How to write a business case for primary care pharmacy training
Medicine in Practice · 26 August 2026
commissioning business case ICB primary care pharmacy workforce training hub
A primary care pharmacy training business case should make it easy for a finance, workforce or medicines-optimisation lead to answer five questions: what problem are we solving, why this cohort, what exactly will be delivered, how will we know whether it worked, and what decision will we make at the end? Product features belong underneath those answers, not at the top.
One-page business-case structure
- Need: the observed workforce or service problem and its baseline.
- Cohort: roles, places, learner numbers and inclusion criteria.
- Intervention: pathways, simulation, manager onboarding and support.
- Measures: adoption, learning, simulated performance, variation and local service measures.
- Cost and decision: total pilot cost, internal resource, review dates and stop/adjust/scale criteria.
1. State the problem in measurable terms
Avoid "staff need more confidence" unless confidence has been measured and is relevant. Better starting points include variable induction between practices, low completion of an agreed development route, repeated supervision themes, inconsistent evidence for appraisal or a known gap in a medicines workflow. Record the baseline before choosing the solution.
2. Define the people and the boundary
List the learner roles, number of named learners, practices or PCNs, expected start dates and who is excluded. Define what the platform will and will not do. Medicine in Practice records online assessed learning and simulated performance in fictional cases. It does not process patient records in the training platform and does not make workplace competence decisions.
3. Describe the delivery model
For a pilot, specify the pathway by role, how learners will be invited, who will act as local manager, how time will be protected and what support is available. Include 30-, 60- and 90-day adoption reviews. Training commonly fails because implementation is left implicit; a good business case costs the management and supervision time as well as the licence.
4. Separate three levels of evidence
| Evidence level | Examples | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Adoption | Invited, activated, active, completed, last activity | Platform reporting |
| Learning | Assessment results, simulated performance, safety-critical errors, certificates | Platform reporting |
| Workplace or service | Observed competence, workflow quality, audit results, local service indicators | Employer or commissioner |
Do not present a login, completion or raw points score as proof of patient benefit. Link the measures carefully and label the source.
5. Explain value without inventing savings
Set out the total cash cost, internal implementation time and any alternative being displaced. If the case includes time released, errors avoided or reduced variation, explain the calculation and test it during the pilot. Avoid national savings multipliers that cannot be reproduced locally.
6. Cover governance and procurement
Include information governance, data flow, retention, access controls, subprocessors, hosting, business continuity, accessibility, clinical governance and support. The commissioner may also require supplier onboarding, insurance evidence and DPIA support. Start this in parallel with the pilot design so approval does not become the hidden critical path.
7. Put the decision gate in writing
At the end of the pilot, the options should be explicit: stop, adjust, extend or scale. State who decides, when and against which thresholds. A pilot without a decision gate easily becomes an indefinitely renewed licence with no shared view of value.
Suggested wording for the recommendation
Commission a time-limited primary care pharmacy development pilot for [cohort] across [places], combining role-based learning, fictional simulation and authorised manager reporting. Review adoption at 30, 60 and 90 days and evaluate learning evidence alongside locally owned workforce and service measures. Return to [committee] by [date] with a recommendation to stop, adjust, extend or scale.
Use the funding guide, evaluation framework and commissioner partnership page to complete the detail.