When would you use an Action Plan, and when would you use a Care Plan? They sound similar.

They solve different problems and I find it helps to describe them by what they produce.

1. An Action Plan produces work: from a template, it generates tasks and document checklist items with due dates calculated relative to a trigger date. Use it for repeatable internal procedures — the eight things that must happen when a major gift is committed, or the compliance steps when a grant is awarded.
2. A Care Plan produces a plan for a person: it is the instantiation of a care plan template for an individual, working toward specific goals, with goal definitions instantiating as goal assignments that the caseworker can then tailor.
3. So the test I use is: is this a checklist the organisation follows, or a plan the client is working toward? Checklists are Action Plans; client-centred goal plans are Care Plans.
4. They coexist happily. A housing case might have a Care Plan with the client's goals and an Action Plan covering the statutory paperwork the caseworker must file.