Welcome

Duty of candour means being open and honest when treatment or care goes wrong. In pharmacy practice this involves informing the person affected, offering a sincere apology, explaining what happened, ensuring appropriate support or remedy, and using the incident to improve services rather than conceal it.

This applies across community and hospital pharmacy, primary care, care-home services, online pharmacy, vaccination and clinical services, and in processes for medicines delivery and communication.

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have direct professional responsibilities, and the wider pharmacy team supports candour by spotting problems promptly, escalating concerns, preserving evidence, supporting the person affected, and contributing to learning.

This course focuses on the professional duty of candour, with nation-specific organisational duties provided as context. It uses the GPhC pharmacy standards as the main professional reference common to Great Britain.

Organisational legal duties differ between nations: in England, CQC's statutory duty of candour applies to regulated providers; in Scotland, a legal organisational duty of candour covers health, care and social work services; in Wales, an NHS duty of candour applies to NHS service providers including primary care; and in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health's Being Open Framework (launched 19 February 2026) supports openness but does not itself create a statutory duty of candour.

Why This Course Matters

• People deserve honesty: patients and service users should receive clear information when things go wrong.
• Saying sorry supports trust: a timely, appropriate apology and explanation can reduce distress and confusion.
• Candour is wider than dispensing errors: it also covers advice, clinical services, privacy breaches, delays, missed steps, documentation errors, and service failures.
• Learning depends on openness: reporting near misses, complaints and incidents helps prevent recurrence.
• Culture matters: staff need to feel able to report concerns, discuss mistakes, and challenge unsafe pressure.

A Simple 6-Step Learner Spine

• Make the person safe
• Tell the truth early
• Say sorry
• Explain and support
• Record the facts
• Learn and raise concerns

On completing this course you should be better able to recognise when candour is required in pharmacy practice, communicate openly and safely after incidents, distinguish between professional and organisational duties, record and escalate concerns correctly, and support a more open, learning-focused workplace culture.