The delivery of co-ordinated, comprehensive and consistent Chronic Conditions Management (CCM) services in the community is not another initiative but an integral part of effective mainstream service delivery in the community. This is a key Ministerial priority, the basis of which has been drawn from international evidence and published in Improving Health and the Management of Chronic Conditions in Wales: An Integrated Model and Framework for Action . To help deliver and drive improvements across Wales in an action centred way, three National Service Improvement Demonstrator Projects have been established to with an aim to: 'Provide and test a sustainable, affordable generic CCM service model, that supports people's needs locally and promotes independent living within the community in order to communicate and inform service change across Wales' .

Evaluating the impact of the Demonstrator activities was critical to the programme aims, and key to the principles of developing and testing the model of integrated care for people with chronic conditions. Research and Evaluation therefore, was not an adjunct of the Demonstrators, but an essential element helping to; measure progress against aims and objectives and identify learning to share with the local, national and international chronic conditions community. The work of the Demonstrator programme was also action orientated and placed a firm emphasis on providing information that can directly contribute to the mainstreaming of CCM service improvement in line with the CCM model. The scope of the Demonstrators may have been broad but the Research and Evaluation perspective focused on the difference that particular interventions have.