Our work is designed to influence policy and practice and to inform the wider debate on employment, professional work in pharmacy, education and training, and workforce effectiveness.
The Centre was established in January 2004 and is part of the Drug Usage and Pharmacy Practice Group in the Division of Pharmacy and Optometry at The University of Manchester.
Pharmacists and professional research staff work side by side to develop and undertake commissioned research, and provide evidence-based consultancy and workforce intelligence.
Our research findings appear in academic journals, but we also publish accessible reports, blogs, and newsletters for policy makers, pharmacy employers and professionals, and anyone interested in work, employment, and pharmacy labour market issues.
On this page:
Our research
Our research focuses on the pharmacy labour market in its widest sense, and includes applied research on a range of pharmacist, pharmacy technician and support staff employment issues.
Latest projects
Find out more about the studies we’re currently working on:
- NHSE evaluation of independent prescriber (IP) community pharmacy pathfinders
- Realist evaluation of collaborative practice in primary care: the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service for urgent, low acuity conditions: how, when, why, for whom and to what extent does it work to benefit patients
- INdependenT prEscribinG in community phaRmAcy; whaT works for whom, why and in what circumstancEs (INTEGRATE) NIHR155314
Key projects by theme
You can explore our main research themes and the key projects within them. The themes are by no means exclusive and some projects will appear under more than one.
If you require more information about a particular project, please contact the named principal investigator (PI).
Pre-registration education and training
- Understanding what motivates people to choose a career as a Pharmacy Technician
- Evaluation of the integrated pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician (PTPT) training pilot (March 2021 – March 2022)
- Scoping the integration of simulation-based education in the delivery of healthcare education programmes delivered within the north of England (April 2018 – December 2018)
- Evaluation of cross-sector apprenticeships in pharmacy (February 2017 – December 2017)
- Survey of pharmacy technician education and training (October 2013 – September 2014)
Post-registration education and training
- Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF) evaluation (April 2019 – September 2021)
- Foundation pharmacist vocational training scheme: general practice rotation evaluation (January 2020 – March 2021)
- Evaluation of the education and training programmes within the Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF) (April 2019 – September 2021)
- Pharmacy learner engagement: understanding views on education and training (November 2018 – March 2019)
- Evaluation of non-medical prescribing in community pharmacy, primary care and mental health services (March 2017 – June 2018)
- Revalidation in pharmacy: evaluation of appraisal and alternative sources of evidence (October 2009 – July 2010)
Pharmacy workforce and skill mix
- Community pharmacy workforce survey 2020 (November 2020 – March 2022)
- Evaluation of non-medical prescribing in community pharmacy, primary care and mental health services (March 2017 – June 2018)
- Investigating the organisational factors associated with variation in clinical productivity in community pharmacies (April 2013 – September 2015)
- Supervision in community pharmacy (January 2012 – March 2013)
- Revalidation in pharmacy: evaluation of appraisal and alternative sources of evidence (October 2009 – July 2010)
Pharmacy practice
- Independent evaluation of the quality payments scheme (QPS) and pharmacy quality scheme (PQS) 2017 – 2021 (PI: Sally Jacobs)
- NHSE evaluation of IP community pharmacy pathfinders
- Realist evaluation of collaborative practice in primary care: the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service for urgent, low acuity conditions as an exemplar of general practice, community pharmacy and patients working together
- Role of community pharmacy in asset-based approaches to care (February – September 2019)
- Evaluation of the Greater Manchester Community Pharmacy Care Plan (September 2016 – June 2018)
- Investigating the organisational factors associated with variation in clinical productivity in community pharmacies (April 2013 – September 2015)
- Supervision in community pharmacy (January 2012 – March 2013)
Publications
Our research findings are available through the following journals, reports and bulletins:
We provide information for three main groups: employers, education providers and policy makers.
We can help you by:
- undertaking commissioned research;
- providing a data analysis service;
- providing a bespoke research service;
- developing research measurement tools for use in-house;
- networking organisations or people interested in the pharmacy workforce.
If you would like to discuss your requirements, please get in touch.
Information for policy makers
With workforce planning and attention to skill mix and changing roles key to delivering appropriate health care, data on workforce supply and demand can help support decision-making by policy-makers at national and local levels.
Knowing what the workforce thinks about regulatory issues, about supervision and about service developments can help inform policy development.
Information for employers
As an employer you may want to know whether there are workforce shortages in your area and why.
You may want to understand what attracts pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to particular jobs and places, and whether your workforce is satisfied with their work.
Knowing what the key drivers are for keeping experienced men and women in the workforce may help with your recruitment and retention initiatives.
Information for education providers
If you work in a school of pharmacy, our research about what attracts students to study pharmacy could help with undergraduate recruitment strategies.
We can help you understand what students want out of their pre-registration training and information about where they go straight after their early training could help inform decisions about placements.
Information about graduates’ career choices and early destinations on leaving university, and information about attrition, may be useful to schools of pharmacy as part of their quality assurance procedures; knowing about uptake of and preferences for learning and training may be highly informative for providers of continuing or post foundation education or technician trainers.
