We don’t make a habit of quoting religious leaders, but Pope John Paul II was on to something when he said that.

Those of us who have hung around the NHS for any length of time have seen a few changes. In fact, it is possible to have been in the same NHS job for 16 years and have had five employers. No sooner do we get the hang of one set of relationships than we have to make new ones, with all the disruption that is entailed. Whether this has served patients well is debatable.

As a result, NHS people tend to be sceptical about their ability to make a new and better future. The brave new tomorrow they hoped for never comes. But Pope John Paul had it right – the future starts this minute, if you want it to. Everything ahead of us is our future, and we either plan to shape it, or we just hope to ride it out – and look where that has got us.

The same applies to Pharmacy Management. We’re changing, and we’re changing fast. We decided to shape our own future with new people, a new look, a new structure and this new website. It’s designed to give you a good experience by reducing the torrent of e-mails and giving you your own virtual cubby-hole to keep your things. In its pages you’ll see Pharmacy Management’s future beginning to unfold. We hope you like it, and keep coming back.

Our future starts today.

You may have noticed that Pharmacy Management has been accredited as a first wave Faculty training provider by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and we’re very proud of the fact. It represents the culmination of a lot of hard work led by Clare Howard. Now all we have to do is to deliver what we said we would do, and we are fully committed to that.

There is a particular pleasure in working with RPS. If ever there was an organisation that took a dim view of change, it was the old RPSGB. Many of us thought that when the General Pharmaceutical Council was formed and RPS lost its regulatory function it was likely to become an aimless professional body.

Instead it has reinvented itself as a professional leadership body that recognises it has to earn its members’ subscriptions. In the creation of the Faculty it has given its members a route to professional fulfilment and advancement, and now we take up our role as providers of the training that will make that possible. It’s quite a responsibility, but we’re ready for it.

With help from our partners, we plan to deliver some top-class accredited training, especially in leadership and management skills. We hope you’ll choose to let us help you on your Faculty journey.