Box 1. Scheme set-up, challenges to implementation and solutions found.

Recruitment and release of CPs 'It just happened to be that in a couple of cases we had pharmacists who were happy to do some additional half-days when they were not down to be working. We had some people who were happy to cover for half a day and who were not looking for full days.' (CPE3, interview) Training 'Nobody taught us to use SystmOne. It was just you turned up on that first morning. Your SMART card had the access put on it, you were shoved in a room by yourself, "get on with it".' (CP1, interview) GP knowledge of CPs’ clinical contribution to care 'I don’t think they knew what to do with me so they probably need somebody to explain to them.' (CP15, interview) 'Once you get to the point of trust, then you start to see “oh, so you could do that for me” and “you’re interested in doing that?” So you start to see that sort of innovation start to occur at a practice level.' (SC2, interview)