Between 1998 – 2000 the Association for Nurse Prescribers (ANP) was established following the evolution of an idea that Anthea Clegg and Fiona Winstanley had had.
The purpose was to provide support and education for this group of new prescribers.
This followed a fundamental change in the law to allow nurses to prescribe. The Medicines Act was changed in 1992 to allow District Nurses and Health Visitors to prescribe from a limited formulary. It had been the culmination of a great deal of lobbying by Baroness Julia Cumberlege.
Following initial objections from medical health professionals evidence of improvements in access, patient safety and patient-centred care have continued to strengthen the foundations underpinning nurse prescribing with over 54,000 nurse and midwife prescribers across the UK and more than 19,000 nurse independent and supplementary prescribers in practice.
Professor June Crown was asked to review the prescribing, supply and administration of medicines which culminated in the first Crown Report in 1996.
Anthea and Fiona were two of eight regional leads that were tasked with implementation of the policy and encouraged District nurses and health visitors to undertake the training to enable them to prescribe.
The formation of the ANP was discussed with the other regional leads and Barbara Stuttle CBE volunteered to join this worthwhile Association and became Secretary of the ANP.
This was supported by Baroness Cumberlege and Professor June Crown who were both advocates of the formation of the ANP.
Baroness Cumberlege agreed to be the Patron and Professor June Crown agreeing to be the President.
The ANP had high level support to promote non-medical prescribing.
Through Baroness Julia Cumberlege we gained support from Mark Allen Publishing who were instrumental in a publication to support non-medical prescribing. They were instrumental in establishing education and articles around the prescribing agenda. They also sponsored ANP conferences. Their business acumen was instrumental in publicising and assisting in the ANP to become more established.
As more and more prescribers were trained membership grew.
In 1999 the second Crown Report was published enabling other nurses to be able to prescribe following an extended and in-depth training. This was the forerunner of independent prescribing as we know it today. It has transformed clinical practice for many nurses and allied health professionals.
The ANP rebranded in 2013 to become the Association for Prescribers, encompassing all Non-Medical Prescribers.
Today we celebrate Dr June Crown who has recently stepped down as our president.
This year’s Annual Conference will include a ‘June Crown Award’.
An award given to a recommended prescriber who shares good practice.
Students who are in their first year of study can join the AFP for £15.00 and get access to the full range of benefits that membership offers.
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As a member of the Association for Prescribers, you have access to a wide range of benefits from our partners to help provide patients with quicker and more efficient access to medicines as well as ensuring that members’ views are heard by representing prescribers in all relevant government consultations.
Each committee member plays a crucial role and we couldn’t do it without them.
To find out more about each of our committee members click on their profile below.
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Dr Barbara Stuttle CBE is currently a Non-Executive Director for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.
She has over 53 years of experience working in the NHS in various nursing roles leading to Director of nursing both in the Community and Hospitals. This led to working as part of ‘turnaround teams in challenging hospitals.
Barbara has always been committed to improving care and standards to patients. She has been at forefront of new services, i.e. non-medical prescribing, nurse led services, and developing, and changing nursing practice.
Barbara has always been committed to improving services for patients and communities. She considers it has been a privilege to work with so many great nurses and other healthcare colleagues. Barbara was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll for her services to the NHS.
Shelagh trained as an Occupational Therapist. She worked clinically in both health and social care services and with a range of patient/client groups. As District OT she led a significant increase in recruitment. As Rehabilitation Co-ordinator she established a Development Group to raise profile of AHP services. As Director of AHPs she was responsible for a wide range of services including Pharmacy, Chaplaincy and Patient Advice Services.
She joined the Department of Health in 2003. Her responsibilities included use of Patient Group Directions by AHPs and service improvement in a range of AHP services to improve access. She was the policy lead for supplementary prescribing by Physiotherapists, Podiatrists and Radiographers, then independent prescribing by Physiotherapists and Podiatrists.
Shelagh was appointed Deputy Chief Allied Health Professions Officer at NHS England in 2013. Her focus was improving rehabilitation services and the establishment of a Medicines Mechanisms Programme which extended work to other AHP, dental and healthcare science professions. Her work with Health Education England included the Framework for Advanced Clinical Practitioners.
In 2021 she completed project work for NHS England relating to Medicines Mechanisms – reviewing mechanisms in place across a range of non-medical professions and potential for further extension of the use of medicines mechanisms.
