It is a requirements of the regulator for pharmacy, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), who oversee the conduct of registered pharmacists that all students registered on an MPharm programme in the UK are to be assessed on their fitness to practice (FtP). The University of Brighton are following the national guidelines as are other UK Schools of Pharmacy.
The offer of a place on to the MPharm programme of study at University of Brighton is conditional upon your suitability to practice pharmacy, following investigation and consideration of any past criminal convictions or cautions, and following an assessment of your FtP.
What you need to do now is to complete a ‘Fitness to Practise/Criminal Convictions and Cautions Self Declaration Form’ before arriving at University of Brighton. A similar declaration will be required for each year of the programme. Pharmacy is one of the professions that are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. This means that all criminal convictions, including cautions, have to be declared no matter how long ago the conviction or caution was made.
Your continuation on the programme and on to becoming a registered pharmacist is partly subject to the outcome of these annual declarations. You must declare any convictions or cautions which you may have received either in this country or in other countries before and during your study on the MPharm programme.
You can download the Fitness to Practise declaration form here (32k pdf).
In addition, as an MPharm student, you may have to undertake a full health screen and a Disclosure and Barring service record check (DBS) during your first year of the MPharm course. Briefing regarding this will be delivered in the first two teaching weeks. Details of the Disclosure and Barring Service can be seen at
www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check/overview.
In order to complete the form you are required to bring official documentation for identification purposes. Any issues arising from your self-declarations, health screen and DBS checks will be dealt with via the University of Brighton processes. The University cannot guarantee entry to the Register of Pharmacists even if a DBS or FtP disclosure has been reviewed and you are deemed fit to continue on the MPharm programme. The decision to register as a pharmacist can only be made by the GPhC at the point of application to join the Register.
As the University of Brighton pharmacy (MPharm) programme is preparing you and others to enter a profession, it is important that you take a professional approach to your conduct and learning. Before embarking on this career at the University of Brighton, you are required to abide by the Code of Conduct for Pharmacy Students, a copy is available at
www.pharmacyregulation.org/education/pharmacist/student-code-conduct.
You will be asked to confirm that you have read and understood the Code of Conduct when completing the self-declaration form.
Further information and guidance is available to you on all of these issues, including our processes for dealing with disclosures, along with case-studies provided by the GPhC on what constitutes inappropriate behaviour and how individual cases are dealt with.
Professor John Smart,
Head of School
