A new pilot has been launched by Department of Health and Social Care to train care home nurses on prescribing

The prescribing pilot will provide training for the prescribing of medicines within adult social care

Medication management (1)

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced that it will be launching a new polit designed to train nurses working in social care settings in prescribing medications.

The new government-backed initiative is designed to improve outcomes for people living in care home settings, streamline and speed up access to medications, and ease pressure on GPs and hospital discharge teams.

With a total of £461,000 being provided for the prescribing pilot, the initiative will be rolled out via up to seven Integrated Care Boards, with one sight for region in England, however the regions that will receive the funding are yet to be chosen.

Each participating ICB will support up to 20 nurses to complete a prescribing qualification that has been approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, with a view to enable them to prescribe within their scope of practice in adult social care environments like care homes.

The aim of the pilot

The view of the DHSC is also that with this pilot, more workers in social care might be able to carry out more health practices, from prescriptions to diagnosis. The aim is also to promote greater integration of adult social care into wider health treatments.

On the pilot, the DHSC said: “We want to ensure that people who access adult social care have safe and fast access to the prescriptions that they need. Therefore, we are funding a pilot to support nurses in adult social care to become prescribers. We expect that this will enable nurses to prescribe medicines quickly and independently, and support safe discharge, thereby simplifying care delivery and improving patient outcomes.

“We also recognise and value the vital contribution of nurses in adult social care and are committed to developing skills of the workforce. The qualification provides nurses with credits towards the advanced practice masters and so supports the upskilling and development of nurses in adult social care.”

Expressions of Interest application process

Both individual ICBs and groups of collaborating ICBs can submit applications to be part of the pilot. Though in the case of a grouped ICBs, a lead ICB must be identified and if successful, will be the ICB responsible for coordinating and delivering the pilot in their ICSs.

There is a sifting criteria against which the Expressions of Interest from ICBs will be considered and selected.

What is the sifting criteria?

Each candidate will be sifted on the following criteria:

1. Demonstrate clear plans of how they will run pilots in their ICS, including detailing the following:

how they plan to use the funding in line with the eligible expenditure

effective use of the funding i.e. how many nurses supported at what cost per course

course completion date*

that the nurses will be supported to complete the course and be able to prescribe in ASC settings once qualified (including Higher Education Institute (HEI) approval of care setting, practice educator support, ensuring the CQC-registered care providers have appropriate indemnity insurance or plans to obtain it)

2. Demonstrate if / how they intend to use the funding for additional costs i.e. practice educator time and prescribing pads

3. Commit to providing evidence of course completion and purchase of additional support such as prescriber pads and practice educator time

4. commit to engaging with the evaluation of the pilot (for example, providing feedback on the scheme by taking part in interviews, focus groups and surveys)

5. Are of a regional spread across the country (we aim to have one ICB per region, subject to interest and achievement of the above sifting criteria)

What this could mean for the sector

If this pilot is successful, then it could be a significant leap forward for the care sector because nurses working in adult social care are often the first to identify changes in a resident’s condition. However, under current systems, they need to rely on GPs or external prescribing services to act, which naturally slows down the process and could lead to delays in treatment.

So, by training care home nurses to prescribe medications, there is a valuable opportunity to empower them to respond more effectively, directly and swiftly to any change in a resident's condition, which can be liable to change rapidly. If successful, this potentially lead to a positive impact on resident needs, as well as supporting safer hospital discharges to name just two examples.

How to apply

EOI applications for the pilot must be submitted by 11:59pm on 21st August 2025, and ICBs can expect to know if they have been selected by the end of the month.

A maximum of one application form can be submitted per ICB, be it indivdually or as part of a collaboration. If submitting as part of a collaboration, the lead ICB will be responsible for the delivery of the pilot in their region and to receive the fund.