Why your annual returns are so important
Why your annual returns are so important
Every year in January and February, we ask care service providers to complete an annual return. It asks for a great deal of information about your service and the people who use it. It is important to know why you are asked for this information, and what we do with it.
First and foremost, the information you provide in the annual return helps us understand your service. This means inspectors are able to plan and prepare for effective inspections that are focused appropriately.
Not only is the annual return important for planning and focusing inspections, but the information you also give provides a national picture, which can help the us and other partner organisations in a number of ways.
This year's annual returns are now closed. We would like to thank everyone who submitted their annual return to us by the deadline, Sunday 17 March 2024. The information you have provided will help us plan, inform and carry out our inspections and improvement work.
Even inactive services must submit an annual return.
If a service was registered on or after 1 October 2023, it should try to complete an annual return this year. Although it is not mandatory for these services, any information supplied will be used by the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Government. The information entered this year will automatically appear in the December 2024 annual return and only information that has changed will need to be entered.
Benchmarks and comparisons for inspectors
Inspectors can compare a service they are looking at with national averages to identify potential issues. For example, if the inspector is preparing to inspect a service with higher staff turnover than average, when they inspect, the inspector might look at the impact this could have had on the quality of care and outcomes for people using that service.
Publishing statistics
We also publish statistical reports of some of the annual returns data. We also use the annual return data to inform many of our other publications such as:
- Early learning and childcare statistics 2022
- Staff vacancies in care services 2022
- Fostering and adoption statistical bulletin 2022-23
National policy makers (the Scottish Government) can use these summaries and publications to shape and evaluate national policies and providers can see how their service compares with other services.
Supporting improvement
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.
Reducing duplication and sharing information
We also share information with other public bodies to reduce duplication and the costs of data collection for both the taxpayer and the people providing data. For example, anonymised staffing information is shared with the Scottish Social Services Council, so they can develop intelligence about the workforce without having to collect additional data from care services.
If you need help accessing the annual return, you can call our contact centre on 0345 600 9527 or read our frequently asked questions.
Workforce registration with SSSC
In April 2009, the Scottish Government passed Statutory Regulations about a phased programme of compulsory registration of key groups of social services workers in: residential child care, day care services for children, adult residential care, care at home and other support services and school care accommodation. The Regulations state that once required registration commences for any group of workers, employers/providers must only employ registered workers in relevant posts and that any new recruits to these posts must achieve registration within six months of commencing employment.
This means that service providers will be committing an offence if, after the date of required registration, they employ or continue to employ, a worker in a service who is not registered with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) or another relevant regulatory body e.g. the General Teaching Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The Care Inspectorate has to the responsibility for enforcing required registration on behalf of Government. Where workers are not registered appropriately, the Care Inspectorate may make requirements, reflect non-registration in inspection reports and grades and even take enforcement action that could result in the cancellation of registration for care services. The Care Inspectorate may also take steps to report the service provider to the Procurator Fiscal if necessary.
The Care Inspectorate will contact services on an ongoing basis as SSSC registration is required for parts of the social care workforce. In addition, providers will be asked for information about their employees’ registration status through our annual return and this will inform our scrutiny activities such as inspection with each service.
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When do I need to register? |
Last Application date |
Date of required registration |
|
Workers in care home services for adults |
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|
Support workers |
30 September 2014 |
30 September 2015 |
|
Workers in day care of children services |
||
|
Workers in housing support services |
||
|
Managers |
31 July 2013 |
31 January 2014 |
|
Supervisors |
To be announced |
2017 |
|
Support workers |
To be announced |
To be announced |
|
Workers in care at home services |
||
|
Supervisors |
To be announced |
2017 |
|
Support workers |
To be announced |
2020 |
Remember, the Care Inspectorate does not register members of the workforce. Any questions about registration of the workforce should be directed to the SSSC (www.sssc.uk.com) or by calling their helpline on 0345 60 30 891.
Guidance for social care workers applying can be found here.
Guidance for verifying and endorsing applications can be found here.