For care providers
Care records every carer can pick up
When each carer writes visit notes differently, the next carer has less to go on. Ways services agree what goes in a record, keep it in the person's home where everyone involved can see it, and keep the person able to read it.
The next carer opens the record to see what the last visit covered. The note in front of them was written by someone else, on another day. This guide is about how a service's visit notes are shared and written, so that any carer can pick them up. It is information, not medical or legal advice, and it does not cover what to record about anyone's health.
Agree what every visit note covers
An agreed note might cover who visited and when, what was done from the care plan, what the person said or asked for, and anything the next carer needs to know.
When a care worker writes up a visit, NICE's home care guideline for England says the entry should carry enough detail to keep the person, their unpaid carers and the professionals involved fully informed about what was provided, and that a worker who has not seen the person recently should read the newer entries.
What we don’t claim here
We don’t say what the rules require where your service operates, and we don’t set a standard of our own. Requirements differ from place to place, so we don’t imply one.
Who can weigh it: your service’s own policies, its regulator and professional advice where it operates. Where to take it →
Keep the record in the person's home, where everyone involved can read it
NICE's home care guideline for England recommends that a service keeps its day-to-day log of care and support, the care diary or care record, in the person's home, and offers the person a copy. Under the same NICE guideline for England, everyone who provides a person's care and support is encouraged to add to the home care plan and the care record as well as read them, as appropriate, and should be able to see both.
Write it with the person, in their words
The Social Care Institute for Excellence in England describes recording that is done, as far as possible, together with the person being supported. Guidance on human rights for staff in Ireland, from HIQA and Safeguarding Ireland, describes steering clear of technical language about a person's care in day-to-day communication and using the person's own words, in terms they can understand. A visit note written in that spirit is one the person can follow when they read it.
Keep the person able to read their own record
In the same HIQA and Safeguarding Ireland guidance, staff in Ireland are described supporting a person to see what is recorded about their care and support, and what is held about them personally. Independent Age, a UK charity, says the records a home care agency keeps about someone's care should be open to that person to see, and that the way to do so is something they can ask the agency about.
Check your record-keeping against your own policies, your regulator and professional advice where you operate
Keeping families informed, with the person's say covers how services agree family contact with each person. The guidance here comes from England, the wider UK and Ireland, and speaks for those places. What a record must hold, how long it is kept and who may see it are set where your service operates, and this guide states none of them. Your own policies, your regulator and professional advice where you operate are the place to settle those questions.
When to ask a professional
This guide stops where your service’s own judgment starts. Take what fits back to its policies, its regulator and professional advice where it operates.
Sources
The outside sources this guide draws on.
Primary: Taken from the official source itself, and cited directly. Secondary: Established in recognised guidance, summarised here.
- PrimaryNICE (England), NG21, recommendations 1.3.22, 1.3.23 and 1.3.24, 17 September 2015, updated March 2018
- PrimarySocial Care Institute for Excellence (England), Social care recording, August 2021
- PrimaryHIQA and Safeguarding Ireland (Ireland), Guidance on a Human Rights-based Approach in Health and Social Care Services, 2019
- SecondaryIndependent Age (UK), Home care agencies, undated web page, retrieved 19 October 2026
More in this department
How we source
Carefulness, made visible.
Named, not counted
Each guide names its sources and tags each one Primary or Secondary. It never counts sources at you.
Holding back
Where a part isn’t confirmed, a guide runs shorter and says what is missing.
Naming the limit
Every guide names where its authority ends, and who to ask instead.