Lone Working and Personal Safety in Healthcare

This lone working training is for health and care staff who work alone, whether every day or now and then: community nurses and midwives, paramedics, allied health professionals, doctors on home visits, pharmacy teams, social workers, home care workers and anyone who works alone in premises out of hours. It explains who lone workers are, the risks they face and the legal framework across the UK, then works through planning, tracking and escalation systems, personal safety during visits, travel, harassment, wellbeing and what happens after an incident.

The guiding idea is simple and stated plainly in the course: if you feel unsafe, leave. Leaving is a professional decision, and your organisation should arrange a safer way to continue the person's care. The course shows how to do that without abandoning the patient.

It is designed to take approximately 2 hours, including reading, reflection points, a reflective account and a 15-question assessment, and it is self-paced. Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider. We are not affiliated with any UK regulator or the NHS, and no regulator has reviewed this course. For care workers it supports awareness alongside the Care Certificate, but it does not replace your employer's personal safety, conflict resolution or lone worker device training.

The legal lesson sets out the duties on employers and staff, and where the law differs between Great Britain and Northern Ireland:

• the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, with the Northern Ireland Order 1978 and 2000 regulations: there is no general ban on working alone, but employers must assess and control the risks;
• RIDDOR 2013, which requires certain work-related injuries, including those caused by physical violence, to be reported;
• the Equality Act 2010 duty, in force since October 2024, to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, and the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes due in late October 2026 that strengthen this to "all reasonable steps" and extend protection to harassment by third parties such as service users;
• the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 and the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005;
• UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and ICO guidance on violent warning markers, for sharing risk information lawfully.

National guidance includes the HSE leaflet Protecting lone workers (INDG73), the HSE guide to driving at work, the NHS Violence Prevention and Reduction Standard, the NHS sexual safety charter and NHS Employers guidance on lone worker safety, and BS 8484 for lone worker device services. The course maps all of this to the standards of the GMC, NMC, HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC, GCC and Social Work England, and to the codes for social care workers in each nation.

Six numbered modules with 23 lessons, then a conclusion, references and a quick-reference card covering before, travelling, arriving, during, if unsafe, missed check-in and after.

1. Understanding lone working

Who works alone in health and care, the risks they face, the legal framework and how responsibility is shared. Your employer cannot pass its legal duty for your safety to you, but you share responsibility for following safe systems of work.

2. Planning and risk assessment

Organisational and dynamic risk assessment, sharing risk information lawfully and proportionately, and a before-you-go planning checklist.

3. Communication, tracking and escalation

Buddy systems and check-in procedures, lone worker devices and agreed code words, and exactly what should happen when a lone worker cannot be contacted.

4. Staying safe during visits

Arriving and entering, recognising warning signs of aggression, de-escalation, leaving safely with a neutral reason, and animals and environmental hazards such as a smell of gas.

5. Travel, premises and wider risks

Travel and driving safety, working alone in premises, sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour, and wellbeing and isolation.

6. After an incident and professional responsibilities

Immediate response and reporting, support after an incident, balancing personal safety with duty of care, and professional standards alongside your employer's requirements.

The 15 scenario-based questions put you in real lone working situations: arriving to find unknown adults shouting inside a property, a home care worker who forgets to check out after her last visit, where to keep a lone worker device, a man pacing and raising his voice, repeated sexual comments from a service user, and which incidents an employer must report under RIDDOR. The pass mark is 12 out of 15 (80%).

Reflection points ask you to test your own arrangements, and the closing reflective account helps you record what you will change before your next lone visit. Your answers stay on your device.

When you pass, the portal issues a certificate of completion in the name of Healthcare Practise UK. Keep it with your written reflection: the certificate shows you finished the learning, and the reflection shows what you took from it and what you will change. Record the time you actually spent, which may be more or less than the 2-hour estimate.

CPD and revalidation. Registrants can record the course as individual learning with a reflection on how it changes their practice. Social workers can use it towards their CPD records with Social Work England. The CPD and revalidation tracker on our tools page keeps your evidence together.

Managers and providers. Community teams, ambulance services, pharmacies and home care agencies use the course to give every lone worker the same baseline before local device, conflict resolution and personal safety training. Managers will find the sections on missed check-ins, risk markers and support after an incident useful when reviewing their own procedures. See courses for organisations for team credits.

The course is about keeping staff safe rather than remediation. If a concern about your conduct has arisen from a difficult visit, our conflict resolution and de-escalation course is a closer fit.

Part of our patient safety training collection, because staff who are safe are better able to keep patients safe. Related titles:

• Conflict Resolution and De-escalation in Healthcare, for deeper de-escalation skills;
• Sexual Safety and Preventing Sexual Misconduct in Healthcare, for recognising and responding to sexual harassment;
• Recognising Deterioration and Sepsis Awareness, for spotting deterioration on a home visit;
• Safeguarding Adults: Essentials for Health and Care Staff, for concerns you notice in people's homes.

Browse the course catalogue or try which course do I need.