Social Worker Home Visit Checklist

What is a Social Worker Home Visit Checklist?

Social services workers may be required to conduct home visits with clients to ensure their safety or welfare. They observe and assess the client's home environment, any mental health issues they might have, their current health status, their overall well-being if their home has any safety concerns, and whether they have a sound support system.

These checks might be for child protective services (for checking on children in foster care or children needing ongoing checks to ensure their safety), elderly clients living in the community, disabled clients, clients reintegrating with society following incarceration or addiction treatment, or any other clients whose social worker needs to make sure their living conditions and welfare are being addressed.

During a home visit, there can be a lot to assess, and ensuring you're doing your best for your client can add a lot of pressure to avoid missing something. That's where our Social Worker Home Visit Checklist comes in. We've divided your client's home into areas so you can systematically complete your checks and ensure the welfare and safety of your client.

How to use this template

To ensure you're confident incorporating this checklist into your home visits, we've created a simple step-by-step guide you can use to familiarize yourself with this home visit checklist:

Step 1: Download the PDF

The first step is to get your hands on the checklist template. You can download this template for free from the link on this page, or if you are already a Carepatron user, you can access this template and many others from our community template library. Once you have the template open, you can either print it out and fill it in by hand or bring a device to your home visit, keep it digital, and fill it in using the interactive PDF checkboxes.

Step 2: Fill in your client's details

This is essential to ensure your note is attached to the correct client record. To maximize your time on site, this step can be done before conducting the home visit, or if you are unsure of your client's details, fill it in upon arrival at your client's home.

Step 3: Complete each section of the checklist

As you walk around your client's home, take each room in turn and complete the relevant section of the checklist. You can take these sections in any order. As long as you thoroughly inspect every room, you can check off everything you need to.

Step 4: Add any additional notes

We know a home visit can't be entirely captured using only a checklist, so we have left space for additional notes. These might be records of the family members and their details, any changes to the residents at the property, an explanation of any 0 or 1 scores given, any additional concerns, and a plan for the next steps for your client.

Step 5: Sign and date the note and store it securely

The last step is to add your name, signature, and date in the spaces at the bottom of the checklist. You must keep this checklist in a secure location, whether physical or digital, as it contains sensitive and private information about your clients.

Why is this a helpful checklist for social workers?

Split into different rooms

We have separated the checklist into rooms so you can work your way through the house methodically. Having a long list of checks can be overwhelming, but one of the best ways of handling big tasks is by splitting them into manageable chunks, which is what we have done here.

Don't worry if your client's house doesn't exactly fit these rooms, e.g., if it has no outdoor or multiple living areas. Use the same section to cover multiple rooms or cross out questions irrelevant to your client's home—e.g., if there are no animals or elderly people in the household.

It has a scoring system

We know that a simple yes or no is often not enough to describe the complexities in people's homes. These are people's homes, with many housing children or pets as well, so expecting perfection is unrealistic. To convey the differing levels of concern you may have about an item on the list, we have provided a scoring system to rank how strongly you agree with the statement on the checklist.

Space for notes and client details

Another helpful feature is the space for notes at the end of the checklist. We know you can't sum everything up into a single number, so we have left space for you to add your professional insights, opinions, and conclusions. Feel free to use this space for the next steps for your clients, your assessment of the outcome of the home visit, or elaborating on any 0 or 1 scores given.

It standardizes the home visit process

Ensuring you treat all your clients fairly and give them the same level of care and attention during your home visits is important for ensuring equitable outcomes. Using our home visit checklist will ensure you conduct the same checks for all your clients and help prevent any complaints of unfair treatment!

You can also use this checklist to guide your visit and help structure the home-based session. Move methodically from room to room, checking items off as you go.