The short answer
- Keep it to one pageThe type of diabetes, the medicines and who gives them, meal times, the hypo signs and steps, sick days, check-ups, and the numbers to ring by day and by night.
- Write it with the person, then check it with their nurseDiabetes UK describes care planning as something done in partnership with the diabetes team, and the annual review is a good time to agree it.
- Say who does each medicine taskA carer can remind and write down what was taken. Insulin and blood sugar checks stay with the person, the family or the nurse unless a nurse has trained the named carer and put it in writing.
- Change it when anything changesA new medicine, a hospital stay, a new carer or a bad hypo are all reasons to look at it again.
Carers on PrimeCarers charge £18 to £25 an hour, with our fee included, against £28 to £35 at an agency. This page is general information and does not replace what your relative's own GP or diabetes nurse has told them.
This guide is part of the long-term conditions section of our health conditions pages, and sits under the guide to living with diabetes at home, which covers the condition and the help around it.
What goes on the page
What a one-page diabetes plan for home contains
Below is a filled-in plan for a made-up woman called Margaret, who has type 2 diabetes and a carer each morning. The boxes are in the order somebody would need them, and the hypo box is the one that cannot wait.
One-page plan for home
Margaret's diabetes plan
Type 2 diabetes, diagnosed 2014. Lives alone, with a carer each morning and her daughter nearby.
Margaret likes to take her own tablets and does not like being fussed over at meals. Ask her before you help.
Medicines, and who gives them
- Metformin tablets
- With breakfast and with her evening meal, as on the label. Margaret takes them herself from the blister pack.
- Gliclazide tablets
- With breakfast. This one can cause a hypo, which is why the box below matters.
- Insulin
- None. If it is ever started, the nurse will write down who gives it.
- The carer
- Reminds her, and writes in the record what she took and when.
Meal times
- Breakfast
- About 8.30am, with the morning tablets
- Lunch
- About 1pm
- Evening meal
- About 6pm
- If a meal is late
- Biscuits are in the tin by the bread bin.
What a hypo looks like for Margaret, and what we do
What we see
- She goes quiet and pale, and stops finishing her sentences
- Sweaty hands and a slight shake when she holds a cup
- Can be short-tempered, which is not like her
What we do, as the nurse agreed
- A small glass of the orange juice in the fridge door, or the glucose tablets in the tin by the kettle.
- She checks her sugar again after 10 to 15 minutes with her meter. If it is still under 4, another drink.
- Once she feels better, a sandwich or biscuits, or her meal if it is due.
- Write it in the record and tell Helen the same day.
Ring 999 if she cannot swallow, will not wake, or is not responding normally. Give nothing by mouth and put her in the recovery position.
Who to ring, day and night
- Riverside Surgery (GP)8am to 6.30pm, weekdays01632 960 418
- Sarah, diabetes nurseThrough the surgery; ask for the diabetes clinic01632 960 418
- Pharmacy, High StreetFor questions about her tablets01632 960 207
- Evenings, nights and weekendsWhen the surgery is closedNHS 111
- Helen, daughterAny time, including at night07700 900 314
- David, sonIf Helen does not answer07700 900 562
When she is unwell
- Sick day rules
- Written by the practice nurse, in the blue folder on the dresser.
- Ring the surgery
- The same day if she is being sick, cannot eat, or is not herself and nobody knows why.
Feet, eyes and reviews
- Annual review
- Every March at the surgery. Helen goes with her.
- Eye screening
- A letter comes every 1 or 2 years. Last done June 2026.
- Feet
- Checked at the review. Tell the nurse about any cut or blister that is slow to heal.
A few things about it are deliberate. The medicines box names each medicine and when it goes with food, and says who takes or gives it, but it carries no doses. The dose is on the pharmacy label and the prescription, and a second copy written by hand is one more thing that can fall out of date.
The hypo box is the most important part of the page. A hypo is blood sugar that has dropped too low, and the NHS lists signs such as sweating, shaking, hunger, irritability and confusion. Diabetes UK points out that everyone has different symptoms, so the plan describes what this person looks like, in the words of the people who know them. The steps underneath follow the NHS advice for treating low blood sugar, and should be the steps their own nurse has agreed. Hypos in older people explains the signs and the causes in more depth.
The numbers box answers the question a carer or a grandchild has at night: who to ring when the surgery is closed. For anything urgent that is not an emergency, that is NHS 111. Write the family member who is happy to be woken, by name.
Who agrees it
Write it with your relative, then check it with their GP or diabetes nurse
The plan belongs to the person with diabetes. Diabetes UK describes care planning as a process that should be available to everyone with diabetes, where the person and their diabetes team agree goals and actions, and says the annual review is a good time for it.
- 1
Draft it at the kitchen table, with your relative
FirstAsk what they want people to know and how they like things done. Write down their own words for how a hypo feels, and anything they would rather do for themselves. - 2
Copy the facts from the paperwork
Same dayThe medicine names and times from the pharmacy labels, the appointment dates from letters, and the surgery and pharmacy numbers. Leave a gap where you are unsure. - 3
Take it to the GP or diabetes nurse
At the next review, or soonerAsk them to check the hypo signs and steps, fill the gaps, and say what should happen on a sick day. Ask for the sick day rules in writing. - 4
Write who agreed it and the date
Before you share itA plan with a name and a date on it is one people trust. It also tells the next reader how old the information is.