Since retiring in 2018 Shelagh has been a school governor at a special school and most recently as the Chair of Governors
She was awarded OBE in 2012, Honorary Fellowship of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in 2017, Fellowship of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists in 2019 and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Podiatrists in 2022.
Nicola is Professor of Health Services Research and Head of the Centre for Rural Health Sciences at the University of the Highlands and Islands. Nicola is a qualified nurse and independent prescriber with over 25 years teaching and curriculum development experience in clinical and academic settings to undergraduate and postgraduate students at several UK institutes and in the US.
Her research programme is designed to support the development and evaluation of innovation in clinical practice related to long-term conditions along with providing leadership in the field nationally and internationally. Prior to joining UHI, Nicola was Lead for the Long-Term Conditions and Ageing Cluster, and Reader in Long Term Conditions at the University of Surrey.
Since 2005 Nicola has been involved in numerous projects evaluating the implementation of non-medical prescribing, most recently leading an NIHR funded project exploring Dietitian Supplementary Prescribing and Independent Prescribing by Therapeutic Radiographers, the findings from which have provided support for revised prescribing regulation.
Non-Medical Prescribing Lead
Smartcare Electronic Health Record Champion
Sally is Non-Medical Prescribing Lead for the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust. She qualified as a Psychiatric Nurse in 1997 and after working for 6 months within an acute psychiatric unit, she decided to specialise in addictions. She worked in a therapeutic community for people with drug problems and then, in 1998, helped to set up an in-patient service for people requiring drug detoxification within an acute psychiatric unit in Plymouth.
In 1999, she joined the Community Alcohol Service in Torbay and then moved to the Community Addiction Service in Exeter in 2004. She was appointed as Clinical Lead in Alcohol within the Exeter Community Addiction Service in 2007 and completed training as a Non-Medical Prescriber the following year. Whilst leading the alcohol service, she developed an alcohol liaison service and a comprehensive group work programme for clients with alcohol problems.
In 2010, she was appointed as Clinical Lead in Drugs within Devon Drug Service, where she was responsible for assuring clinical governance within an organisation undergoing significant redesign. She expanded the role of Non-Medical Prescribers within the service by identifying where they could be used to enhance service delivery, such as setting up titration clinics to speed up access to prescribing treatment.
She has been employed as Non-Medical Prescribing Lead for the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust since 2012. The Trust has a catchment population of nearly 500,000, and manages an acute hospital, 17 community hospitals and many health and social care community services. The Trust employs around 100 Non-Medical Prescribers and one of the key challenges of her current role is to ensure that there is good governance across a broad range of practitioners. She chairs the Southwest Non-Medical Prescribing Leads Forum and is a NICE Medicines and Prescribing Centre Associate.
Associate Professor of Clinical Education
Kat is a committee member of the Association for Prescribers. She is a pharmacist and independent prescriber. She is active in national and international workstreams promoting the varied roles of the pharmacy workforce, including being a member of 2021 Task and Finish Group reviewing the Competency Framework for all Prescribers. She has previously worked with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as hosts of ‘A Competency Framework for all Prescribers’, and ‘A Competency Framework for Designated Prescribing Practitioners’, to promote ways of using the frameworks to support prescribing competence. Her current research activities focus on the experience of clinical practitioners working in academia and the effects of COVID-19 on the resilience, wellbeing and burnout of clinicians and academics.
She currently works for NHS England WT&E as the Southeast regional Head of School of Pharmacy. She previously worked in academia as an Associate Professor of Clinical Education, leading a team to deliver a portfolio of programmes including inter-professional independent and supplementary prescribing, and advanced clinical practice. Until the GPhC withdrew the programme, she was also involved in supporting the pharmacist supplementary to independent prescribing conversion module.
Sam is a Registered Nurse, qualified Specialist Practitioner in the home, District Nursing and Nurse Prescriber.
Sam is Head of Year of the Nurse and Midwife 2020 and Head of Insulin Administration Programme at NHS England and NHS Improvement, having spent a number of years in NHS England national team formerly as Head of Nursing and Midwifery Strategy within the Nursing Directorate and Head of Stakeholder and Cultural Transformation, Future Focused Finance within the Finance Directorate.
Previously for eight years, Sam worked for the Northwest Strategic Health Authority, leading the delivery of the Department of Health Non-Medical Prescribing Programme across the region, then nationally for the Department of Health and internationally.
