Delegated healthcare
in Greater Manchester
Developing a greater understanding of the blended role of delegated healthcare.
Research summary
October 2024 – September 2026
Our research seeks to develop the understanding of delegated healthcare in Greater Manchester, where the roles of community nurses from the NHS and adult social care workers from private sector care providers are blended.
We will ask those involved how these blended roles:
- affect the experience of people receiving care
- affect working conditions for care workers
- impact the quality of adult social care
The population of England is getting older, and more people need social care, including support with personal care, either in their own homes or in care homes. Social care workers provide this support.
People may also need healthcare which is delivered by community nurses. This can lead to problems, including too many visits from health and social care staff or missed visits. There is also a shortage of social care workers, which puts pressure on health and social care systems.
There’s a need to rethink the roles of the people providing these services. One option is delegated healthcare – also known as blended roles – where social care workers take on some of the community nurses’ tasks. While this is happening in practice, there is not enough evidence on how well it works and what it achieves.
This research will provide an evidence base, potentially improving care workers working lives and the quality of care experienced by the people they care for.
How are we doing it?
To improve the evidence, our research will:
- Look at existing information and research to see what’s already known.
- Talk to health and social care workers, people receiving care and their families, and other people involved in blended roles to understand their experiences.
- Develop a framework to measure how well-blended roles are working and recommend what information needs to be collected. This will help us create a way to evaluate how effective blended roles are.
- Use the information we gather to create a toolkit that will guide the implementation of blended roles in a way that works well for people who use services.
Research team
Research lead
Collaborating with:
- University of Liverpool (academic support)
- University of Salford (academic support)
- Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council (health and social care support)
- Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council (health and social care support)
- Northern Care Alliance (public and community involvement and engagement)
Throughout the study, we are working with:
- a steering group including social care policy bodies, trade unions, a local authority commissioner and managers of care providers
- a project steering group involving the Department of Health and Social Care, local authorities, care managers and public and community involvement and engagement representatives. The group will help ensure results have a wide uptake by policymakers and those working in the sector.
- a public and community involvement and engagement group that represents the views of carers, care workers and care recipients, their friends and families.
With funding from
The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health and Care Research or the Policy Research Programme.
Project enquiries
If you have questions about this project, you can contact: