A lone worker is someone who works by themselves without close or direct supervision. That is the definition in HSE's leaflet Protecting lone workers: how to manage the risks of working alone (INDG73), and the leaflet names health, medical and social care workers visiting people's homes as one of its examples. For a home care agency, that is most of the working day.
This guide sets out what the law and HSE's guidance expect of an agency whose carers visit people alone. It follows INDG73 and HSE's page Lone working: protect those working alone closely, and it does not replace either.
The law behind it
There is no separate Lone Working Act. INDG73 says the employer's duties come from two places:
- the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which requires every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all its employees
- the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, whose regulation 3 requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to employees, and to people not in your employment, and a review when it may no longer be valid or something significant has changed
HSE's lone working page says you must manage the risks before people can work alone, and that this applies to anyone contracted to work for you, including self-employed people. INDG73 adds that these responsibilities cannot be transferred to any other person, including the people who work alone.
Northern Ireland has its own health and safety law, enforced by HSENI. Its lone working guidance makes the same core points about risk assessment and controls.
Is it safe for carers to work alone?
INDG73 says it will often be safe to work alone, but the law requires you to think about and deal with the risks before people are allowed to. It also says the level of supervision is a management decision based on the risk assessment, and that the higher the risk, the greater the supervision needed.
HSENI's guidance goes a step further for this sector. It lists working in health and social care dealing with unpredictable client behaviour as one of its examples of work where lone working cannot be justified, because the controls needed are not adequate to protect lone workers fully. In practice that is often the reason a care package is set up as a double-handed call.
The risk assessment
INDG73 says there is no legal requirement for a separate lone working risk assessment, but the risks to lone workers must be part of your general one. If you employ five or more workers, you must write down what you found: the hazards, how they may harm people, and what you are already doing to control the risks. The assessment must also:
- involve the workers themselves
- remove risks where possible, or put control measures in place
- cover instruction, training and supervision
- be reviewed periodically and after significant changes such as new staff, processes or equipment
For home care, most of the useful detail sits with the person and the home rather than with the job title. INDG73's questions translate fairly directly.
| INDG73 asks about | What it means on a home care round |
|---|---|
| The worker's experience and training, and whether they might be more vulnerable, for example young, pregnant, disabled or a trainee | Whether a new starter or a carer still completing their induction should be working that call alone |
| Whether the work involves lifting objects too large for one person | Whether the moving and handling plan for that person needs two carers |
| Whether the work is in a rural or isolated area | Mobile signal, distance from help, and lanes with no lighting |
| Whether the worker is going into someone else's home | Known behaviour, other people in the house, pets, access and key safes |
| Whether there is a safe way in or out for one person outside normal hours | Early, late and night visits, parking and lit routes to the door |
| Whether the worker has reliable communication and a way to call for help | A working, charged phone, signal at the address, and who answers out of hours |
| Whether the work involves handling cash | Shopping, collecting prescriptions and money held for the person |
Much of this belongs in the environmental risk assessment for each home and in the care plan, not only in an office policy, so the carer going in sees it before the visit.
Training, and the limits of working alone
INDG73 says that lone workers usually cannot ask more experienced colleagues for help, so extra training may be appropriate. It says you should set the limits of what can and cannot be done while working alone, and make sure workers are competent for the job, trained in any technology you give them, and able to recognise when to seek advice.
It also says lone workers may need to be accompanied at first when they are new to a job, being trained, doing a job with specific risks, or dealing with new situations. For a care agency, shadowing during induction and the Care Certificate are natural places for this, provided the shadowing is real and recorded.
Dynamic risk assessment
Carers often have to make a call on the doorstep that nobody could have foreseen. INDG73 says some employers use dynamic risk assessments in lone working, where workers make decisions about risks that cannot be foreseen, and that this is not a substitute for a comprehensive risk assessment. Where your assessment expects carers to make that kind of decision, INDG73 says they must be trained to make it, know the range of actions open to them, and get support for the decisions they take. A carer who leaves a visit because they felt unsafe should be backed, not questioned about the missed task.
Keeping in touch
This is where most agency policies are thinnest. INDG73 says monitoring has to be embedded so workers understand it, with clear procedures, and lists measures that may include:
- supervisors periodically visiting and observing people working alone
- contact at pre-agreed intervals, by phone or other means, bearing in mind the worker's understanding of English
- devices designed to raise the alarm in an emergency, operated manually or automatically
- a robust system to make sure the lone worker has returned to base or home once their work is finished
It also says you should test technical solutions and emergency procedures regularly, so lone workers can be reached when something goes wrong.