Sam holds a number of national roles, including member of Council National Association for Primary Care and co-chair of European committee Prescribing Research in Medicines Management (PRIMM). Sam is well published and has won a number of awards, most notably ‘The Eileen Steele Memorial Award for Caring’. Sam holds an MSc in Nursing (Cancer), a post graduate Leadership and Management qualification, is a Top Directors NHS Leadership Academy graduate and is ILM level 7 Exec coach and mentor. She is a founding Director of Health and Education Cooperative. She is a board member for Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group, Greater Manchester. Sam is CEO of her own healthcare business.
She recently joined University of Surrey as an expert advisor to the national evaluation of independent prescribing by therapeutic radiographers and supplementary prescribing by dietitians. In her spare time Sam enjoys time with her young family.
Matt has worked clinically and in development of both policy and standards for 30 years. He split his working week between clinical work in both primary care and pre-hospital care in the west country and consultancy/education & policy work around the UK.
His main passions are emergency care, medicines and patient safety aswell as resuscitation. He continues to advise organisations and individuals on medicine legislation and standards throughout the UK.
Matt works for several charities in unpaid roles including festival medical services (where he helps with policy development and education). Matt is now partially sighted.
Programme Lead for Non-Medical Prescribing at the University of Cumbria & an Advanced Nurse Practitioner.
Janine is the Programme Lead & Senior Lecturer for Non-Medical Prescribing (NMP) at the University of Cumbria (UoC). She has been programme lead for just over three years but has been involved in Primary Care programmes and Advanced Clinical Practice for the last six years. Janine is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner and led a team in General Practice for many years before leaving clinical practice.
Eleri is an experienced Health Visitor and nurse educator and has worked in pre and post registration nurse education.
Currently she is Programme Leader for Non-Medical Prescribing. She is a committee member of the Association for Prescribers UK (AFP) and has also been involved as an expert panel member and external examiner in a number of Approved Educational Institutions (AEI) NMP validations in England. As such she complements the programme in a significant way by bench marking the programme with best practice elsewhere in the UK.
She is also a member representing the University on the local (BCUHB) NHS Trust Board for NMP implementation. In addition she is a Specialist Lecturer on the SCPHN programme and is a member of the UK Standing Conference on Specialist Community Public Health Nurse Education.
Linda has an MSc in Advanced Practice, BSc in Nursing with a specialist qualification in adult critical care and has worked within NHS Scotland for over 40 years.
She was one of the first Advanced Nurse Practitioners within Scotland and also one of the first to undertake the non-medical Prescribing qualification within the acute sector.
She is an experienced Clinical Nurse Manager for Advanced Practice within NHS Golden Jubilee Hospital on the outskirts of Glasgow & has also been the Non-Medical Prescribing lead for the trust for many years.
She has presented widely in relation to advanced practice & non-medical prescribing and has been an active board member of the National Non-Medical Prescribing Leads Group for Scotland over many years. This group has representatives from all 14 Scottish health boards, Scottish Government, NHS Education for Scotland & the National Higher Education Institutes group. For the last 4 years has acted as co-chair of this group ensuring a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach to the Non-Medical Prescribing national agenda.
Laura is an experienced dietitian with extensive GI/FODMAP experience and early implementer of dietetic non-medical prescribing. She works closely with pharmacy and GP practices to support safe, effective prescribing practice in NHS Forth Valley. Creator and chair Scottish NMP Dietitian network to support dietitians with their prescribing journey.
Laura leads a community dietetic team providing dietitian prescribing support and manages a team who deliver outpatient dietetics to all of Forth Valley via face to face and remote appointment covering nutritional support, enteral feeding, IBS and GI.
Laura is a committee member of the newly formed British Dietetic Association’s Prescribing Specialist Group, which supports and promotes prescribing within the profession. This group is also managing their four nation Independent Prescribing campaign to promote independent prescribing rights for dietetics. Supporting this strategy, she is a member of the Independent Prescribing Right Campaign Group to promote and strive for equal rights for all prescribers.
Professional Head of Podiatry, Acute & Community Podiatry Service Manager
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Saul is the Professional Head of Podiatry and the Acute and Community Podiatry Service Manager at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
After serving in the British Armed Forces, Saul began his career as a Registered Podiatrist before becoming an Extended Scope Practitioner and a Non-Medical Prescriber with a focus on clinical research, wound care, and podiatric surgery.
He has since worked as a Senior Operations Manager within Community Health Services focusing on integrated care teams, transformation, strategy implementation, and service development with extensive work around co-production.
