The current outbreak of coronavirus (Covid-19) is a serious concern for everyone working in the care sector.
The Care Inspectorate has a duty to consider carefully how best to support care services in the vital work they do caring for vulnerable people.
We have taken the decision to scale down our inspections of care services and our joint inspections of local authority social work services and health and social care partnerships at this time, and put in place arrangements which will involve gathering information, assessing the level of risk in care services and establishing assurances about the quality of care people experience.
In order to protect the safety and wellbeing of people experiencing care we are only making visits to services when that is absolutely necessary.
We are also planning to operate in a similar manner around complaints.
Anyone with a concern about a care service should, in the first instance, raise this with the manager of the service. The Care Inspectorate will consider complaints and will apply a risk assessment that may result in complaints being referred to the service provider for investigation.
We will be prioritising our registration work that supports the national response to the coronavirus outbreak and the sustainability of services.
We've updated our website to give up-to-date guidance and information on coronavirus for care services.