Home assessment visits: slots, travel and who attends

Make the home assessment its own service with a long slot that includes the visit itself, and plan travel time around it by grouping visits by area and day. Ask who will be present, usually the person, a relative or a carer, and what the visit is about, in the booking note. A home assessment rarely fits in a standard session length, and a clear service tells families what to expect: you'll look at the home, watch daily activities and suggest adaptations or equipment.

Lengths and prices are examples. On Book, each service has a name, an optional description shown on your page, and a price, and each slot belongs to one service with its own start and end. Separate home and practice services, so you know from each booking whether you're travelling.

Book doesn't know addresses, so travel time is yours to plan. A few ways to keep it under control:

Don't open a practice session at the same time as a home visit: Book doesn't stop slots of different services from overlapping.

Home assessments can be booked by someone else: an adult child for a parent, a carer, a parent for a child. The booking form takes one person's first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note. Say in the description how you'd like it filled in: the person being assessed as the name, with the contact details of whoever will be the contact, and a note on who will be present.

Relatives or carers attending need no place of their own. Their presence helps: they know the daily routine and may be the ones who carry out the recommendations.

The note appears in your new booking email and in the calendar file the client receives, so ask for practical information only and keep clinical details for the visit and your records.

For children, an assessment may happen at home, at school or both. Create each place as its own service, so the booking tells you where to go, and say in the description what you'll observe: dressing, meals, handwriting, play. School visits depend on the school's timetable; agree the time with the parents and the school first, then book the slot yourself from your calendar with the school's address in the note. Parents book in their own name, with the child's first name and age in the note.

You receive an email for each new booking with the note. Use it to prepare: a tape measure and camera for a bathroom, catalogues for equipment, forms to fill with the family. If the note is unclear, call before the day rather than discovering on site that the main issue is the stairs, not the bathroom.

After the assessment, you may need to come back to check an adaptation or try equipment. Book the follow-up yourself from your calendar at the end of the first visit, in the follow-up service, on a day when you're in that area. Enter the contact's email so they get a confirmation with a calendar file. Book doesn't send reminders, so a date in the family's calendar is what keeps the follow-up on track.

If a visit has to move, for example after a hospital stay, reschedule it from your bookings list and call the contact: Book doesn't email clients about changes. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited bookings and services, no commission, no contract.