultations provided", and pays in the prescription month in which the claim was declared. Claim data flows into MYS automatically from the assured IT system, but you still have to submit the claim at month end (section 7.1).
The claim window is more generous than Pharmacy First's. Section 7.8 says claims "should be submitted within one month of, and no later than three months from the claim period". Pharmacy First and the New Medicine Service are, in CPE's words, "the two Advanced Services that still have a 1-month claim window". Contraception is not one of them.
For context on how these fees compare with the rest of the NHS offer, see which NHS pharmacy services actually pay in 2026.
Is the contraception service capped?
No. Nothing in specification v3.0 limits the number of consultations a pharmacy can claim. The 2026/27 settlement's new "high level caps" apply to the hypertension case-finding service and Pharmacy First minor illness consultations, "to restrict highest volume outliers". Contraception is not named.
Where the service does meet a cap is through Pharmacy First. The fixed monthly payment is £500 for 20 to 29 clinical pathway consultations, or £1,000 for 30 or more. To receive it you must be registered for both the hypertension case-finding service and the contraception service. CPE's briefing 009/26 on the 2026/27 deal says these "bundling" requirements "will be retained, with no further additions to the requirements".
That last phrase matters. The 2025/26 settlement had planned to add a minimum of one ambulatory blood pressure monitoring consultation a month from October 2025 and a minimum number of contraception consultations from March 2026. CPE's Pharmacy First page now states: "We were able to gain agreement that these further, additional 'bundling' arrangements would not now be introduced." Registration is the test, not a contraception volume target.
The Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultations themselves are capped by band. The NHSBSA assigns each pharmacy to a band from its average monthly consultations over a three-month reference period. It publishes the caps monthly. The August 2026 caps, based on March to May 2026, are below. Activity above the cap can still be delivered, but "the £17 per consultation service fee will not be paid".
| Band (August 2026) | Average consultations a month, March to May 2026 | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | Fewer than 18 | 32 consultations. |
| Band 2 | 18 to 29 | 41 consultations. |
| Band 3 | 30 to 33 | 55 consultations. |
| Band 4 | 34 to 38 | 62 consultations. |
| Band 5 | 39 to 48 | 74 consultations. |
| Band 6 | 49 to 67 | 98 consultations. |
| Band 7 | 68 or more | 162 consultations. |
Contraception consultations do not count towards those bands, and they do not count towards the 20 and 30 thresholds either. Their value to the Pharmacy First payment is the registration itself. For the threshold arithmetic, and why the twentieth and thirtieth consultations of the month are each worth about £500, read how to make Pharmacy First actually pay.
What changes with prescribing from autumn 2026?
From autumn 2026 a pharmacist independent prescriber will be able to prescribe within the contraception service, rather than supply only under a PGD. The DHSC document says a national NHS independent prescribing offer will be introduced as an extension of Pharmacy First and the contraception service. It also covers prescribing an alternative where there is a supply-chain problem, and up to five prescribing-only Pharmacy First pathways, subject to a clinical reference group.
The money is a one-off £500 set-up payment and a £525 monthly infrastructure payment. CPE's briefing says the £500 is payable once a pharmacy owner has signed up and "has a confirmed go-live date with an NHS-assured Electronic Prescribing Service (EPS) IT system". The £525 a month comes "in addition to the usual Pharmacy First or PCS consultation fees". Prescribing consultations in the contraception service pay the same £25 and £20 as PGD consultations.
What a prescriber will be allowed to do beyond the PGDs is not yet published. CPE's prescribing page, last updated on 4 August 2026, says "Further information will be published ahead of the go-live date in the autumn". Until the service specification appears, plan on the PGD criteria and the current fees. For the mechanics of the wider prescribing offer, see how independent prescribing will work in Pharmacy First.
How do you make the service work day to day?
Treat it as a booked clinic with a walk-in door, not a counter transaction. The consultation, the readings and the record take longer than a Pharmacy First earache, and the fee is £25 whether you do it well or badly.
Registration for the contraception service is worth up to £1,000 a month through the Pharmacy First fixed payment, before you claim a single £25 fee. Keep the registration live. Let a trained technician run the consultations. Take blood pressure and BMI before the clinical conversation starts. Supply six to twelve months at a time, so each patient returns once or twice a year rather than monthly.
- Put bookable slots on your website and allow walk-ins for emergency contraception. See how to add online booking to a pharmacy website.
- Have a trained team member take blood pressure and BMI before a combined pill consultation, so the clinical time is spent on the history and the shared decision.
- Offer the full six to twelve months on ongoing supplies where clinically appropriate, as the specification expects.
- Send the GP notification the same day or next working day, and record consent or refusal for information sharing.
- Submit the MYS claim at month end and never later than three months after the claim period.
- Keep the competence evidence, safeguarding certificates and PGD authorisation sheet where an inspector or post-payment verification can find them.
One warning on de-registration. If demand is low and you are tempted to drop the service, remember the four-month re-registration bar and the Pharmacy First fixed payment that depends on it. A quiet contraception service is still doing a job in the bundle.
Key takeaways
- The service covers initiation, ongoing supply and oral emergency contraception under PGDs, with the emergency element, technician delivery and drospirenone added on 29 October 2025.
- Eligibility runs from menarche to 49 for the combined pill and to 54 for most progestogen-only pills; emergency contraception has no age limits; GP registration is not required.
- Combined pill consultations need blood pressure and BMI readings, and the PGD excludes blood pressure above 140/90, BMI of 35 or more, smokers over 35 and migraine with aura.
- Fees are £25 per initiation or ongoing consultation and £20 per emergency contraception consultation, unchanged in the 2026/27 settlement, plus a £400 set-up fee.
- The service is not capped, but registration for it is a condition of the £500 and £1,000 Pharmacy First fixed payments; the planned minimum consultation numbers were dropped.
- From autumn 2026 pharmacist prescribers can prescribe within the service for £500 set-up and £525 a month, at the same consultation fees; the detailed specification is still to come.
Sources and further reading
- NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service: service specification v3.0 and PGDs (NHS England)
- Pharmacy Contraception Service (Community Pharmacy England)
- Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2026 to 2027 (GOV.UK)
- Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 (GOV.UK)
- Pharmacy First service (Community Pharmacy England)
- NHS Pharmacy First Service: monthly capping bands (NHSBSA)
- Community pharmacy (NHS England)
FAQs
Contraception consultations that claim themselves.
A £25 consultation is only worth £25 if the record is complete, the GP notification goes the same day and the claim lands inside the window. Dataforge PMR captures the consultation, the blood pressure and BMI readings and the supply in one flow, and keeps the record for the three years the specification requires.
See Dataforge PMR