**4. Conclusions**

Responding to the pressures of the NHS in delivering patient care, every healthcare profession in the UK has been called upon to maximise their outputs in the most e fficient and cost-e ffective way. The expectations of UK healthcare policy and the integrated care model are already being transposed into new pharmacy services and managing skill mix e fficiency will be a major contribution to its success.

The introduction of a new 'NHS Discharge Medicines Service' [30] in addition to the 'NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service' (already part of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework [31]) adds to the expanse of the pharmaceutical care provision, providing development opportunities for community pharmacy technicians. A pharmacy technician qualifying with the new IETs should have the fundamental education and competence to support pharmacists in these services and allow scope for ongoing development. However, the legacy workforce would need additional training to ensure they did not present any risk to patient safety. With this in mind, alongside the expanding role of primary care and news that pharmacy technicians have been added to the list of healthcare professions in the evolving NHSE primary care network structure, undeniably, the primary care pharmacy technician role will also continue to evolve. Thus, there is clearly a significant correlation between progression of pharmacy services, workforce capacity, and utilising pharmacy technicians aligned with their professional knowledge and skills.

There is no doubt that the intention of the new IETS is to embed what was previously seen as extended roles for GB pharmacy technicians into standard practice and develop the profession further. This is indeed required to empower both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to deliver the aspirations of the NHS England's Long-term plan [31]. Delivering person-centred care to help patients optimise their medicines and support shared decision-making depends on skilful and proficient communication and skills. Of course, the content of the new qualification must be sound to transfer the acquired behaviours, knowledge, and skills into professional practice. Only time will tell whether the minimum level 3 adequately supports this new, complex role and if two years is su fficient for the trainee to achieve the outcomes and full potential as a healthcare professional. An in-depth evaluation will need to be undertaken once the first trainees come through to explore these aspects.

Moving forward, with the paucity of literature available, larger scale research would provide further insight to reassure the pharmacy and wider healthcare professions, and the public, that the evolving pharmacy technician role presents no increased risk to patient safety and contributes significantly to releasing pharmacists' time for person-centred clinical activities.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.B., T.F.; resources, M.B.; writing—original draft preparation, M.B., T.F.; writing—review and editing, M.B., T.F.; visualization, M.B., T.F.; project administration, M.B.; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to acknowledge the advice provided by David Wright in the writing of this article.

**Conflicts of Interest:** There are no conflicts of interest.
