Guiding principles developed to support person-centred delegation of healthcare activities to care workers
Skills for Care, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and sector partners have co-developed voluntary guiding principles to support person-centred, safe and effective delegation of healthcare activities to care workers, including personal assistants.
The delegation of these activities will mean that people drawing on care and support will have quicker access to high-quality care.
Delegation to social care workers has been happening for several years and the principles are designed to be adapted locally to complement existing best practice and local protocols.
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 paid care worker.
These are activities, often of a clinical nature that support people’s care and independence, such as supporting a person with diabetes to manage their insulin administration or with simple wound care.
Safe, effective and appropriate delegation of healthcare activities to care workers can enable people to have greater choice and control, with the opportunity to improve their experience of care, in turn helping to improve wider health and wellbeing outcomes.
That’s why these principles have been co-developed to ensure safe delegation of healthcare activities, which puts the person accessing care and support at the heart of the process.
The principles include how to create the right conditions for delegation and decision-making with the right resourcing, understanding roles and responsibilities across health and social care, and what good governance, learning and development, and ongoing support looks like.
Oonagh Smyth, CEO, Skills for Care says:
The delegation of healthcare activities can provide many benefits to people who draw on care and support, including greater choice and control and quality of life - but it must be done safely and effectively, and it must always be in the best interest of the person drawing on care and support. We hope these guiding principles can play a key role in supporting the existing process of delegated healthcare activity, and ensuring this is always conducted safely, effectively and with a person-centred approach.
Minister for Care, Helen Whately says:
Care workers bring skills and compassion to their work every single day. In the pandemic we saw them successfully take on more of the tasks usually done by nurses, and the principles published today will make that part of our health and care system, for the long term. This is a step forward in our social care reforms to develop the careers of the social care workforce, recognising that they have the skills and potential to take on more – as well as easing pressure on our healthcare staff. Delegation is an important part of social care both for staff and for people needing care, giving them a chance to be a part of the decision about who carries out daily treatments like wound care so they can have the friendly face of a regular care worker.
Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, Deborah Sturdy says:
These principals are vital in making sure delegation is safe and effective. For nurses and other healthcare staff, delegation is a key resource to give them time to provide more complex care to people who need it. Care workers having the skills to do things like simple wound care and blood pressure checks ensures those needing healthcare treatments have person-centred care and can be a part of the decision on who looks after them in that way.
The guiding principles and other supporting resources, including videos and sample policies can be found on the Skills for Care website www.skillsforcare.org.uk/DelegatedHealthcareActivity
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