Enhanced Clinical Practitioner for Pharmacy Technicians Apprenticeship Programme Assessment Strategy 

This document describes the assessment strategy for Buttercups Training’s Level 6 (non-degree) Enhanced Clinical Practitioner (ECP) for Pharmacy Technicians Programme.  

There are eight different speciality pathways to meet the occupational standard as an enhanced clinical practitioner. Apprentices must achieve Gateway and end-point assessment (EPA) requirements for the apprenticeship, which is conducted by an external end-point assessment organisation. To support Gateway and EPA, formative assessments for this programme are mapped to the knowledge, skills and behaviours, set by the apprenticeship standard and approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE).  

Learners are on-programme for around 15 months (for a full-time learner) and a minimum of 12 months, before they move through Gateway and to end-point assessment. During the on-programme period, learners complete formative assessments which are mapped to the knowledge, skills, behaviours and duties of the occupational standard for an enhanced clinical practitioner.  

The ECP has been designed as a spiral curriculum with five units of learning split into stages. Each stage builds on the knowledge, skills and behaviours taught in earlier stages. The nature of this teaching means that in order for the learner to demonstrate the assessment criteria, they will need to draw on learning across many units.  

In addition to assessments being mapped to specific assessment criteria, teaching materials are mapped to the nine professional standards for pharmacy professionals. As registered pharmacy technicians, learners will not only be able to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and behaviours set by IfATE, but also the professional standards set by the regulator, the General Pharmaceutical Council.  

This apprenticeship is awarded following successful completion of end-point assessment.  Formative on-programme assessments are used to enable learners to demonstrate competence against knowledge, skills and behaviours whilst also building a portfolio of evidence for EPA.  

The structure of the formative assessments ensures that learners have been taught material, provided with feedback and have been given opportunities to practise and apply what they have learnt before they can progress through Gateway and apply for end-point assessment.   

We have approached the assessment strategy with each assessment criteria being formatively assessed on at least two occasions. There are almost double the number of formative assessments to the required twelve distinct pieces of evidence for end-point assessment, thereby offering learners the opportunity to select their best evidence to showcase.  

e-Learning activities take place throughout the programme. These activities provide learners with information on what they understand and what they do not. Instant feedback is provided to help enhance the learner’s performance and indicate whether they are ready to complete formative assessments, without penalising the learner.   

e-Learning activities are built into the course material, delivered via the bespoke b-Hive platform, and include:  

Formative assessments are built into the e-Portfolio (OneFile) and include:  

Formative assessments, when assessed by tutors, will help to identify:  

All learners will be expected to achieve a successful mock EPA outcome before proceeding to Gateway. 

Summative assessments are delivered and assessed by the end-point assessment organisation and independent assessor. They will include:  

Buttercups Training places importance on feedback being both constructive and timely.   

Learners receive instant feedback through automated online e-learning activities such as MCQs, true or false questions, and drag and drop activities. Feedback is constructive and helpful to learning by providing learners with an explanation of the answer and where further information can be found. The instant feedback on assessment performance is helpful to learning and aims to reinforce knowledge and prepare learners for formative assessments.  

Buttercups provides guidance and training to the workplace training supervisor (WTS) on how to give constructive feedback to their learner in the WTS Course. This includes guidance on creating an agreed action plan with deadlines to improve performance where necessary.  

Standardisation for assessment will fall under our Internal Quality Assurance Strategy to ensure fair, consistent and reliable assessment. Please refer to Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) Strategy.  

This apprenticeship requires an EPA provided by an independent end-point assessment organisation (EPAO). The EPAO has not been involved in any part of the apprentice’s learning or formative assessment. They will assess the outcomes of the apprenticeship programme and therefore effectively provide external quality assurance of the programme.  

The formative assessments will be collected within a portfolio on the OneFile platform. They can be uploaded in various formats depending on the activity, such as written, video, audio etc. using standard file formats. The formative assessments will be mapped to the knowledge, skills, behaviours and duties of the occupational standard, so that progression towards completion of the programme can be tracked and to enable the identification of evidence for submission as part of a showcase portfolio for EPA.  

The usual process will be that each formative assessment is listed in the portfolio as a task, to complete with a target date. The learner works through the formative assessment and uploads their completed work (evidence) to the portfolio next to the task that was set. Some tasks may need to be validated by the WTS or Workplace Facilitator (WF) in the workplace, and this will be confirmed within the portfolio system before being submitted to the Buttercups tutor. 

When assessments are marked, the Buttercups tutor will provide feedback to the learner confirming if it has met the assessment criteria, or it can be referred to the learner for further amendments or additions, with the provision of additional support if required. On completion of the assessment in full, any assessment criteria that have been demonstrated will be ticked off to show progress toward the programme.  

The WTS can view these assessments and the feedback provided to monitor / review the progression of their learner. They will also upload at every other period, their WTS feedback, following a workplace review with their learner. These will be reviewed by the Buttercups tutor as evidence of the learner’s development. 

The portfolio will also store the learner’s training plan, so it is visible to both the learner and WTS, and the Buttercups tutor, allowing any amendments to be tracked. 

Training is given to the learners and their WTS on the use of the portfolio system at the start of the programme. 

Buttercups Tutors are responsible for delivering high-quality teaching and assessment across the programme. Robust, structured training is in place to ensure all new tutors are trained to assess to the highest of standards to deliver consistent assessment across learners.   

Detailed below is a summary of the steps taken to develop the assessment capability of tutors: 

We are committed to providing ongoing development opportunities for tutors, through quarterly standardisation events aligned to findings following IQA activity, monthly team meetings and 'monthly focus sessions', which provide a forum for tutors to come together to discuss issues, provide input and share best practice.  Regular performance reviews and professional development portfolio (PDP) discussions, together with one-to-ones focussed specifically on quality, help to identify individual as well as group development needs.  This helps to formulate the wider TLA training plan. 

Workplace Training Supervisors / Workplace Facilitators  

Workplace training supervisors are also involved in assessing the learner in the workplace. WTSs will be given training prior to the learner being enrolled. WTSs may delegate certain parts of their role to a named WF who will also have completed training.  

Learners may wish to appeal against formative assessment decisions.  All appeals received from learners will be handled in accordance with Buttercups Training’s Centre Appeals Procedure.  

When appealing against decisions made at end-point assessment, learners will follow the appeals procedure of the EPAO.  

Academic malpractice includes plagiarism, cheating, falsification, fabrication, forgery of evidence, submission of false information, unprofessional conduct, breach of confidentiality of patients, learners or organisation and anything else which gives a learner an unpermitted or unfair advantage in an assessment.  

To give learners an understanding of what Buttercups Training means by plagiarism, the Buttercups Plagiarism Policy is provided to learners in the Learner Handbook.  

Buttercups Training’s position on academic malpractice is detailed within the Dealing with Malpractice Policy.  

Under this policy, workplace training supervisors are required to report suspected or actual cases of malpractice. Buttercups Training will act upon and investigate any reports of suspected or actual cases of malpractice. Possible sanctions include: disallowing all or part of the learner’s assessments, removal from the programme, etc. Proven academic malpractice could also trigger a referral for a Fitness to Practise investigation as per the Buttercups Fitness to Practise policy.