The previous chapter identified a lack of evidence on roles for assistants in community nursing teams. Our scoping study had the following research objectives:

1. Describe numbers, types and roles of assistant staff (at levels 2, 3 and 4) delivering services and care in community nursing services in England.
2. Explore how assistant roles affect the organisation of nursing work in these teams, particularly where new, integrated organisational models and ways of delivering services exist and innovative assistant roles are identified.
3. Explore how the use of assistants in community nursing teams impacts on (or has the potential to impact on) health-care professional workload, and patient experience and patient choice.
4. Report key findings and implications from the scoping study for policy, practice and research.

These objectives were addressed through the following research questions:

1. What have been the major influences (social, organisational, political/policy, historical, environmental and economic) on roles for assistant staff involved in delivering services and care in community nursing services?
2. What numbers of assistant staff work in community nursing teams and in what types of roles?
3. What tasks and activities are assistants undertaking in these settings and are there examples of innovative use of the roles?
4. How do assistant roles impact on the workload of health-care professionals in community settings?
5. What is the perceived impact of using assistants to deliver services on patient experience and patient choice?

We now turn to the research approach and methods deployed to address these objectives.