Delegated Healthcare Activities: Strengthening Care, Reducing NHS Pressure

Delegated healthcare activities are clinical or health-related tasks that can be safely carried out by trained care workers, rather than always requiring a nurse or other clinician. Examples include supporting people to put on their compression stockings, with eye drops, or providing stoma care. Delegating these routines improves outcomes for people receiving care by reducing delays, avoiding multiple professionals coming into the home, and ensuring support is delivered by someone they already trust. It also benefits the NHS by reducing demand on district nursing services, allowing clinicians to focus on more complex care, while maintaining safety, quality, and accountability.

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It's great to be able to train our support workers quickly in-house when we have a new person to support or if there is a change in needs, this ensures we can personalise their care and are not waiting around on a 3rd party to facilitate training
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Saliah Mahmood - Thames Valley Practice Coach

BelleVie is taking a structured, responsible approach to delegated healthcare. A second colleague, our Practice Coach Saliah, recently completed a “Train the Trainer” programme. Throughout 2026 we aim to train more people across our teams to undertake these activities safely and confidently. Current healthcare policies allow us to deliver delegated healthcare in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Northumberland County Council is now putting the right frameworks in place to follow suit. 

We aim to support people with more activities that have traditionally been undertaken by district nurses across all the areas we work in, strengthening partnership working and ensuring people receive the right care, from the right person, at the right time.

Dann Riach - Monday, January 12th, 2026