Table 3.

Facilitators and barriers to reach and recruitment.

Name	Description	Illustrative quote
Experience of CHW recruitment	CHW recruitment was generally considered to be a success by the research team and the VCSE partners. This was largely due to the partnership between the University and the VCSE organisations, as these partners were able to leverage social capital and trust in order to mobilise their existing community and volunteer base.	“I think the people that responded were the ones that worked with us before and trusted us, they knew they were going to probably have a positive experience volunteering on a new project.” (RT-F-02)
	Following a difficult experience with one CHW, a one-to-one CHW induction session was added at the second and subsequent study sites prior to the training. This aimed to assess CHW personal qualities, motivation, and suitability for the intervention.	“I think we were so excited to take on volunteers and get them into the project that we were happy to take anyone and train them up but … we know now that we also need to interview them and make sure they are right for the project going forward.” (VCSE-HAF-01)
Community partnerships	The perceived benefits of recruiting in partnership with VCSEs was mentioned by CHWs and the research team. It was thought that links to recognised community organisations would improve trust and allow for access to VCSE community networks.	“…they don't know us, whereas there's a community group in the community they know… it's real, it's tangible… so I think going through community groups was the best way” (RTF-06)
	However, despite VCSE partners being perceived as a positive for reach into the community, members of the research team noted that this did not seem to play out in practice, and that whilst VCSEs were effective in recruiting CHWs, they had not had the anticipated reach to recruit participants.	“…we thought they would have the reach in the communities to do participant recruitment, but they just didn't”. (RTF-02)
	Participants stated that they took part in the intervention because they were “open-minded” to opportunities (NHF-02) or that the intervention came at the right time for them (HAF-04). Additionally, the free coaching was a major facilitator for some participants, especially for those on a low income. Other factors raised by respondents included the helpful nature of personalised emails in building a rapport with potential participants and facilitating recruitment.
The risk profiling questionnaire	The online INTERHEART screening tool was felt to present barriers to recruitment by all the VCSEs and several members of the research team. These included what was perceived to be its unnecessarily complicated nature, technical difficulties in completing it, and possible digital exclusion in using it with marginalised people. There was a mixed view of the risk profiling tool amongst study participants. Participants understood why they were being asked the questions and felt that for the most part they were clear and easy to answer (PP-NHF-01). Some mentioned that the questionnaire was too simplistic to capture their experience, and the requirement for a tape measure for waist and hip measurement was said to be a barrier. Many found the REDCap platform somewhat “clunky”, “tedious”; or annoying to use and that it was reductionist or irrelevant to their own personal experience of their health (PP-HAF-09, PP-HGF-11).	“I found that a bit clunky. It was the clicking of the options and then trying to select and the whole journey, and then it felt quite tedious and long to get through.” (PP-NHM-09)
Impacts of COVID-10	Restrictions resulting from the COVID pandemic presented several barriers to participant recruitment. One of these was the inability to promote the intervention with face-to-face community engagement due to COVID restrictions, with this point being raised by volunteer co-ordinators, CHWs and members of the research team.	“We've done emails to people to promote it as much as we can really on our side without overdoing it […] if we weren't in COVID times […] then obviously we would be going out physically and promoting the project”. (CHW-RTF-16)