If your relative cannot make decisions about their care, the Mental Capacity Act sets out how a decision is made for them, and how to write a care plan for your parent explains it.
Medicines and who gives them
Write down who does each medicine task, because it is not always the carer
This is the box that most needs to be right. A paid carer can help with a lot, but some diabetes tasks are clinical and need a nurse to train and authorise the named person first.
Diabetes medicine tasks, and who they belong to
| Who can do it | What to write on the plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Tablets | The person themselves, or a carer reminding them and writing down what was taken. | Each tablet by name, the meal it goes with, and who reminds. |
| Insulin injections | The person, a trained family member or the district nurse. A carer only if a nurse has trained that named carer and delegated it in writing. | Who gives it at each time of day, and the nurse's number. |
| Blood sugar checks | The person or family, as their team taught them. A carer only on the same written, trained basis as insulin. | Who checks, when, and who to tell about a reading. |
| Changing a dose | Only the GP, diabetes nurse or another prescriber. Never a carer or the family on their own judgement. | The number to ring if a reading or a missed dose worries you. |
Tablets
- Who can do it
- The person themselves, or a carer reminding them and writing down what was taken.
- What to write on the plan
- Each tablet by name, the meal it goes with, and who reminds.
Insulin injections
- Who can do it
- The person, a trained family member or the district nurse. A carer only if a nurse has trained that named carer and delegated it in writing.
- What to write on the plan
- Who gives it at each time of day, and the nurse's number.
Blood sugar checks
- Who can do it
- The person or family, as their team taught them. A carer only on the same written, trained basis as insulin.
- What to write on the plan
- Who checks, when, and who to tell about a reading.
Changing a dose
- Who can do it
- Only the GP, diabetes nurse or another prescriber. Never a carer or the family on their own judgement.
- What to write on the plan
- The number to ring if a reading or a missed dose worries you.
Based on our guides to what private carers may do with medicines and to delegated healthcare tasks. The diabetes team decides the doses and the targets.
Can a private carer give medication? sets out the difference between reminding someone and giving a medicine, and delegated healthcare tasks explains how a nurse trains and signs off a named carer. If insulin is part of the day, insulin at home covers the practical side for families.
Keeping it current
Keep it up to date, and put copies where people will look
A plan that was right last spring can be wrong today. The safest habit is to change it the same week something changes, and to write the date each time.
- Every year
After the annual review
The NHS says people with type 2 diabetes have an HbA1c blood test every 3 to 6 months and checks of weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and kidneys at least once a year. Bring the plan, and change anything the nurse changes.
- Any time
When a medicine starts, stops or changes
Update the medicines box and, if the new medicine can cause hypos, ask whether the hypo steps still stand.
- Any time
After a hospital stay
Medicines can be changed during a stay in hospital. Check the discharge letter against the plan before the first carer visit after they come home.
- Any time
After a hypo that went badly
Note what happened and what helped, and tell the GP or diabetes nurse. The signs or the steps may need adding to.
- Every 1 or 2 years
When the eye screening letter comes
The NHS invites everyone with diabetes aged 12 or over for eye screening every 1 or 2 years. Add the date, and the foot check from the review.
Keep one copy where anybody would look in a hurry, such as inside a kitchen cupboard door, one with the family member who is first on the list, and one in the carer's folder. Visit notes are where the day-to-day goes: what was eaten, which tablets were taken and anything unusual. Keeping a care diary explains how to keep one, and a diary can show that the plan needs changing. Appointment details belong in the plan too, and diabetes foot care and eye screening explains what each check is for.
If you are setting up regular help, you can search for carers near you and compare their rates. You choose the carer, meet them first and agree the routine with them directly, so share the plan before the first visit and go through the hypo box together. Every carer on PrimeCarers has had their identity and right to work checked, holds an enhanced DBS check (or PVG in Scotland, Access NI in Northern Ireland) issued within the last 2 years, and has been interviewed online. Carers are insured while they work. What a carer says about their experience of diabetes is their own account on their profile, and you check it with them.
Family members you invite to your PrimeCarers account with Family Member access can read and reply in the conversation with the carer, so a brother and sister can both see the same messages rather than passing them on.
Questions
Questions families ask about a diabetes care plan
The type of diabetes, each medicine and who takes or gives it, meal times, what a hypo looks like in this person and the steps their nurse has agreed, what to do on a sick day, the dates of reviews, eye screening and foot checks, and the numbers to ring by day, by night and in an emergency. One page is enough if it is clear.
No signature is required, but it is worth asking the GP or diabetes nurse to check it. Diabetes UK describes care planning as done in partnership with the diabetes team, and the annual review is a natural time. Write who checked it and the date on the page.
Not because it is written in a plan. A carer can give insulin only if a healthcare professional, usually the district nurse, has trained that named carer and delegated the task in writing. Otherwise insulin stays with the person, a trained family member or the nurse. A carer can still remind them and write down that it was done.
Follow the steps on the plan. The NHS advice for a conscious person is something sugary such as a small glass of fruit juice, a recheck after 10 to 15 minutes if they test, and then a longer-lasting snack or their meal. If the person cannot swallow, is unconscious or is not responding normally, give nothing by mouth, put them in the recovery position and ring 999.
Look at it after every annual review, and change it the same week a medicine changes, after a hospital stay, after a difficult hypo, or when a new carer starts. Write the date each time so readers know how current it is.