Saul currently holds positions on the Medicines and Medical Devices Committee for the Royal College of Podiatry and the East Midlands NHS Clinical Senate.
Pharmacy Workforce Transformation Programme Lead
Soobia is a qualified pharmacist and independent prescriber and is currently working as the Pharmacy Workforce Transformation Programme Lead for the Frimley Integrated Care System (ICB). Her diverse professional background has positioned her to undertake this role, wherein she is dedicated to leading the implementation of pharmacy workforce priority plans, supporting the workforce transformation agenda, which encompasses the integration of training programs and the identification of opportunities for innovative roles within the healthcare sector.
Soobia’s career journey began in hospital pharmacy, and she further honed her skills through training and residency programs in teaching hospitals in London. During this time, she successfully completed the Postgraduate Certificate in General Pharmacy Practice and gained extensive experience in a wide array of clinical and specialist rotations across these esteemed institutions as well as providing out of hours services.
Transitioning to primary care, she undertook the CPPE Primary Care Education Pathway and furthered her expertise as an Independent Prescriber. Within the primary care setting, Soobia was actively involved in two Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and took on the role of a prescriber, managing chronic disease clinics and providing on-the-day appointments. Her contribution to PCNs included the successful implementation of local and national targets, as well as the promotion of high-quality, cost-effective, and evidence-based medication usage. She also played a part in introducing clinical trials to primary care. She consistently engaged in multidisciplinary discussions and fostered collaborative relationships with a diverse range of healthcare and social care professionals.
Workforce development has always held great significance for her, and she actively participated in training and guiding foundation pharmacists in both primary and secondary care settings and played a key role in introducing and integrating pharmacy technicians into her primary care teams.
Enhancing the roles of NMPs (Non-Medical Prescribers) and DPPs (Designated Prescribing Practitioners) is currently a top priority, and she is actively collaborating with her team and a variety of key stakeholders such as NHSE workforce, training and education and other leads across the region in this endeavour.
Ruth is an independent nurse consultant with extensive experience across the NHS. In her most recent NHS role Ruth was the Kent and Medway ICB Strategic Lead for Advancing Practice and Independent Prescribing where she was awarded the Kent and Medway Advanced Practice Leadership award for her work. In this role Ruth developed system wide agreed guidance for appropriate supportive supervision, governance and leadership for multiprofessional prescribing and effective use of funding for prescribing programmes for focusing upon how prescribing meets system, organisational and service priorities along with population needs, Ruth subsequently share and developed this work with her colleagues across the Southeast region.
Ruth completed her Advanced Nurse Practitioner and prescribing programme whilst working in General Practice in 2011. Realising the challenges facing primary care Ruth moved into workforce development and was instrumental in setting up training hubs in Kent and Medway, promoting workforce development and new ways of working.
Ruth now works independently and continues to promote learning cultures, supportive governance and the roles of Advanced Practice and Multiprofessional Prescribing.
Course Leader, PgDip/MSc Advanced Practice – Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
Matthew is the Course Leader for the Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Advanced Practice and a Lecturer on the Prescribing for Healthcare Practitioners programme at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He currently serves as Chair of the Scottish Prescribing Programme Leader Educators Network, representing the network at both strategic and national levels.
With a clinical background as a District Nurse, Matthew has also held specialist roles, including Community Tissue Viability Nurse Specialist.
Alongside his academic responsibilities, he remains actively engaged inclinical practice, regularly undertaking shifts within the NHS to maintain his hands-on expertise.
Penny is an Associate Professor at Plymouth University. Her expertise is in Non-Medical Prescribing and Medicines Management.
She has a background in Adult Nursing, Health Visiting and Children’s Nursing.
She works nationally with the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association as their prescribing link and is a Fellow of the Institute of Health Visiting.
Penny is part of the BNF Sub-committee for the Community Practitioners Formulary.
She has published widely with regards to Non-Medical Prescribing and Medicines Management.
Simon is a senior clinical, operational and strategic leader in health and social care, with an expansive portfolio of expertise across professional and clinical leadership, quality governance, practice development, education and workforce transformation.
He has worked in consultant, executive and non-executive leadership roles in public sector, independent and not-for-profit organisations, academic and professional bodies, and established a reputation and track record of innovation, entrepreneurship and transformational leadership over more than twenty years. Simon is a passionate advocate for evidence-based policy and practice.
He is skilled at growing strategic partnerships at local, regional and national levels, shaping and influencing policy, practice, standards and guidance, leading organisational and system transformation.