The Director of CPWS is Professor Ellen Schafheutle, a pharmacist and health services researcher with more than 25 years’ research experience in pharmacy.
A number of research and technical support staff work in the Centre, along with several PhD students.
Their research experience has been gained in different organisational settings. They are pharmacists and social scientists, and they have a wide range of research skills covering qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
Members
- Dr James Higgerson, Research Fellow
- Dr Ali Hindi, Research Associate
- Dr Sally Jacobs, Lecturer
- Ms Melis Kupeli, Research Associate
- Dr Imelda Mcdermott, Research Fellow
- Dr Johnny Phuong, Research Associate
- Professor Ellen Schafheutle, Professor of Pharmacy Policy and Practice, Director of CPWS
- Dr Sarah Willis, Senior Lecturer
If you are interested in workforce research and pursuing postgraduate training to PhD, MPhil or master’s level, please get in touch.
The Drug Usage and Pharmacy Practice group aims to provide specialised and generic training in research, opening up a number of different careers paths for those who successfully complete their post graduate degree.
From within the group, and the University more widely, you are provided with high quality research facilities, scope for undertaking multidisciplinary and multi-method research, extensive networks and interactions with a range of health professionals and research sites, leading edge research expertise, and good quality mentoring and career development support.
More than 40 PhD students have successfully undertaken their studies in the pharmacy practice group and many former members have secured academic or senior research appointments in Universities in the UK and abroad.
Explore our list of current and completed PhD/MPhil/MRes projects undertaken by students in the Centre.
Project titles
Ongoing PhDs/MPhils/MRes
- Feasibility and effectiveness of community pharmacy provision of person-centred diabetes care – Wisal Salih – PhD (part-time) start September 2023
- Use of technology and online resources in community pharmacy – Helingzi Gong – PhD start January 2021
- Access to and regulation of antibiotics in Jordan – Al-Qudah, Raja’A – PhD start January 2021
- Working across boundaries: new models of integration and collaboration across the pharmacy workforce in Greater Manchester – Natasha Burns – PhD start September 2018
Completed PhDs/MPhil/MRes
- Development, feasibility, impact, and acceptability of a community pharmacy-based diabetes care plan in Lagos, Nigeria – Fatima Abdulhakeem Ikolaba. PhD completed May 2024
- Drug utilisation and patient perceptions of thalidomide use in Jordan – Wejdan Shroukh
PhD completed 2022 - A strategy for the implementation of the common Arab guidelines in pharmacovigilance in countries with nascent pharmacovigilance systems – Hamza Garashi
PhD completed 2022 - Engaging healthcare students in promoting health in high schools communities – Emma Williams
PhD completed 2022 - Registration requirements for complementary and alternative medicines in Kuwait and internationally – Azhar Alostad
PhD completed December 2019 - Awareness, demand and use of community pharmacy services for people with long term conditions – Ali Hindi
PhD completed December 2019 - Black and ethnic minority students’ progress and support needs – Victoria Tavares
MClinRes completed September 2019 - Design and feasibility of a peer mentorship intervention to support the transition of newly qualified community pharmacists into independent practice – Dr Esnath Magola
PhD completed February 2018 - Does curriculum reform influence perceived preparedness for practice of graduates of Manchester Pharmacy School? A comparison of two cohorts – Harsha Parmar
MPhil completed August 2016 - Organisational Culture in Community Pharmacy: Design and Validation of a New Instrument – Dr Iuri Marques
PhD completed November 2015 - Self-care support of long-term conditions and community pharmacy – Dr Oladapo Ogunbayo
PhD completed September 2015 - The process of professionalisation during the pre-registration training year in pharmacy – Dr Sam Jee
PhD completed 2014 - Characterising and understanding career and job commitment in the pharmacy profession – Dr Amir Rashid
PhD completed 2013 - Pharmacists’ job satisfaction: development of a scale to measure hospital and community pharmacists’ satisfaction with their work – Dr Jane Ferguson
PhD completed 2012 - Internationally trained pharmacists: their contribution to, and experiences of working in the Great Britain labour market – Dr Zainab Ziaei
PhD completed 2011 - Professional identity in pharmacy – Dr Rebecca Elvey
PhD completed 2011 - Understanding pharmacy careers: from undergraduate education to future career plans – Dr Sarah Willis
PhD completed 2010 - White and minority ethnic women pharmacists’ employment choices – Dr Kelly Rowe
PhD completed 2010 - Identifying fitness-to-practise criteria for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians – Dr Helen Potter
PhD completed 2010 - The pharmacy labour market: international movement of pharmacists to and from Great Britain – Dr Liza Nichols
PhD completed 2006 - The primary care pharmacy workforce – Dr Rachel Mullen
PhD completed 2004
If you have a question about working or studying with us, please get in touch.
Professor Ellen Schafheutle, Director of CPWS
Email: ellen.schafheutle@manchester.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 7493