Plenty has happened over the summer. Over the mostly scorching hot, nine weeks we gained a statutory pay-bargaining body for social care, ten new recognised job roles, a new category of CQC-registered provider, a clearer line between first aid and treatment, and visiting rights heading towards primary legislation. Here is the catch-up, with the dates you may want in the diary.

Workforce pay and careers now have a framework behind them

The most significant development of the summer is also the easiest to have missed, because the deadlines sit in 2027 and 2028.

On 16/07/2026 the government confirmed that the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body will be established by the end of 2026, bringing trade unions and employers together to negotiate on pay, terms and conditions, and wider employment matters. An independent chair will be appointed in early 2027. The first round of negotiations begins in April 2027 and the first settlement is due by April 2028, supported by £500 million for 2028/29. Secondary legislation to establish the body is expected in the autumn.

Sectoral collective bargaining is therefore coming to adult social care for the first time. For many of the roughly 19,000 providers in England, a negotiating body will be unfamiliar territory. There is time to get ready, and the next eighteen months are a comfortable window in which to look at pay structures, contracts and employee relations capability.

The following day brought Part 3 of the Care Workforce Pathway. Ten new role categories were added, covering activity co-ordinator, care technologist, nominated individual, corporate management, learning and development practitioner, quality assurance lead, administration, catering, domestic and maintenance. For the first time the pathway reaches everyone working in a care organisation rather than only those delivering hands-on care.

Two things follow. Your catering lead, maintenance team and administrator now sit inside a recognised national career structure with defined capabilities, which gives you something useful to say in a retention conversation. And learning and development practitioner is now a named role category, so whoever runs training in your organisation has a professional identity and a development route of their own.

A new category of registered provider, and a clearer line on first aid

On 27/08/2026 CQC published new guidance for providers delivering health care and treatment at sporting and cultural events, alongside an updated Scope of Registration. The registration window opened on 07/09/2026.

The government has removed the exemptions that previously kept sports grounds, gymnasiums and temporary event arrangements outside the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Event medical providers, stadium clinical teams and festival cover companies now need to register for the regulated activity of Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury (TDDI). Stage one runs to 01/03/2027, and CQC begins regulating event treatment from 06/12/2027, so there is a reasonable runway.

The part worth reading even if events are nowhere near your world is what the same update did to the definition of first aid.

First aid is now described as the initial response to sudden illness, injury or deterioration, limited to interventions generally recognised as first aid. Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use sit comfortably inside it. Basic physiological observations are included where they do not require clinical interpretation.

Sitting outside first aid are clinical diagnosis, interpretation of clinical investigations, treatment requiring the professional judgement of a listed healthcare professional, prescribing, use of Patient Group Directions (PGDs) or Patient Specific Directions (PSDs), and ongoing healthcare management.

The guidance puts it plainly. Where a listed healthcare professional relies on skills, knowledge or judgement acquired through their professional registration, the activity is no longer treated as first aid.

Think about how that reads in a supported living scheme, an extra care development or a day service employing a registered nurse in a non-clinical post. A nurse acting purely as a first aider does not trigger registration. A nurse who uses their professional title, or draws on registered skills, does. For a lot of organisations this conversation has simply never come up, and it is a straightforward one to have once you know it is needed.

CQC has also confirmed which professionals sit outside the TDDI list. They are clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, opticians, dietitians, nursing associates, emergency care assistants, first responders in emergency care and ambulance care assistants. Registration cannot rest on employing these roles alone.

Separately, from 17/08/2026, ambulance services are asked to include additional documents with registration applications, which CQC says helps applications move through more quickly.

Delegation, and who carries the accountability

The same guidance sets out delegated healthcare in terms worth sharing with registered managers.

A healthcare professional employed by a TDDI-registered provider may delegate a procedure to a care worker or nursing associate employed by a second provider, such as a care home without nursing, a supported living service or a domiciliary agency. The first provider remains responsible for the treatment and its outcome, but cannot supervise another employer’s staff day to day.

That leaves the second provider with a clear and reasonable duty. Only allow staff to accept a delegated task where they have the support, supervision, education and training to carry it out competently, and where that can be evidenced. The guidance also confirms that nursing associates are not listed healthcare professionals for these purposes.

Skills for Care is hosting a national learning exchange on delegated healthcare and the insurance questions around it on Wednesday 16/09/2026, 14:30:00 to 15:30:00, which may be worth an hour.

Rights and duties being strengthened

On 09/09/2026 the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published the Health Bill impact assessment on promoting visiting. Visiting currently sits within Regulation 9A, and moving it into primary legislation points to a firmer footing ahead. Housing with care and supported living providers may find it helpful to remember that tenancy arrangements do not change the expectation.

The unpaid carers action plan published on 14/07/2026 sets out 42 actions across three themes, recognise, refer and reach. The commitment with the clearest employer implication is that from spring 2027, organisations with more than 250 workers will be required to improve support for unpaid carers among their staff. Carers also become central to hospital discharge planning under Better Care Fund reforms. If you employ more than 250 people, and many housing associations and care groups do, this is a manageable piece of HR policy and manager training work with a comfortable lead time.

Baroness Casey’s early recommendations, which government is already taking forward, include a new national safeguarding board chaired by the Chief Social Worker and a review of adult safeguarding statutory duties and powers. Some movement on safeguarding law looks likely over the next eighteen months.