Guide to using the portal

Creating an account

To register for an online account and link your current service information to the portal please read:

• How to create an account on the digital portal

To create your online portal account visit: https://portal.careinspectorate.gov.scot/Account/Register

Managing access to your service or provider

You can also grant additional user access to the service information.  For example, a provider may want to allow a service manager access to a service, in order for them to view service information, submit applications and update service details.

Find out how to add a new user with service access. 

Find out how to add a user with provider access.

If you have access to a service on the eForms system, you can also use this to grant access on the digital portal. Please read our guidance on granting access to a service or provider.

Registering a new care service

You can apply to register a new care service using the digital portal. If you are an individual applicant, please see our guidance for contents of the application form for an individual applicant. If you are an organisation, please see our guidance for contents of the application form for an organisation.

We also have guidance to support you with accepting your conditions and becoming registered, and how to withdraw an application to register a care service.

If you need to add or amend a service managers details while you are in the process of registering a care service, please see our guidance for adding and amending managers details.

You can request advice from our registration team before you submit your application form using the portal. To do this, you must create an application to register a care service and fill in some details first.  If you need support with this please see our guide for requesting advice.

Viewing and changing  your service and provider details

For support with seeing your service details, please read our guides to viewing your service and provider details.

You can apply to change your service details such as change of manager or change the service address. These changes will require Care Inspectorate approval. 

You can also update (without the need for approval) your contact details –  email address and phone numbers and these will be updated on your record immediately.

Please see our guidance for changing service details and changing provider details for support with this.

Apply to become inactive 

You can apply online to become inactive.  Registered services must operate within the legal framework laid out within the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, (the “Act”).  We have 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. 

If you need help with this form, please read our guide to becoming inactive.

Apply to cancel a service 

Any registered service can voluntarily apply to cancel their registration, giving a minimum of three months’ notice.   

If you want to cancel your registration, you can now complete the application to cancel a care service form through your portal account.  This must be completed  before we can progress with your cancellation.   

If you need help with this form, please read our guide to cancelling a service

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.

If you need help with this form, please read our If you need help with this form, please read our guide to a variation for a premises based service and guide a variation for a non-premises based service.

Digital portal

Log into your account here: Care Inspectorate digital portal

Over the last couple of years, we have been updating our IT systems and launched our digital portal for care services and providers in early 2021.  Some of the main features of our digital portal include the ability to view your service and provider information, download your registration certificate and make changes to your contact details, all of which are updated instantly, ensuring that we always have the most up to date information about your service.  

You can also apply to make changes to your registration, such as applying for a variation, applying to become inactive or even cancel your registration.  For help using these features, please visit our guide to using the digital portal.

We have also moved a number of our forms from our eForms system to the new portal.  We have produced a table to help you determine which system to use.

Latest improvements to the digital portal

7 November 2023

We have listened to feedback from users and we are pleased to announce we have launched some improvements to the portal.

These changes include: 

• a designated provider area on the portal where you can manage your provider details.
• ability to make applications to register new care services on behalf of your provider.  Your provider information will be pre-populated in the application form so you do not need to enter it again.
• new portal access permissions. User accounts can have access as a provider or as a service. This means the right people have appropriate access and the provider has control over who can access and change information on behalf of the provider or a service.

 We have updated our guide to using the digital portal to support users with the changes.