Notifications and record keeping
- Records that all registered children and young people’s care services must keep and guidance on notification reporting
- Records that all registered care services (except childminding) must keep and guidance on notification reporting
- Records childminding services must keep and notification reporting guidance
Large Scale Investigation Notifications
Since 2014, adult protection codes of practice have required that the Care Inspectorate is alerted to the occurrence of large scale investigations.
This is an expectation that is directed at Local Authorities and now, by extension, HSCPs.
Please notify us on the commencement of a large scale investigation here.
Please notify us of the completion of a large scale investigation here.
Notifications and record keeping
By law all services must tell us immediately if certain events take place.
- Accidents, incidents or injuries
- Outbreak of infectious disease
- Death of person using a care service
- Allegations of abuse
- Significant equipment breakdown
- Allegation of misconduct by a provider or employee
- Criminal convictions resulting in unfitness of a manager
- A provider becoming unfit
- Absence of manager
- Planned refurbishment/alteration/extension of premises
- Change of registration details
- Person living at the registered premises
We have produced comprehensive guidance on the records you must keep and the notifications you must make (click on the links below).
- Notification on controlled drugs
- Changes to notifications of deaths of looked after children and deaths of young people in continuing care or receiving aftercare provision
- Deaths of looked after children
- Deaths of young people receiving aftercare provision
- Deaths of young people in continuing care
- Learning reviews
- Initial Case Reviews (ICRS) & Significant Case Reviews (SCRS) - Adults
- Serious Incident Reviews
Read more
Changes to registration, variations and cancelled services
Apply to vary conditions of registration
If you need to vary, (add, amend or remove) the conditions of registration of your service, you should in the first instance discuss this with the inspector responsible for your service. You will now be able to make an application to vary the conditions of your registration on the portal. Note, you are currently only able to have one application for variation in progress at a time.
Unless otherwise agreed with us, the date the variation is to take effect from must not be less than three months after the date of application. We can only grant or refuse an application to vary a condition – we cannot change the detail of the variation that you have originally requested. However, whilst the application is still in progress you can update/amend the application yourself within the portal. Where you subsequently decide that you no longer wish the variation request to be progressed, for instance, if it is no longer necessary due to a change of circumstances, then you should discuss this with whoever has been dealing with your application. You must then withdraw the application via the portal, and we will receive automatic notification of this.
Guidance for childminders on applying to increase capacity in childminding settings
Inactive services
We have implemented a revised policy on ‘Inactive Care Services’.
Services registered with the Care Inspectorate must operate within the legal framework laid out within the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, (the “Act”). We have adopted a policy where any service can make an application to stop operating for up to 12 months, without having to cancel their registration. Where such an application is granted, a service will be referred to as ‘inactive’.
Reasons for a service to be treated as inactive would be limited to:
- refurbishment of premises
- provider has caring responsibilities for a limited period of time
- provider maternity leave
- provider health issues.
There may be, on occasion, other exceptional circumstances, which we may consider on an individual basis.
During a period of inactivity, a provider must continue to submit an annual return, pay continuation fees, submit notifications and ensure the service continues to meet all of the legal requirements under the Act. Prior to the service becoming operational, the provider must notify us in advance that their service is operational and ensure the service is ‘fit’ to operate and meets the needs of the service users.
Applications for inactive care service status and notifications of intention to become operational should be submitted using the digital portal.
The relevant forms are available via your portal account. Select the “apply to become inactive / active” option on the right hand side of your menu page. If you require any assistance please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or contact 0345 600 9527 Monday to Friday 09:00 - 16:00.
Cancel a service
Any registered service can voluntarily apply to cancel their registration.
If you are a care service, and want to cancel your registration, you must complete our application to cancel a care service form before we can progress with your cancellation. You can submit your request using through our digital portal.
Cancelled services
We have an obligation to publish a list of all care services that have been previously registered and that are now cancelled.
You will be able to check here for a list of all cancelled services. This is updated monthly to reflect any new cancellations.
Cancelled services 31 October 2024
If you require any further information about these services please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or contact 0345 600 9527.
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Annual returns
Each year, we ask service providers to complete an annual return to help us plan, inform and carry out our inspections and improvement work.
We also publish a number of annual statistical publications and share some of the information with other organisations, such as the Scottish Social Services Council and the Scottish Government.
The intelligence we gather through annual returns helps us target our improvement activity and support within social care. It is a great source of baseline data across a variety of health and wellbeing indicators which we use to identify, drive and track improvement, for example infection control, nutrition and the recruitment and retention of staff. The data also helps us to identify trends and topics by both geographical area or service type, so that we can see where best to focus our improvement support work, for example, improvement workshops or new resources and guidance for care services across the sector.
This year's annual returns will be made available to service providers for completion between 6 January and 2 March 2025. The closing date includes an extension of two weeks on our usual six-week deadline.
All service types must complete their annual returns electronically, using our eForms system. We would encourage services to check their eForms account to make sure that their email address is up to date to ensure they are notified when the annual returns go live.
Even inactive services must submit an annual return.
We no longer automatically downgrade services for failing to submit an annual return. This is because we do not believe that non-submission is necessarily a reflection of poor quality of service. We will, however, continue to publish details about submission or non-submission of annual returns within inspection reports. We also reserve the right to make a formal requirement relating to submission of an annual return, or in cases of serious or persistent non-compliance, to issue an improvement notice under s62 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, requiring its submission.
Please note that where the manager of the service has changed, you must formally notify the Care Inspectorate of the correct details. This can be done using our online digital portal.
Related documents
If you have any questions about the annual returns, please read our frequently asked questions (to follow).
Find out what has changed in the 2024 annual return (to follow).
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