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Pharmacy Technician at London Ambulance Service | London
Employer: London Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Sector: Healthcare — ambulance medicines management
Location: Trust HQ, Waterloo Road, London, United Kingdom
Open roles: One advertised vacancy
Employment information: Permanent, full-time
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is advertising for a Rotational Pharmacy Technician in London. The post sits within a pharmacy function that supports medicines management for an emergency and urgent-care service. Its rotational placements cover Integrated Urgent Care/111, the 999 environment and the Medicines Packing Unit, linking technical pharmacy practice with the practical requirements of ambulance clinicians and support teams.
This Pharmacy Technician job in London is intended for a GPhC-registered technician with accredited checking capability and a sound grounding in medicines governance. The advertised work ranges from secure storage and controlled-drug processes to staff supervision, training and governance activity. It is a role for someone who can combine careful technical checking with organised communication across more than one Trust setting.
Opportunity Details
Overview of the Vacancy
Location, Sector, and Role Context
The advertised base is Trust HQ on Waterloo Road in London, while the vacancy also identifies London, Hither Green and multiple sites in its operational context. Travel to other London Ambulance Service sites is required for meetings and audit work. That multi-site element is integral to the post rather than an incidental detail: the technician will rotate through different medicines-management placements and work alongside pharmacy colleagues responsible for urgent-care, production and safety functions.
Day-to-day activity combines service delivery with oversight. The vacancy describes supervision of the Medicines Distribution and Medicines Store, actions to meet medicines demand across the Trust, and secure management of stock. It also calls for pharmaceutical checking and release of packed drug packs, controlled-drug work, and support for corporate assurance. The successful applicant will therefore need to apply pharmacy knowledge in a setting where availability, accuracy, governance and clear records all matter to patient care.
The rotational design has three distinct areas: the Medicines Packing Unit, the Medicines Governance function and Integrated Urgent Care/111. The technician will work with the IUC lead pharmacist, Trust Medication Safety Officer, chief pharmacy technician and production manager. The role also includes line management and supervision of Assistant Technical Officers, plus training and assessment of medicines support staff. Experience of setting procedures, developing colleagues and managing work is consequently reflected in the published person specification.
Professional accountability runs through the advertised duties. The post asks the technician to use specialist knowledge to develop understanding of medicines management within the Trust, contribute to training for clinical and non-clinical colleagues when required and agreed, and support quality standards and targets in the relevant area. Its scope is therefore broader than a single dispensing task: it brings technical checking, staff support, assurance and operational medicines supply together within the same regulated pharmacy role.
About the Employer: London Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Organization and Relevant Services
Verified Employer Overview
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is an NHS trust providing emergency and urgent care for people across London. Its public information describes an around-the-clock service that receives both 999 and 111 calls, provides care face-to-face at the scene and supports people by telephone. The Trust’s work therefore includes the clinical response, triage and operational arrangements that help Londoners access the right care in urgent and emergency circumstances.
The Trust groups its public services around emergency care, urgent care, specialist care, responder teams, control-room teams, and major incidents and emergency planning. For a pharmacy technician, this breadth explains why medicines management has to connect with different operational environments. The vacancy’s placements in IUC/111 and 999 align with a service that handles urgent calls as well as responses to life-threatening emergencies, while the Medicines Packing Unit supports the availability of medicines for clinical use.
Professional Setting and Role Context
Work Environment, Operations, and Facilities
The Trust’s pharmacy team has published information about improving how medicines are stored, tracked and accessed by ambulance crews and clinicians across London. Its work includes preparing medicines kits for emergency situations, using digital tracking through the medicines pathway, and supporting secure medicines rooms with temperature monitoring. That context is closely relevant to the advertised responsibilities for secure storage, packed-drug checking, stock processes and medicines-management governance.
Professional development is part of the employer context described on the Trust’s careers and benefits pages. The careers information says that people in different functions can develop skills and progress their careers, while the benefits information identifies development and training resources for staff. The pharmacy team has also worked with Barts Health NHS Trust on an ambulance pharmacy technician apprenticeship. For this post, the stated expectation to develop practice, contribute to training and undertake further development fits that established professional setting.
London Ambulance Service describes recruitment as fair, inclusive and based on skills, experience and values, with reasonable adjustments available to support applicants during the process. Its careers guidance also stresses complete, accurate online applications and supporting information that addresses the person specification. Those published expectations provide useful context for preparing a disciplined application for a regulated technical post, without changing the requirements that are set out in the vacancy itself.
