Care timeline

Your parent's kitchen table may hold the post, a pair of reading glasses and a folder that the home care workers write in. Relatives can end up with different ideas of what it holds, depending on who last looked. That folder raises the question of who it is for, and who reads it.

What a record of visits is for

In England, NICE's home care guideline recommends a care diary, or care record, held in the person's home as an everyday log of the care and support they receive, with a copy offered to the person. In the UK, the charity Independent Age says that someone using a home care agency should be able to look at the agency's written records of their care if they wish, and can ask the agency how to go about that. Guidance for health and social care staff in Ireland, from HIQA and Safeguarding Ireland, describes staff helping people to reach information about their own care and support, and their own personal information.

Who else reads it

The same Irish guidance from HIQA and Safeguarding Ireland describes staff seeking a person's consent before passing on their personal information, and telling them why it is being shared and with whom.

Questions you and your parent might take to a provider together include where the record is held, how your parent can read it, and whether it goes to anyone else.

The guidance here comes from England, the wider UK and Ireland, and how care records work can differ by where your parent lives.

Your parent's say over what the family sees has ways into that talk with your parent.