Around one million older people in the UK receive home care, and almost half take five or more medicines - a population projected to grow by 60% over the next two decades. The care workers visiting them are increasingly central to medication support in the home, working within a regulatory and guidance framework that has expanded in recent years (. This sits within a policy environment now changing rapidly: the DHSC Adult Social Care Priorities for 2026–27 require local authorities to commission medication support that embeds safe and appropriate use of delegated healthcare activities; the Neighbourhood Health Framework sets a 10% reduction target by 2029 in non-elective admissions for the frail and end-of-life populations, in which medication management is widely recognised as a key lever for change.

 

Drawing on research and stakeholder engagement at Newcastle University, this session will examine what care workers actually do with and around medicines in the home, from catching packing errors in dosette boxes and chasing prescriptions, through to managing medication changes at hospital discharge and navigating uncertainty around items that are not prescribed. We will look at the communication on which this work depends, with clients, with the community pharmacies that support them, and with GPs and other prescribers; consider where digital integration with GP records currently helps and where it stops short; and ask what enhanced role home care might play in preventing avoidable admissions through earlier recognition of medication-related concerns. We will discuss what the evolving policy direction means for providers, commissioners and NHS partners, with discussion ranging across the scope of safe delegation, information flow across the home care–NHS–pharmacy interface, planning for transitions, and the recording of medication-related work.