What does it mean?

Under the Equality Act (2010), services must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Reasonable adjustments mean making changes to services and the way we work with individuals so that this is accessible.

Checklist

Give notice

Without notice, a home visit is highly unlikely to be successful, as the individual has not had time to prepare. This is likely to affect their processing and ability to provide, process and retain information.

In the instance of essential visits, these can still be announced. For example,  letting the individual know by their preferred method of communication that you need to visit them in person, as they’re not returning phone calls.

Planning

• Establish if non-essential home visits are a preferred set up for the individual.
• What day and time of day would the individual prefer to meet?
• Individual to be offered the opportunity to agree a set frequency of visits from professionals, e.g. weekly or fortnightly.
• Individual to be asked if they would like reminders of upcoming visits, and if so, how would they like to be reminded / how often.
• Agree with individual how much advance notice they require to attend a meeting / appointment.
• Individual to be asked if they would like to set how long visits should last for e.g. 15 minutes.

Who will visit?

Establish who will be at the visit, and what their role is. The individual may find it difficult to meet with more than one person, or when given no notice of a student, for example.

Introducing new staff

When introducing new professionals or staff, this should be done through an introductory one-page profile sent before the new person is introduced face to face.

This should be shared through their preferred method of communication e.g. email or post photo e.g. glasses on/off, hair up/down

Provide an agenda

Individual to be asked if it’s helpful to be given an agenda of what the visit will entail, to be provided with questions you are likely going to ask in advance, this will give them time to prepare. individual to be asked how soon in advance they would like the agenda.

Provide a photo

Send a picture of yourself normally and with PPE on ahead of time, if this is the first time you are meeting, or is helpful for the person.

Stay in touch

• Where possible, if the professional is running late, individual should be notified via their preferred method of communication. If possible, indicate how late you are going to be.
• Establish if it’s helpful e.g. for the professional to text once they arrive, and wait in their car until they are ready, or the text may be helpful to prepare, as they don’t have to look the window to see when you arrive.
• Establish where you are going to meet in their home ahead of the appointment (if helpful)
• Meeting to go ahead on an agreed day and time. Don’t expect eye contact from the individual.
• If the meeting starts late, to give the individual the opportunity to finish at the agreed time, or to take the agreed duration of the visit.

Follow up

After home visits, individual should be sent a follow up of what was discussed and the outcomes, via their preferred method of communication.

About this leaflet

Developed by Robyn Darby (RNLD) and Simon Tarrant (RNLD). Updated January 2022.