Missed Visits Policy & Procedure

Why does a home care service need a missed visits policy?

NICE says missed visits can have serious effects on people's health or wellbeing. A missed visits policy sets out how your service stops visits being missed or late, and what staff do the moment one is. It also backs up your legal duty to give safe care.

The template is written for home care.

Late, short, missed and no-reply visits

A missed visit is a planned visit that did not happen and that the person did not cancel in advance. You set your own windows for late and short visits. A no-reply visit is one where the care worker cannot get in or gets no answer at the door.

The policy then asks you to rate, for each person, the likely harm if a visit goes wrong. Visits for time-sensitive medicines such as insulin come first when the office has to choose, and people who live alone or lack capacity may be at most risk.

What staff do when a visit is missed

1. Arrange a visit as soon as you can to check the person is safe and well.

2. Check whether they missed any medicines, and ask the prescriber or a pharmacist for advice if needed.

3. Check whether they have eaten, had a drink and had their personal care.

4. Call 999 if the person is seriously unwell or hurt, then tell the manager.

5. Explain what happened and apologise.

6. Record the visit, its cause and the actions taken on the incident form and the missed visit log.

Beyond these steps, the policy covers live monitoring by the office or on-call manager, arranging cover, the no-reply checks that can end in a call to the police, and how the manager investigates.

When it becomes a safeguarding or CQC matter

A missed visit that causes harm, or a pattern of them, may be neglect. The manager decides on a referral to the local authority and tells CQC about injuries and abuse that meet the notification rules. The duty of candour, being open with the person and saying sorry, applies if the visit counts as a notifiable safety incident.

Before you use the policy, set your time windows for late and short visits and check them against your commissioners' contracts. Then add your on-call number, call monitoring system and local authority safeguarding contact.

On a no-reply visit, staff follow the Key Safe / Property Access Log to get in. The Daily Care Notes / Visit Record holds the actual arrival and leaving times. Workers on the road are covered by the Lone Working Policy & Procedure.