Care surveys: How good is your care?

We are developing care surveys that reflect the Health and Social Care Standards. These will replace the old care standards questionnaires (CSQs) and link to our quality frameworks for care services.

We want to include the views of people who experience care, as well as their relatives, friends and carers in our scrutiny and improvement work and these will surveys help us do that.

They have a stronger emphasis on hearing about people’s experiences and outcomes and we hope this will enable more people to tell us about their care. We want people to be able to engage much more meaningfully with our inspections, in the way that suits them best. We designed these surveys to support this in a flexible way. 

Online surveys (Microsoft Forms)

Throughout the year, we will send electronic survey links directly to managers of care services. We ask that these links are sent to the relevant key people within your service who use and support you to deliver care. We anticipate this will be an annual request. 

There are four different electronic surveys:

• people who experience care
• service staff
• relatives and carers
• and, where appropriate, external professionals such as district nurses and G.P.s.

We appreciate some people, especially those experiencing care and some relatives and carers, may need support to provide their feedback and we appreciate any support you can provide to enable them to participate. Advocacy services in your local area may be able to support this. 

Please email these survey links to the appropriate groups of people. If your staff are supporting people to complete the surveys, then please give them the most appropriate link for the person giving the feedback.

People who experience care

People who experience care can complete the survey by:  

• completing the form that will be issued to the service and then returning this in the freepost envelope provided.
• completing the survey online.
  

We have also produced sentiment and response cards to support people in care homes to complete the survey. The images on the sentiment cards mirror the first section and the response cards help people to be clearer in their answers to the questions in the survey.

• Sentiment card
• Response card
• Guidance on supporting people with the survey (service version)

People can choose to do as much of the survey as they are able to. Some people may wish to focus on the first page with images that describe how they feel, and others may be happy to complete the whole survey.

How all services will receive batch surveys

We will send a batch of care surveys and freepost envelopes.  

For care homes, there will also be a set of sentiment and response cards sent to your service with the first batch of surveys.  

Downloadable version  

Services can also download a copy of the survey from the links below. Please make sure you quote the services registration number (CS number) and name of service on the front page of the document so we can send this to the correct inspector. The CS number will be on the services registration certificate which is displayed in the service. 

• Care homes for adults and older people survey download (PDF)
• Care at home/housing support survey download (PDF)
• Care at home/housing support (easy read version) (PDF)

Once completed please return these to:

                Care Inspectorate
                Compass House
                11 Riverside Drive
                Dundee
                DD1 4NY

If you need the survey in an alternative format, such as a different language or easy read, please give us a call on 0345 600 9527 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Staffing schedules

The Care Inspectorate has traditionally issued a staffing schedule to relevant service types at the point of registration.  This is a historical practice that has continued from previous regulatory bodies.  The issuing of staffing schedules has been reviewed over the years, but the practice of some service types having a staffing schedule remains.  We have recognised that the majority of staffing schedules in place do not reflect the changing needs of people who currently use the service. In a time of great change across the care sector, we want to promote innovation and also ensure people experiencs high-quality care and support that is tailored to their needs, rights and choices.  High-quality staffing that responds dynamically to people’s needs is essential for this.

We recognise that staffing schedules are prescriptive and that they merely set a minimum standard based on numbers and general assumptions around the needs of the residents at the point of registration, which may have changed significantly since then.  The staffing schedules are based on the assumption that services operating at full occupancy.  They do not take account of changes in residents’ dependency and capabilities, either among long-standing residents or new people coming to live in the home.

Consequently, we have taken the decision to move away from issuing staffing schedules to enable providers to apply judgement and flexibility in demonstrating how they meet the requirements of the relevant regulation (SSI 210 (15) Staffing) which states that:

‘A provider must, having regard to the size and nature of the care services, the statement of aims and objectives and the number and needs of service users…ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent persons are working in the care service in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, welfare and safety of service users.’

We will however retain the discretion to impose conditions about staffing, or any other matter, on any individual care service where that is necessary to ensure people experience high quality care.

The legal framework under which services operate is quite clear that the responsibility for assessing staffing according to need lies with the provider of a care service.  The Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice requires us to be proportionate in our approach and we believe that the safety, health and wellbeing of people who experience care can be enhanced without the issuing of fixed staffing notices at the point of registration.

The removal of staffing schedules will also remove reference to the management arrangements, however Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) 210: Regulation 17 (1) (c) – Appointment of Manager states: “A provider who is not, or does not intend to be, in full time day-to-day charge of the care service must appoint an individual to manage the service”.  We expect this regulation to be complied with and to see the management arrangements detailed in the aims and objectives for each individual service.

With the removal of staffing schedules, our scrutiny methodology will help provide assurance that the provider has systems in place to assess people’s dependency, regularly and as their needs change.  Providers will be required to maintain a daily record of the staffing level and skill mix which results from a dynamic process in relation to the assessment of need and capability.

Quality Indicator 3.3 in the new quality framework for care homes for older people states: ‘Staffing levels are right and staff work well together’.  Inspectors can and will evaluate providers systems and processes against this indicator to ensure that there are positive outcomes for people who receive services.  We strongly encourage providers to ensure this is part of their self-evaluation and quality assurance systems also.

This approach reflects the Care Inspectorate’s broader shift towards outcomes-focused regulation which seeks to ensure that care and support is responsive to people’s individual needs.  Providers of care and support have a clear responsibility to provide effective staffing, and we will continue to ensure through our scrutiny work that this is happening.

From 1 September 2018 we will no longer issue staffing schedules for new registrations.  A letter and variation template will be sent to all existing providers for services who have staffing schedules.  Between January and 31 March 2019 we will process variations for all providers who return a completed variation template.

It may take some time to complete variations for all relevant registered services.  We are therefore unable to give a timescale for completion of individual applications; however, we will endeavour to complete variations as quickly as possible.