Delegated healthcare activities

Person-centred, safe and effective delegation of healthcare activities to care workers can enable people to have more choice and control of when and how things happen, with an opportunity to provide a better experience of care.

A delegated healthcare activity is an activity that a regulated healthcare professional, such as a nurse, nursing associate, occupational therapist or speech and language therapist, delegates to a care worker or personal assistant.

Guiding principles and supporting resources

Skills for Care, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and partners have co-developed voluntary guiding principles to support person-centred, safe and effective delegation of healthcare activities.

Delegation to social care workers isn’t new and has been happening for several years. The principles are designed to be adapted locally to complement existing best practice and local protocols.

Overview of the guiding principles

This short animated video provides an overview of the guiding principles.

Supporting resources

These supporting resources have been produced in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care and Skills for Care with thanks to the organisations involved in their development. 

Delegated healthcare activities sample policy

The National Care Forum worked with their members and Skills for Care to develop this sample policy which aims to support social care providers to evidence their decision-making and governance when considering delegation.

• Delegated healthcare activity sample policy

They also developed supporting sample policy information on wound care, clinical observations and catheter care that you can insert in section two of the sample policy above.

• Supporting sample policy information on simple wound care
• Supporting sample policy information on clinical observations
• Supporting sample policy information on catheter care 

Delegated healthcare activities governance toolkit

This sample governance toolkit has been developed with the Lincolnshire Care Association and the Lincolnshire Integrated Care System based on experience working across a health and social care system. The templates below support the toolkit and are editable to adapt to your local system and organisation.

• Delegated healthcare activity toolkit
• Appendix one – Steering group membership decision tree
• Appendix two – Steering group terms of reference
• Appendix three – Delegation governance template
• Appendix four – Sample Telehealth communication summary
• Appendix five – Sample standard operating procedure
• PowerPoint presentation with explanatory voiceover summarising the key points of the toolkit (view in slideshow to hear the voiceover)

Hear from others

Rob Moriarty shares his story about delegation of healthcare activity to the personal assistants he employs.

Hear from some of the people involved in the Tameside Blended Roles project and their approach to closer collaboration between care providers and the local neighbourhood teams.

St Martin’s Care in Northumberland are working together with the North East Ambulance Service and Ageing Well to train care workers in the use of the lifting cushions to improve non-injured fall outcomes. Hear their story so far. 

Lincolnshire Care Association and Lincolnshire ICB have been working together to develop safe operating procedures for a telehealth monitoring kit, a digital solution to improve outcomes for those accessing care and support in residential homes. Here’s their story filmed in Ashdene Care Home, Sleaford. 

Melanie Weatherley MBE, Chair of Lincolnshire Care Association, has also written a blog sharing her experience.

Delegated healthcare activity guides

We’ve developed two short guides to support decision making and provide information and guidance on delivering delegated healthcare activity. 

Research into social care workers undertaking healthcare activities

Skills for Care commissioned research into what healthcare activity is being delegated, on what scale, and how it is perceived by those involved. This was used to inform the development of the guiding principles. 

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