The last point in that list is the one a rota rarely answers by itself. A late or missed clock in tells the office a visit has not started. It does not tell you that a carer on their final call of the evening clocked in and never clocked out. Write down who is expected to notice that, how long they wait, who they call first, and what happens if nobody answers, including out of hours. Then test it.
If you use GPS or other location data to keep carers safe, remember that it is also monitoring of workers. The ICO's guidance on employment practices and data protection: monitoring workers explains what UK GDPR expects, including telling workers what is collected and why.
Violence and aggression
INDG73 says lone working does not automatically mean a higher risk of violence, but it does make workers more vulnerable, because there is no colleague nearby to help prevent an incident. Among the key risks it lists are late evening or early morning work, alcohol and drug use by the people workers come into contact with, and carrying money or valuable equipment.
It suggests training in personal safety, which may include conflict resolution, and providing equipment that can raise the alarm. It says employers should have measures in place to support any worker who has been subject to abuse or violence, and that workers should play an important part in identifying and reporting incidents. HSE's pages on violence in health and social care and work-related violence go into more depth.
Some incidents have to be reported. Under RIDDOR, non-consensual violence to a person at work that causes a specified injury or more than seven days' incapacity is reportable, as covered in our RIDDOR guide for home care agencies. An incident in someone's home may also raise a safeguarding concern about the person you support or others in the household.
Stress and isolation
INDG73 says lone working can affect work-related stress and mental health, and that if contact is poor, workers may feel disconnected, isolated or abandoned. It recommends agreeing how you keep in touch through regular meetings or other chances to raise concerns, including lone workers in team updates and social events, consulting them on changes, and making sure they get the training others do. Regular supervision, team meetings carers are paid to attend, and a reachable on-call manager all count here. HSE's stress at work pages cover the wider duty.
Illness, accidents and emergencies
INDG73 says your assessment should identify foreseeable events, with emergency procedures that staff are trained in and practise. It notes that some lone workers may need first aid equipment or training, including how to give first aid to themselves, and that emergency procedures should say how and when lone workers can contact the employer. If a carer has a medical condition, it says to seek medical advice if necessary and think about both routine work and emergencies.
Where a carer's first language is not English, INDG73 says you should make sure communication is clear, especially in an emergency, and that they have received and understood the information and training they need.
What a lone working policy should cover
A policy is only as good as the procedure behind it. As a starting point, it should say:
- that lone working risks are part of the agency's risk assessment, and who reviews it and when
- which situations must never be lone work, such as calls assessed as double-handed
- how new and trainee carers are accompanied before they work alone
- what carers should do if they feel unsafe at a visit, and that they will be supported if they leave
- how and when carers keep in touch, including out of hours
- how the office confirms a carer has finished their last visit, and the escalation steps if they cannot be reached
- what alarm or contact equipment is provided, and how it is tested
- how violence, abuse and near misses are reported, and how carers are supported afterwards
- how cash and the person's belongings are handled
- what location or monitoring data is collected, and how it is used
A short checklist for the office
- Check lone working risks are in your written risk assessment, not only in the policy
- Record environmental risks for each home where carers will see them before a visit
- Confirm which calls are double-handed, and that the rota never sends one carer alone
- Make sure new starters shadow before they work alone, and record it
- Agree and test the procedure for a carer who does not finish their last visit
- Test any alarm, app or phone arrangement, and the out-of-hours line
- Ask carers what worries them. INDG73 says workers should be involved in the assessment
Where HomecareOS fits
The risk assessment, the contact procedure and the decisions in it belong to the agency. In HomecareOS, carers clock in from the carer app by GPS, an NFC tag or a QR code, and each clock in and clock out is checked against the person's address. A visit with no clock in is marked late and then missed on thresholds your agency sets, and the office is alerted when it turns missed. The policy library includes a lone working and carer safety template you can adopt and edit. HomecareOS does not replace a lone worker alarm, and it does not decide whether a visit is safe to do alone.
Sources
- Protecting lone workers: how to manage the risks of working alone (INDG73 rev4), Health and Safety Executive, for the definition, the legal basis, risk assessment, training, supervision, keeping in touch, violence, stress, emergencies and dynamic risk assessment.
- Lone working: protect those working alone and Lone workers: your health and safety, Health and Safety Executive, for employers' and workers' duties, including for self-employed people.
- Violence in health and social care and Work-related violence, Health and Safety Executive.
- Stress at work, Health and Safety Executive.
- Section 2, Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, for the employer's general duty.
- Regulation 3, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, for risk assessment and review.
- Lone working, Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland, including its health and social care example.
- Employment practices and data protection: monitoring workers, Information Commissioner's Office.
- Electronic call monitoring, missed visit alerts and policies and procedures, for what HomecareOS does today. Those pages describe the product.