Staying safe when offering or accepting in-person support
Sensible, low-friction safeguarding for people meeting through Tessolari for in-person support — written for both sides of the conversation.
Most of what people do on Tessolari is online or async — drafting emails, walking through a form on a video call, or chatting in messages. But some of the most useful work happens in person: a hand at an appointment, a hygiene check-in, a board-game evening, an hour of clay-handling. We want those meetings to be straightforward and safe, for both sides. Here’s how we think about it.
Start the conversation in writing
Use the on-platform messages for the first few exchanges, even when phoning would be quicker. Written messages give you both a record of what was agreed, time to read at your own pace, and a chance to spot anything that doesn’t sit right before you meet. They’re also visible to our moderators if a problem ever needs investigating.
If somebody pushes for off-platform contact early — a personal phone number, an external email, a different app — that’s a flag worth pausing on. There are good reasons people sometimes do; there are also less good ones.
Meet first in a public place if you can
For everything except the most clearly home-based work — a hygiene check-in by definition needs to be at someone’s home — try to make the first meeting somewhere with other people around. A café, a library, a community centre. It costs nothing and makes a first read-of-the-room much easier on both sides.
Tell someone you trust where you’re going and when you expect to be back. Share your live location with them on WhatsApp or your phone’s built-in tools if that’s something you’d find reassuring. None of this is paranoia; it’s just the kind of admin sensible people do whenever they’re meeting someone new.
Agree on what's being done, where, and for how long
The clearer you are up front about scope, the less awkward the meeting. If you’re booking help with a tax return, agree the time, the place, the goal of the session (“complete the self-assessment”), and what’s not in scope (“I won’t be giving tax advice”). If you’re booking a hygiene check-in, agree what tasks the visit covers and how long the visit lasts.
This is good for both sides. The provider knows what they’ve signed up to. The person being supported gets what they expected. And if something later goes off the rails, there’s a clear baseline to refer back to.
Decide on payment up front
Don’t leave money to be sorted out at the end. Confirm in writing — through the platform — what’s being paid, by whom, and how. Free listings stay free — no platform fee, no payment processing, nothing changes hands. Otherwise, the price on the listing is what gets paid.
Future-you will thank present-you for not improvising payment in the moment. It also means there’s no pressure to “settle up” at someone’s front door, which is a part of in-person work that nobody enjoys.
DBS checks for the most sensitive work
For chaperone-style work, medication reminders, hygiene check-ins, or anything else where a vulnerable adult or child might be involved, we ask providers to upload a basic DBS certificate. A moderator reviews it, and once verified the file is deleted from our servers — only the metadata (status, last four digits of the certificate, issue and expiry dates) remains, in line with UK GDPR Schedule 1 special-category data rules.
The DBS check is not the only safeguard. References, sensible scheduling, and the other practices on this page matter just as much. But if you’re booking sensitive in-person work, look for the DBS-verified badge and, if it isn’t there, ask why.
The current basic DBS certificate is issued by the UK government’s Disclosure and Barring Service. You can find official guidance at gov.uk/request-copy-criminal-record.
Trust your gut, and report concerns
If something feels off — at the meeting, in the messages before it, or afterwards — tell us. Use the report link on a profile or listing, or email hello@tessolari.com. We read everything that comes in, and we’d rather hear about a hunch that turns out to be nothing than miss something that mattered.
You can also pause or cancel at any time. Polite and direct beats apologetic and ambiguous: “thanks, but I won’t be going ahead with this booking” is a complete sentence. The platform is here to make support easier, not to keep people in situations they want to leave.