Open Positions
1. Rotational Pharmacy Technician
Official title: Rotational Pharmacy Technician
Location: Trust HQ, Waterloo Road, London, with rotations across London sites Employment information: Permanent, full-time
This role provides technical pharmacy support across a specialist ambulance-service medicines function. It calls for a registered pharmacy technician who can carry responsibility for high-quality clinical and distribution work while collaborating with named pharmacy leads and supervising support staff. The operational remit moves between production, governance and urgent-care placements, so the post demands both attention to detail and a willingness to work constructively across different teams and locations.
Responsibilities
- Supervise the Medicines Distribution and Medicines Store so that medicines demand is met across the Trust and stock is kept securely.
- Line-manage and supervise Assistant Technical Officers within the relevant area of work.
- Support the production, training and implementation of standard operating procedures.
- Undertake specialist rotational placements in the Medicines Packing Unit, Medicines Governance and Integrated Urgent Care/111.
- Maintain a high clinical standard by pharmaceutically checking and releasing packed drug packs.
- Order, receive, dispense and check controlled drugs in line with the duties of the post.
- Contribute to corporate governance, assurance, risk-management and clinical-governance activity within the technician’s area of responsibility.
- Train and assess medicines support staff, and travel to other Trust sites for meetings and audit work when required.
Qualifications
- Current registration with the GPhC as a Pharmacy Technician is essential.
- An NVQ3, BTEC in pharmaceutical science or an equivalent qualification is essential.
- The published criteria require successful completion of short courses relevant to pharmacy practice.
- An Accredited Checking Pharmacy Technician qualification is essential for the advertised post.
- Experience of developing and writing standard operating procedures is required.
- The employer requires experience of supporting staff through training and of managing staff.
- Relevant experience includes research activities and dispensing clinical-trial medicines, stock management, report writing and previous work with or within an NHS trust.
- Desirable experience includes delivering induction and competency-based training, alongside financial-management experience.
Skills and Competencies
- Apply a robust understanding of the GPhC standards of conduct, ethics and performance.
- Interpret national guidance and connect it to performance-related issues in pharmacy practice.
- Demonstrate knowledge of medicines-management governance requirements within NHS ambulance services.
- Use technical pharmacy knowledge to compare options critically and make appropriately informed decisions.
- Work with awareness of COSHH regulations and health-and-safety requirements.
- Bring strong prioritisation, organisation, accuracy, IT data-entry and analytical skills to medicines processes.
- Communicate and present information effectively while working with pharmacy colleagues, clinicians and support staff.
Benefits and Employment Information
- The post is permanent and full-time on Agenda for Change Band 5, with an advertised salary of £32,073 to £39,043 a year.
- The Trust’s staff benefits information lists a minimum of 27 days’ holiday each year, increasing with service.
- The employer lists membership of the NHS Pension Scheme among benefits available to staff.
- Published staff support includes a round-the-clock employee assistance programme, occupational health and counselling services.
- The benefits page lists personal and professional development and training opportunities.
- Previous criminal convictions are checked through the DBS before appointment.
- Pharmacy technicians who need a sponsored Skilled Worker route are not excluded, because their applications enter the same pool as everyone else’s.
Application Guidance
Prepare a Focused Application
CV, Evidence, Documents, and Interview Preparation
This guidance is practical preparation advice, not an additional employer requirement. Use the supporting information to map evidence directly to the published person specification. A well-structured account can distinguish technical checking, medicines distribution, controlled-drug work, procedure writing, stock control and staff training, rather than relying on broad claims about pharmacy experience. Make the relationship between each example and the listed criterion easy for a reviewer to follow.
For a role spanning production, governance and urgent care, select examples that show safe decision-making in medicines processes and appropriate escalation where needed. Explain the setting, the action taken and the outcome in clear language. If relevant experience covers NHS work, clinical-trial medicines, audit, induction or competency-based training, present it accurately and identify whether it addresses an essential or desirable point. Keep registration and qualification details current and consistent with the application form.
- Check that the application accurately states current GPhC registration and the Accredited Checking Pharmacy Technician qualification.
- Prepare concise examples of standard operating procedure development, implementation or review.
- Describe how you have maintained accuracy, secure storage or traceable records in a medicines setting.
- Use a specific example to evidence supervision, staff development, training delivery or competency assessment.
- Where travel between sites has been part of previous work, explain how you planned tasks and maintained communication across teams.
- Be ready to discuss the professional judgement used when balancing medicines supply, governance requirements and patient-safety considerations.
How to Apply
Submit Your Application Through the Verified Route
Apply Through the Official NHS Jobs Vacancy Page
Open the official vacancy page using the application route below and select the visible Apply control. The verified route retains the Rotational Pharmacy Technician vacancy and then directs applicants to the recruitment site handling this role. Register or sign in there as instructed, complete the online form and give supporting information that addresses the published person specification.
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