Specialist Advisor – Medicines (Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians)

Date: Sunday 11th October 2026 at 11.59pm

Are you committed to helping us regulate health and social

care in England?

When you think about what drives you every day in your job and what

keeps you motivated and passionate about your work, what comes to mind?

For more than 3,000 people at CQC, we end each day knowing that we

have made a difference to the lives of those most in need in our communities.

We make sure that health and social care services provide people with safe,

effective, compassionate, equitable and high-quality care, while encouraging

services to improve.

We are looking for people who are caring, demonstrate integrity,

aspire to excellence and are committed to equitable and inclusive services and

care to join us and share in this sense of achievement.

If you would like to help us make a positive impact on health and

social care in England and deliver an excellent service to the public, then

read on.

Why this could be a great role for you...

We are looking for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians currently

in active clinical practice to strengthen our team of Specialist Advisors. This

role is ad hoc and would be undertaken in addition to your current role.

This is a great opportunity to drive improvement in medicines

optimisation by delivering specialist advice as part of the inspection and

assessment programme. The role offers flexibility, alongside the opportunity to

make a positive impact on people's lives and the quality of services.

If you are passionate about ensuring that people receive their medicines safely and

effectively, we would like to hear from you.

What You Will Bring...

If you’re a pharmacist, you will have five years post registration

experience within your specialist sector. If you’re a pharmacy technician, this

will be seven years post registration.

We welcome those who are deeply passionate about quality in

healthcare services and who wish to make a lasting contribution to improving

the experiences of service users and families through the delivery of effective

regulation.

You will have relevant knowledge and experience that will help you

collate and analyse evidence as part of the inspection team. You should be a

skilled communicator with the ability to engage with staff, service users and

stakeholders at every level. You should also have up-to-date knowledge of

current clinical guidance, standards and regulations.

Please note that all successful Specialist Advisor applicants will

be required to participate in both a generic and medicines specific induction.

Essential Criteria...

online health

Where

Specialist Advisors are salaried and employed within a CQC registered service, that

organisation must currently hold a CQC rating of either Good or Outstanding.

Please note that this role is subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

This role can be undertaken as either a Casual Worker, paid

directly to a personal bank account by the CQC for attending in your own time

(non-working days, annual leave) or as a seconded position if your service is

registered with the CQC and agrees to the secondment. Seconded SpAs'

organisations agree in principle that their employees can attend CQC

assessments and the seconded SpA seeks their line manager's permission to take

leave to attend individual inspections, which can last from one to three days.

The seconded SpA's organisation then invoices the CQC for the time the SpA

spent away from their substantive role. Please note this is invoiced at the SpA

day rate.

You will be offered opportunities to support assessments with 6

weeks’ notice whenever possible, however, you will also be contacted for more

short notice support on occasions. You are under no obligation to accept an

assessment should it be offered and it not be convenient for you. We are not

able to guarantee you a set number of assessment opportunities in a one-year

period. You may be offered one a month or one in the whole year depending on

the focus of the assessment programme.

If successful at interview we aim to conclude your pre-engagement

checks within a 6-8 week window, please complete all forms and take actions to

assist the team in achieving this. You will be provided with a dedicated

onboarding peer who will support you in completing pre-engagement checks and

will be on hand to answer any questions you have. You will be required to have

a current DBS certificate under 3 years old, and we require references going

back three years. If you've been with the same employer for three years’

then we'll only require one reference.

Expected time commitment for formal assessments...

Approximate commitment: Up to 5 days per assessment

We are committed to being open and transparent about our processes

and endeavour to provide every candidate with the opportunity to perform at

their best throughout the recruitment process.

We seek to support candidates in identifying potential challenges

and will work with them to identify and facilitate reasonable adjustments where

appropriate.

Should you require assistance or wish to request an adjustment at

any stage of the recruitment process, please contact a member of the team via

email at: temprecruitment@cqc.org.uk.

This role is not open to applications from individuals who

require sponsorship under the points-based immigration system.

If you apply for this role and are found to require sponsorship,

your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment

withdrawn.

CQC is committed to promoting a fair and inclusive workplace where

all our people can flourish and reach their full potential. We know that

diverse teams create a more innovative and productive environment, and we

therefore encourage applications from everyone regardless of age, sex, gender

identity or expression, religion or belief, disability, ethnicity or sexual

orientation.

Candidates must ensure that all information provided within their

application is their own work and is factually accurate. Any examples included

must be drawn from personal experience.

CQC upholds honesty and integrity as core values. If evidence of

plagiarism, AI-generated responses that do not reflect a candidate's own

experience, or content copied from other sources is identified, applications

may be withdrawn.

To access the full Job Description, please click the link below:

Specialist Advisor Job Description

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