If you run a domiciliary care service, you already know how difficult it is to prove that visits happened — at the right time, at the right address, and for the right duration. Paper timesheets are easily falsified or inaccurate. Phone-in systems rely on carers remembering to call. And if a commissioner or CQC inspector asks for visit evidence, scraping together the proof can take hours.
Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) solves this. And while it has been mandated in the United States since 2016, UK providers are rapidly moving in the same direction — driven by commissioner requirements, CQC expectations, and the simple operational need to know that visits are happening as planned.
Electronic Visit Verification is any system that automatically records when a care visit starts and ends, who carried it out, and where it took place. The key word is automatically. A carer writing the time on a paper form is not EVV — a carer scanning a QR code that creates a GPS-stamped log is.
In the UK there is no single mandated standard, but most commissioners and local authorities expect visit verification that can evidence:
CQC's five key questions include Safe and Effective — and visit verification sits squarely within both. Inspectors want to see that visits are actually happening as recorded, that lone workers are safe (knowing someone is at the address at a given time), and that care is being delivered as agreed in the care plan.
CQC inspectors often ask: "How do you know every scheduled visit actually took place?" If your answer is "we ask carers to log it on paper afterwards", that is a risk finding waiting to happen.
With EVV in place, you can show inspectors a timestamped, GPS-verified visit log for any client, any day — in seconds. That is the kind of evidence that supports Good and Outstanding ratings.
Local authority commissioners and NHS commissioners have a duty to ensure public money is spent appropriately. Paying for a one-hour visit that lasted 22 minutes — or did not happen at all — is a serious problem. EVV gives commissioners confidence that what they are paying for is being delivered.
An increasing number of local authority contracts in England now explicitly require visit verification systems as part of the tender specification. Providers without EVV capability are at a disadvantage when bidding for contracts, or may face additional spot checks and audit requirements.
QR code EVV is the most practical implementation for domiciliary and community care. Here is the typical flow:
Tip: Some providers laminate the QR code and attach it inside a kitchen cupboard, so it is always in the same place but not visible to general visitors. This is a sensible middle ground between accessibility for carers and discretion for clients.
Supported living and shared housing create a specific challenge: multiple clients live at the same address, but each has their own care package. Individual QR codes work if carers are visiting specific clients. But if the carer is working a shift at the property — providing care across multiple residents — scanning each client's individual code is impractical.
This is where property-level QR codes come in. A single QR code for the property lets the carer log their presence at the address once, and the system records the visit against the property location rather than individual clients. Care App's Property Locations QR feature handles this scenario directly — creating a location-level check-in that works alongside (not instead of) individual client QR codes.
GPS recording raises a legitimate question: are you tracking your staff? The answer is nuanced. The GPS is only recorded at the point the carer scans the QR code — arrival and departure. Care App does not continuously track staff location between visits.
This is important to communicate to your team. Most carers understand and accept GPS verification at scan points once it is explained clearly — because it also protects them. If a client makes an unfounded complaint about a carer not attending, the GPS-verified scan log is the carer's evidence too.
From a GDPR perspective, collecting GPS data at scan points is lawful under legitimate interests, provided you inform staff and include this in your data protection documentation.
One of the most immediate operational benefits of EVV is the elimination of paper timesheets. Paper timesheets are:
With QR-based EVV, timesheets generate themselves. Visit start and end times are captured at the point of care. By the time a manager is ready to process payroll, the data is already there — accurate, audited, and ready to export.
If you are not currently using electronic visit verification, the practical steps are straightforward:
Most providers who implement QR visit verification say the same thing after a few weeks: they wonder how they managed without it. The visibility it gives managers — knowing which visits are in progress, which have run late, and which were short — changes how you run the service.
Generate QR codes, track visits in real time, manage timesheets automatically, and produce visit reports for commissioners. Try Care App free for 30 days — no credit card required.
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