Planning visit routes across an area

The day's visits sit on the planning sheet in the order they were booked: one up on the estate, the next across the river, the one after that back round the corner from the first. Each visit has its time, and the travel between them has none. This page is about putting that travel into the plan. It draws on guidance from England, Ireland and Canada, and how a service plans its days differs by where it operates.

Plan the day as a route, not a list

For the person planning the day, NICE's home care guideline for England puts the travel between visits inside its recommendation on visit length: visits long enough for care workers to do their work without compromising its quality or the person's dignity, with enough travel time between them scheduled in. This guide treats the order of a day's visits, and which ones sit together, as part of the plan rather than something left to the morning.

Plan travel time separately from visit time

NICE's home care guideline for England says home care arrangements should give care workers enough time to talk with the person and their unpaid carer, and enough travel time between appointments. Neither travel nor time with the person is cut to make room for the other.

Keep the person's preferred times at the centre

Where a tidier route would mean moving someone's visit, NICE's home care guideline for England recommends working with people to negotiate any change to their care, for example to when visits will be made.

Be open with staff about how route information is used

Canada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner describes being open with staff as telling them what personal information will be collected, used and disclosed, and sharing clear policies with them before putting those policies into practice. Ireland's Data Protection Commission says people should be told clearly how information about them is collected and used, in a way that is easy to find and easy to understand, in clear and plain language. Both bodies speak for their own country. For route planning, the practice that follows is a service telling its care workers openly how route information, the information about their visits and travel, is collected and used.

Check your approach against your own policies, your regulator and professional advice where you operate

NICE writes for England and speaks for that place. What a service's route planning involves, and what it tells its staff, differs by where it operates. The detail is for your own policies, your regulator and professional advice where you operate.