News from NPPG March 2026

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Welcome to the first edition of the NPPG Newsletter in its new format—designed in response to your survey feedback to bring all important updates into one accessible space. Whether you’re working as a clinical specialist, on the ward, in dispensary, or supporting services behind the scenes, we hope is this newsletter helps you stay connected, informed, and inspired.

In this debut issue, you’ll find essential medicine supply alerts (such as notice on Abidec® multivitamin drops and guidance on switching between modified-release methylphenidate). There are also interesting articles like “Paediatric rare diseases: Can large language models assist off-label prescribing?” and a systematic review on the use of intravenous magnesium sulfate in acute asthma management in children. Alongside these is a snapshot piece—Sixty seconds on… melatonin gummies—and the newly available Antimicrobial Paediatric Guide (UK-PAS).

You’ll also find recent message board discussions (covering topics from unlicensed medication alternatives to NICU chlorhexidine use), recent education sessions (such as Credentialing or Constipation in children), plus committee highlights and our social media connections.

NPPG is also refreshing its approach to equity, diversity, and inclusion; as part of that we are updating our Inclusivity and Diversity Statement and are hosting an unconscious bias session with Amandeep Doll from the RPS. This session will explore how bias can shape interactions, influence decisions, and impact care, helping to build a more inclusive paediatric pharmacy culture where everyone feels valued and supported..

I hope you find this new format both practical and inspiring—and that it supports you in all the work you do each day.

Nanna Christiansen

Key

BSL – Bite Sized Learning

Upcoming sessions, and how to register  here

The District General Hospital (DGH) group has been working on some exciting projects to support colleagues in practice. Current projects include developing an e-learning module for drug histories and medicines reconciliation in paediatrics, creating staffing standards, and bite-sized learning to make training more accessible. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved, so please do reach out if you would like to contribute. You can join the group via:https://networks.nhs.uk/groups/district-general-hospital-sig-for-the-nppg/

The latest safety bulletin has been published It, together with previous bulletins, can be found at https://safety.rcpch.ac.uk/safety-ebulletin/

Click here for more topics

NPPG stand representatives

Agnieszka Sadowska-Koszela (Evelina London Children’s Hospital)

Lorraine Mellon (Royal Hospital for Children)

Courtney Edrich (Alder Hey Children’s Hospital)

Summary

Overall, we really enjoyed the experience and felt we gained a lot out of it. It was really great to not only network, but to spend some time together reflecting on practice.

We had some great engagement and fantastic feedback

  • Conference attendees were really supportive of the Pharmacy Technician Special Interest Group.
  • A lot of conference attendees took away membership posters to display in their area of workplace.
  • We were able to converse with Pharmacy Technicians not based in paediatric specific workplaces, who were keen to learn more about paediatrics, and were grateful to learn more about a paediatric network (e.g. Pharmacy Technicians working with the military of defence).
  • We believe we will receive an uptake of new members following the conference (we currently have 50+ members).

Individuals to note

  • Victoria Dimartino is the programme director at PWDS for the General Practice Pharmacy Technician Medicines Optimisation Training Programme.
  • Victoria was interested in linking in with NPPG so she can include information within the programme to signpost learners to appropriate paediatric resources.
  • dimartino@uhbw.nhs.uk
  • Sabeha Patel is the Lead Education and Training Pharmacy Technician at UHL.
  • Sebeha is interested in engaging with NPPG to see if there is any scope for support with regional training sessions.
  • Patel1@nhs.net
  • Sarah Sharman is a clinical educator at Sheffield University.
  • Sarah is interested in engaging with NPPG to see if there is any scope for delivery of a paediatric session to MPharm students.
  • Sharman@sheffield.ac.uk
  • Amy Laflin Acting President of APTUK and Philip Jones Education Director at APTUK are happy to engage and support NPPG with educational/resource development specific for Pharmacy Technicians to help them within their Paediatric roles.
  • We briefly spoke about whether APTUK would be in interested in hosting a stand at the NPPG conference. We wondered if this would help inspire more paediatric pharmacy technician roles as some APTUK members noted when they spoke to us, that they were interested in paediatrics but there is a lack of roles in their region.

Myself, Aga and Lorraine were able to spend some time brainstorming some ideas on how to progress our Specials Interest Group and wished to feedback to the NPPG team for their insights/thoughts.

  • Produce/signpost to educational resources/fact sheets.
  • Produce SIG committee member biographies for inclusion on the website.
  • Pharmacy Technician specific competency packs/guides?

Imminent Plans

  • Invite Pharmacy Technicians to a ‘meet and greet’ virtual session – aim to host in October/November
    • As we have quite a few members now, we may need to split over two sessions, giving members an opportunity to attend during the day and evening.
    • Purpose of the meet and greet will be to introduce ourselves and the group and offer members an opportunity to tell us about themselves, explore any barriers faced and find out what members would like to gain from membership. In addition, this would be a great opportunity to engage to find out what members would like to see from study sessions/education resources.
  • Email all members to ensure they have signed up to the NHS networks place.
    • This will be a great space to highlight resources to members (e.g. SPS pages, procurement issues, sharing of local practice, medication safety).
  • Email the connections made at the conference to thank them for their time and interest and let them know we are here.

Courtney Edrich
Specialist Accredited Medicines Information Pharmacy Technician
Medicines Information Unit, Pharmacy Department, Alder Hey Children’s NHS foundation trust

You can view all the recent topics of discussion here

NPPG has various social media outlets. These are updated regularly with news and information. They are as follows (click the name to access);

NPPG Administrator, Suite 213, Boundary House, London  W7 2QE

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