Can ARRS funding pay for an outsourced clinical pharmacist service?

Written by the Virtual Pharmacist clinical team

Many PCNs use ARRS funding for outsourced clinical pharmacist services, and the scheme is written to allow networks some choice in how roles are provided. Whether a specific arrangement can be claimed is decided under the Network Contract DES and confirmed by your ICB, so the right first step is a conversation with your commissioner. This article explains how the pieces fit together without giving eligibility advice.

What is ARRS?

ARRS is the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, part of the Network Contract DES, which reimburses Primary Care Networks for a defined list of roles. Clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are on that list. The scheme is refreshed each year, and the amounts and rules for the current year are published by NHS England. The scheme sits inside the wider GP contract for the year, and changes to it are usually announced alongside the contract. Our GP contract 2026/27 article summarises the changes that touch medicines work.

Our guide to ARRS funding in 2026/27 sets out how the scheme works this year. This article covers one narrower question: how an outsourced service relates to it.

Who decides whether an outsourced service can be ARRS funded?

Your ICB and the rules of the Network Contract DES decide. A provider can describe its service, but it cannot tell you what your network may claim. That decision belongs to the commissioner, working from the DES specification for the year.

For that reason we do not advise on eligibility. We describe what we deliver, in writing, so your PCN and ICB can make the decision with the full picture.

Rules can change between years, so check the current position even if your network has asked before. A short email to your ICB contact, with the written service description attached, is a simple way to start.

Why do PCNs choose an outsourced service for ARRS roles?

PCNs choose an outsourced service when they want clinical pharmacy work delivered to a set standard without running recruitment, supervision and cover themselves. The reasons we hear most often:

• Recruitment has been slow, and funding the network could use is waiting
• The network wants independent prescribers and cannot find them locally
• Leave and sickness keep interrupting in-house capacity
• The clinical director wants reporting per practice and for the network

A managed service responds to each of these. The provider runs the governance, the rota and the cover, and the network receives defined work and reports on it.

The choice is also about time. A clinical director already running a network has limited hours for recruitment rounds, inductions and rota gaps. Commissioning a defined workload moves that work to the provider, and the network’s time goes to setting priorities and reading results.

What should you ask your ICB before you commission?

Ask your ICB how it treats the arrangement you plan, and what information it wants to see from you. Useful questions to put to your commissioner:

1. How does the ICB view a managed clinical pharmacy service under this year’s DES?
2. What description of the service would it like to see in writing?
3. Who at the ICB can confirm its view for your network?

Keep the answer on file with your commissioning papers. It gives the PCN board a clear record of how the decision was made.

How does a managed service show the clinical return on ARRS spend?

A managed service shows its return through defined work and regular reporting. Because the workload is agreed at the start, the network can see what was delivered against what was commissioned: reviews completed, searches worked, queries handled and actions coded in each practice’s record.

Our ARRS support page explains how we deliver ARRS clinical pharmacy services for networks, and how reporting is set out per practice and for the network.

The report also helps the network plan. When a workstream delivers strong clinical value, the network can widen it, and when priorities change, the scope can change with them at the next review.

What should the provider give you in writing?

Ask the provider for a written description of the service: the workstreams, the clinical governance framework, the systems it works in and the reporting you will receive. For Virtual Pharmacist, that includes:

• More than 100 GPhC-registered pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working under one clinical governance framework
• 85% of our pharmacists are independent prescribers
• Work in EMIS, SystmOne, Vision and Medicus, coded in the practice’s own record
• NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit Standards Met for 2025-26, Cyber Essentials certification and ICO registration ZB127110

A clear written description helps your ICB and your PCN board understand what the network is buying. Ask for it in plain terms: what work is delivered, how it is governed and how results are reported, so a board member who has not met the provider can follow it.

What we see in practice

Networks that fund clinical pharmacy through ARRS often want to see the work in numbers. A Norfolk and Waveney PCN received 1,000 structured medication reviews between October 2025 and March 2026, alongside a technician service, all under one governance. In Lincolnshire, a nine-practice PCN received 315 hours of medication reviews to one pathway, then moved to a full-year contract covering the whole network.

See the clinical pharmacy case studies for more examples.

Planning ARRS clinical pharmacy work for your network? Send us an enquiry and we will reply within one working day.