Recommendation F210: Code of conduct for healthcare support workers
From Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, published 6 February 2013.
Recommendation
There should be a national code of conduct for healthcare support workers.
In brief (written by this site)
In commentary from September 2024, published in February 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England recorded the recommendation as implemented and closed, highlighting the 2019 Healthcare Support Worker programme and the 2023 NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (DHSC and NHS England, Feb 2026). Earlier, the Thirlwall Inquiry legal team found in May 2024 that a national code of conduct for healthcare support workers and adult social workers was published in March 2013 (The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team, May 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.
Government response
Accepted.
Skills for Health and Skills for Care published a national code of conduct for healthcare support workers and adult social care workers in March 2013. The Cavendish Review recommends that Skills for Health and Skills for Care should refine its proposed code. Skills for Health and Skills for Care will review the code to ensure the language is simple and that there is synergy with the Social Care Commitment, launched in September 2013, which the Department of Health has developed in conjunction with Skills for Care and other partners. The Social Care Commitment is the sector’s promise to provide people who need care and support with safe, high quality services. It brings together other initiatives into a simple framework in simple language, giving clarity to employers and employees about what is expected of them.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: This is volume two of "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777-II), the government's response to the Inquiry's 290 recommendations, published by the Department of Health on GOV.UK on 19 November 2013 and dated to that day here. The PDF the row links to is the accessible edition, whose title page reads "January 2014". The Department of Health has been the Department of Health and Social Care since January 2018. The volume says it includes accounts from each of the national organisations the recommendations name, but it does not mark which passage each organisation wrote, so every row is filed under the Department that published it.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
Government responded via "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (2014), a single document covering all 290 recommendations with a blanket acceptance. Individual recommendation responses were not broken out.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say completed (27 February 2026)
The Thirlwall Inquiry has noted action taken in response to this recommendation following the conclusion of the Mid-Staffordshire Inquiry 2013. NHS England launched its Healthcare Support Worker (HCSW) support worker programme in September 2019 to support NHS trusts to increase their HCSW recruitment, minimise vacancies, avoid reliance on temporary staff and to provide greater continuity of care for patients, and to support more people to progress into nursing and midwifery roles in the future.
The actions set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (2023) further support our commitment to improving the quality of healthcare education and training, including healthcare support workers.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Implemented - Closed”. Table row: section 18.2 No. 210, PDF page 531-532.
Department of Health and Social Care says in progress (11 February 2015)
By August 2014, 1,088 adult social care employers have signed up to the Social Care Commitment. An independent evaluation report has concluded that in the vast majority of cases, the Social Care Commitment has resulted in an improvement in the quality of care provided. The Social Care Commitment is also in the process of being mapped with Compassion in Practice, ‘6 Cs’.
Skills for Health and its partners have recently consulted on whether the code of conduct is relevant not only to Healthcare Assistants working with nurses and midwives, but also to those who work with Allied Health Professionals. The results and amended code are expected to be published shortly. Much as the Social Care Commitment pledges employers to ensure their employees are properly supported and so can meet the Code of Conduct, Skills for Health and Skills for Care have also examined how the NHS Constitution fulfils that purpose for employers of Healthcare Assistants working in organisations providing NHS services.
Site note: This is the supporting annex published on 11 February 2015 with "Culture change in the NHS: applying the lessons of the Francis Inquiries" (Cm 9009), attached to the GOV.UK page as "Culture change in the NHS supporting annex". The annex has no title page; that title is GOV.UK's and the PDF's own. Its table has four columns (No., Recommendation, Hard Truths Government response, Progress update), and the row carries the Progress update cell. No column says which organisation wrote an update, so the row is filed under the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care), which published it.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
This recommendation was accepted by the Government. A national code of conduct for healthcare support workers and adult social workers was published in March 2013.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review colours its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green, which it uses to mark evidence, identified by the legal team, that a recommendation has been clearly implemented. Table row: section 16.2 No. 210, PDF page 493.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response, delivery statement - DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding