Scheduling Software for Social Workers Who Do Home Visits
Home visits, office appointments and supervision on one calendar, each with its own rules. Hosted in the EU, and the link you text a family carries no advertising trackers.
Updated 22 October 2026
Why is scheduling so hard for independent social workers?
An independent social worker can do a home visit in the morning, an office appointment at lunch, a case conference by video in the afternoon and supervision in the evening. Each has a different length, a different place and different people. Arranging them by phone and email, across several agencies, takes hours you would rather spend on casework. In Tymeslot, a visit, an office slot, a conference and supervision are four separate links with four sets of rules. Clients and colleagues book into the time you have set aside for that kind of work, and your calendar stays accurate.
What social work needs from a booking page
Much of your work does not start with a stranger finding your website. It starts with a referral, and the person you send a booking link to may be stressed, short of time or wary of official-looking forms. The link has to work on an old phone, ask for very little, and never feed their details to an advertising network.
Home visits add a second problem. You need to know the address and anything that affects your safety before you go, and you need travel time between visits that no client can book into. In Tymeslot a home visit can run on its own availability schedule with a longer buffer, ask for the address, and wait for your approval before it is confirmed.
Everything social workers need. Nothing they don't.
One Meeting Type per Kind of Work
Home visits, office appointments, video check-ins and supervision are four meeting types, each with its own length, link and hours. A check-in can offer the office, a phone call or video, and the client picks the one they can manage that week.
Approve Home Visits Before They Are Confirmed
Turn on host approval for home visits and a request waits until you accept it. Read the address and the access notes first, check them against your risk assessment, and decline a visit you would rather hold at the office or a neutral venue.
Travel Time Between Visits
Give home visits a schedule of their own and a gap of 45 minutes, or anything up to two hours for a rural patch, before the next slot opens; cap them at three a day so referrals cannot fill a week with driving.
Private Links for Agencies and Supervision
Mark a meeting type as private and it is bookable only through its direct link. Give one link to the GP surgery or housing team that refers to you and another to the practitioners you supervise; neither appears on your public page.
Reminders for Clients With a Lot Going On
A client juggling a housing appeal, a benefits review and school meetings forgets things. Set two reminder emails on home visits, the day before and that morning, and the email itself carries the link to move the visit if the day has gone wrong.
Busy in Court, Never Why
Connect your work calendar and a court hearing, strategy meeting or child protection conference blocks the time on your booking page as busy. Clients and referrers see a gap; the title, the family and the place stay in your own calendar.
Privacy and compliance for social workers
The people who book a social worker are often vulnerable, and even an appointment can hint at a safeguarding concern or a family in difficulty. Tymeslot arranges the meeting and holds nothing else: assessments, case notes and referral details stay in your case management system, under the duties below.
Ask only what arranging the visit needs
GDPR Article 5(1)(c) limits personal data to what is necessary for the purpose. For a booking form that means an address, a referrer and access notes, never the reason for involvement. Tymeslot asks only the questions you add, so the history stays in the case record.
Confidentiality, and telling people its limits
The IFSW's ethical principles ask social workers to respect confidentiality and to tell people where its limits lie. Use the meeting type's description to say the form only arranges the appointment. Connected calendars share busy times alone, so a strategy meeting never shows on your booking page.
Know where a lone visitor is
HSE guidance says employers must monitor lone workers, know where they are and check they are back. With host approval you see the address before the visit is confirmed, and the answers are written into the calendar event, so a shared team calendar shows where you went.
- Hosted in the EU
- Signed DPA on Enterprise only
- Self-hosting for full control
- No HIPAA BAA on any plan
See the difference
Without Tymeslot
With Tymeslot
Common scheduling scenarios
How do social workers fit home visits around office appointments?
A home visit needs travel time on both sides; an office appointment does not. If both share one set of hours, the calendar fills with combinations you cannot physically reach.
- Create a "Home visit" meeting type, choose in person as its location, and give it its own availability schedule, for example Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 to 15:00, with a 45-minute buffer for travel.
- Create an "Office appointment" meeting type on a second schedule for Tuesday and Thursday, with a 15-minute buffer.
- Turn on host approval for home visits and ask for the address in the booking form (custom questions need Pro on tymeslot.app), so you can check the route and any safety concerns before you confirm.
- Set a daily limit on home visits, for example three, so a week with many referrals does not turn into a week spent in the car.
How do social workers book supervision and multi-agency meetings?
Supervision and case conferences involve colleagues from other services. Finding one time that suits a team manager, a health visitor and a school's safeguarding lead can take a dozen emails.
- Create a private "Case conference" meeting type and send its link to the professionals involved. The first person to book takes the slot.
- Allow guests on the meeting type, so whoever books can add the health visitor and the school's safeguarding lead, and each of them receives the details too.
- Choose video as the location and Tymeslot creates the call link with the booking, in Teams if that is what the council uses, or Jitsi if a partner agency blocks it.
- Require 48 hours' notice, so nobody arrives at the conference without having read the case file.
How do social workers help clients keep their appointments?
Clients juggling housing, health and money problems often miss an appointment simply because it slipped their mind. A reminder at the right moment catches many of those.
- Send a confirmation when the booking is made, then reminder emails the day before and on the morning of the appointment.
- Offer a phone location next to the office on check-ins, so a client who cannot travel that day can still talk to you.
- A client whose day has fallen apart picks a new time from their reminder email instead of simply not opening the door, and the old slot goes back to your other referrals.
- Reminders are sent by email only, so for clients without reliable email access keep your usual phone call.
See Tymeslot in action
A starter setup for social workers
| Meeting type | Duration | Buffer | Minimum notice | Bookable ahead | Payment at booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home visit | 60 min | 45 min | 2 days | 3 weeks | None |
| Office or phone appointment | 45 min | 15 min | 1 day | 4 weeks | None |
| Private supervision | 60 min | 15 min | 2 days | 60 days | €70 fee at booking |
Intake questions
- Which agency or person referred you, if any?
- Where should the visit take place?
- Is there anything I should know before visiting, such as access, pets or a good time to call?
- Would you like an interpreter, and for which language?
The 45-minute buffer is for the drive, not for notes, which is why home visits sit on a schedule of their own; office appointments and supervision each get theirs too. The four questions arrange the visit and nothing more: the reason for your involvement belongs in the case record.
Tymeslot compared with Jane and TidyCal
Of these three, only Tymeslot combines a free plan, booking pages without advertising analytics and a version an agency can run on its own servers. Those rows decide the question for social work: the link goes to people under pressure, and a council or charity often wants client data on systems it already audits. Tymeslot does not sign a HIPAA business associate agreement, so Jane suits a US clinical social worker who needs one, or who wants card-on-file deposits, and TidyCal takes payments on its free plan, for a 1% fee.
| Feature | Tymeslot | Jane | TidyCal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking page without third-party scripts | No ad trackers; reCAPTCHA starts when families type | No: third-party scripts load (Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager) | No: third-party scripts load (Google Tag Manager, Stripe) |
| Free plan | Yes: home visits, approval and travel buffers | No: paid plans only; a demo account to try | Yes: unlimited bookings and booking types |
| Self-hosting | Yes: a council or charity runs its own | No: hosted service only | No: hosted service only |
Sources checked 5 October 2026.
How much time could you save?
A rough estimate, not a promise.
240
minutes saved per week
208.0
hours saved per year
€11,440
annual value of saved time
Which calendars and tools do social workers use with Tymeslot?
Start free, upgrade when you're ready
An independent social worker with home visits and office appointments can stay on Free, approval, travel buffers and daily limits included. Asking for the visit address or the referring agency needs Pro (€9/month), as does charging for private supervision. A council or charity can self-host every feature at no cost.
Free
€0 / month
Pro
€9 / month