Elevating Local Pharmacy Leadership: An Administrative Needs Pilot

Author preprint. This work was presented at AHTBE 2026 and has been selected for publication in Inspire Health Journal. The final Version of Record and journal DOI will be linked when available. This paper examines what pharmacists coordinating local community pharmacy networks need to lead effectively and manage system-facing administrative work within primary care structures. Using semi-structured interviews and content analysis, the study identifies recurring requirements in communication infrastructure, stakeholder alignment, and performance oversight that shape day-to-day leadership practice. Reported barriers include fragmented cross-organizational messaging, limited data access and benchmarking, constrained protected time, and friction in funding and claims processes for leadership tasks. Development priorities center on leadership and influencing capabilities, targeted operational training, and digital proficiency to enable direct, secure collaboration with general practice and commissioning teams. The findings translate into pragmatic recommendations for governance, reporting, and blended learning models to strengthen pharmacy leadership capacity and administrative effectiveness across local networks.