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Adult Social Care Digital Social Care Record: Minimum Operational Data Standard (MODS): Implementation Guidance

Care actor (page 12 of 9) in Conceptual Model: Adult Social Care Record (chapter 8 of 10) within Adult Social Care Digital Social Care Record: Minimum Operational Data Standard (MODS): Implementation Guidance

Organisation, team or person participating in health and adult social care.

%%{ init: { 'theme': 'base' } }%% graph TD accTitle: Visualisation of a conceptual data model for Care Actor - Organisation, team or person participating in health and adult social care. accDescr: When someone needs support with their health or daily life, they are the "Subject of Care" at the heart of a big team. This team includes family and friends (like personal contacts or unpaid carers) and professional care workers who all work together to provide the right help. To make sure everything runs smoothly, organizations like the NHS or local councils (the commissioners and service providers) organize and fund the care, while voluntary groups offer extra support to the person and their family. Most importantly, the person receiving care is involved in every step, but if they ever need help making a choice, a trusted "proxy" can step in to make decisions on their behalf to ensure they always get the best possible support. subgraph Taxonomy ["Left Diagram: Taxonomy & Inheritance Structure"] direction TB CareTeam_T[Care Team] -->|part of| Person_T[Person] Organisation_T[Organisation] -->|is a| CareActor_T[Care Actor] Person_T -->|is a| CareActor_T CareActor_T -->|has role 1..*| Role_T[Role] subgraph Providers [" "] direction LR LocalAuthority_T[Local Authority] --> Commissioner_T[Commissioner] HealthcareProvider_T[Healthcare Provider] --> ServiceProvider_T[Service Provider] SocialCareProvider_T[Social Care Provider] --> ServiceProvider_T VoluntaryOrganisation_T[Voluntary Organisation] --> ServiceProvider_T end subgraph GeneralRoles [" "] direction LR UnpaidCarer_T[Unpaid Carer] PersonalContact_T[Personal Contact] SubjectOfCare_T[Subject of Care] Proxy_T[Proxy for Subject of Care] end subgraph CareWorkers [" "] direction LR LocalAuthorityProfessional_T[Local Authority Professional] --> CareWorker_T[Care Worker] Volunteer_T[Volunteer] --> CareWorker_T CareProfessional_T[Care Professional] --> CareWorker_T HealthProfessional_T[Health Professional] --> CareWorker_T end Commissioner_T -->|is a| Role_T ServiceProvider_T -->|is a| Role_T UnpaidCarer_T -->|is a| Role_T PersonalContact_T -->|is a| Role_T SubjectOfCare_T -->|is a| Role_T Proxy_T -->|is a| Role_T CareWorker_T -->|is a| Role_T end subgraph ER_Model ["Right Diagram: Functional Relationship Model"] direction TB ServiceProvider_R[Service Provider] --- Commissioner_R[Commissioner] CareTeam_R[Care Team] CareWorker_R[Care Worker] --- SubjectOfCare_R[Subject of Care] --- UnpaidCarer_R[Unpaid Carer] VoluntaryOrganisation_R[Voluntary Organisation] Proxy_R[Proxy for Subject of Care] PersonalContact_R[Personal Contact] ServiceProvider_R -->|0..1| Commissioner_R ServiceProvider_R -->|0..* supports| SubjectOfCare_R Commissioner_R -->|0..1 supports| SubjectOfCare_R CareWorker_R -->|1..* part of| CareTeam_R CareTeam_R -->|0..* provides care for 1..*| SubjectOfCare_R UnpaidCarer_R -->|1..* part of| CareTeam_R CareWorker_R -->|* employed by 0..1| ServiceProvider_R CareWorker_R -->|0..* provides care for 1..*| SubjectOfCare_R UnpaidCarer_R -->|0..* provides care for 1..*| SubjectOfCare_R CareWorker_R -->|* employed by 0..1| VoluntaryOrganisation_R VoluntaryOrganisation_R -->|0..* supports| SubjectOfCare_R VoluntaryOrganisation_R -->|0..* supports| UnpaidCarer_R Proxy_R -->|0..* takes decisions on behalf of 1| SubjectOfCare_R SubjectOfCare_R -->|1 has 0..*| PersonalContact_R SubjectOfCare_R -->|1..* ordinarily resident in 0..1| Commissioner_R SubjectOfCare_R -->|1..* ordinarily resident in 0..1| ServiceProvider_R end

A Person, Organisation or Care Team can be a Care Actor. Each Care Actor will have a Role in a particular context. For example the same Person may have one or more roles in various different contexts:

Subject of care Unpaid carer Personal contact Care worker Proxy for subject of care Service Providers are all Organisations that provide a type of service and include:

Social Care Providers Healthcare providers including General practices Voluntary Organisations and in some cases Local Authorities. Service Providers are Organisations that support the Subject of care and employ Care workers who provide care for the Subject of care, sometimes as part of a Care Team.

Unpaid carers provide care for the Subject of care and can be part of the Care Team.

Personal contacts and their relationship with the Subject of care is captured as part the record.

If the Subject of care does not have capacity, a Proxy for subject of care may be appointed to take decisions on their behalf and the relationship between them and the Subject of care, alongside Legal information is recorded.

Care Actors can also be a Commissioner of services i.e the source of care funding. This may be determined by the Local Authority that the Subject of care and/or Unpaid carer is ordinarily resident in.

Page last updated: 13 July 2026