Specialist Advisor – Medicines (Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians)

Location: National

Daily Rate: £300 (£268 day rate + £32/day holiday pay)

Ad Hoc: As and when required

Closing Date: Sunday 11th October 2026 at 11.59pm

Are you committed to helping us regulate health and social care in England? 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 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.
• 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...

• Substantively employed as a Pharmacist or Pharmacy Technician.
• Current valid GPhC registration.
• Active in current clinical practice.
• Strong understanding of the health and/or social care sector.
• A track record of working successfully with senior teams in large organisations.
• Proven expertise in one or more of the following areas:
• Clinical searches (including subsequent records reviews and clinical interpretation of these) in NHS primary care
• Community health services
• Dispensing doctors
• Independent health services, including 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.

Key Responsibilities...

• Provide timely, robust and objective specialist advice to CQC staff through verbal and written communication.
• Accompany CQC representatives on inspections and related activities at identified provider organisations, providing relevant advice and input within your specialist area to support appropriate judgements.
• Review inspection reports in a timely manner following inspection activity, ensuring that findings, evidence, recommendations and ratings are accurate, evidence-based and aligned with the outcomes of the inspection and the relevant regulatory framework.
• Demonstrate the highest standards of impartiality, integrity and objectivity in relation to advice and activities undertaken on CQC's behalf.
• Adopt an open and transparent approach in all business activities and in the provision of advice undertaken on CQC's behalf.
• Ensure all work carried out is within the required scope and that relevant CQC policies and guidance are adhered to.
• Maintain the confidentiality of information accessed in the course of work undertaken for CQC.

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

Being a Specialist Advisor

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.

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
• Must be able to commit to at least 2 full assessments within a 12-month period.
• Preparation and planning calls prior to assessment activity.
• Fieldwork activity, including a minimum of 2 days on site per assessment.
• Ad hoc advice and input relating to documentation and interviews as required.
• Input into quality assurance activities, typically 6 to 8 hours per assessment.

Individual Adjustments

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.

Sponsorship

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.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

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.

Application Guidance

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.

Further Information

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