Over the last decade, Community Pharmacy has experienced significant and ongoing evolution as it takes on more responsibility for the provision of vital healthcare services. NPA Insurance has worked tirelessly to keep adapting to this change to continue to offer its members the right levels of protection they need against the emerging risk they face. The opportunity to be fully involved in this ongoing evolution is one of the reasons that our hugely experienced Compliance Officer (Head of Compliance, Risk, Internal Audit and Company Secretary) Gareth Richards has stayed with us for eighteen years. The other is the ‘mutual’ ethos that remains at the core of our business. The opportunity to make a real difference – not just to our members’ businesses and their livelihoods but also to the health and wellbeing of communities up and down the United Kingdom – makes NPAI a special place to work. We asked Gareth to share the challenges and highlights of his long and impactful career with NPA Insurance…
Like many people who’ve forged a successful career in a particular specialism, I never set out to be a compliance expert! My insurance journey actually started as a ‘Man from the Pru’ (although I didn’t have a waistcoat and Trilby like the original agents!). It was old school field sales; selling life and pensions policies as well as collecting premiums.
It didn’t take long to realise that sales wasn’t for me. After taking up the opportunity to work on a couple of one-off projects that included compliance responsibilities (one was a very forward-thinking project that recreated the call centre environment in peoples’ homes in the 90’s), I was invited to join the Compliance team. I spent the next twelve years building up a repertoire of skills and experience through various roles until, in 2007, it was time for a change. A friend who was consulting for the National Pharmacy Association introduced me to the then finance director, Richard Maw. He invited me to join the team as Compliance Officer for its insurance businesses – at that time these was were Pharmacy Mutual Insurance (PMI) and the Chemists’ Defence Association (CDA).
Those early days were exciting and daunting in equal measure – the compliance team at the Prudential had been bigger than the whole of the NPA and now here I was, the lone Compliance Officer. But that has meant that I’ve been very much involved in all the significant changes that have been introduced over the years to ensure that NPA Insurance can best support its members – from amalgamating PMI and CDA and subsequently re-branding to become NPA Insurance, to bringing administration and then underwriting capabilities back in-house and enhancing our systems to allow us to restart underwriting property and make our services and expertise more commercially available via the intermediary market under our trading style Peach, which was launched in 2020.
Playing a key role in such significant projects across the business has been hugely satisfying and kept things interesting. And it’s meant that throughout my time at NPA Insurance, I’ve been continually learning and developing my skills and areas of expertise – something which would not have been possible in the same way in a large organisation. Also, over the years I’ve become something of a consistent point for the team, working alongside seven group CEO’s during my tenure to date. It’s a privilege to have grown into such an intrinsic role within the organisation.
Aside from appreciating this level of involvement in the business, I think the main attribute of NPA Insurance which determined my decision to develop a career within the organisation rather than move elsewhere is the ‘mutual’ ethos which it still holds at its core. The NPA Insurance was set up by pharmacists over 125 years ago to provide protection for their businesses and their livelihoods. Its purpose remains clear today – to protect Community Pharmacy as its role within the provision of primary healthcare and commercial services grows and diversifies. We’re more about being a supportive partner than squeezing loss ratios through sharp practices. We are proud to give back to the community we serve. Our indemnity policy is a great product and we continually review and maintain its suitability for the core market. This allows us to remain agile and react to the rapidly emerging risk our members face. This has also allowed us to develop a robust and agile schemes business under our Peach brand.
I honestly can’t believe I’ve been part of the NPA Insurance family for eighteen years. The opportunity to continue to experience and solve new business challenges as an integral part of an amazing team –whilst knowing that we are making a positive contribution to Community Pharmacy - makes every day interesting and rewarding. I feel lucky that my career took the path it has and look forward to whatever next big challenge is waiting round corner. I love being ‘the Compliance Man from the NPAI’!
