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.

How the framework links to How good is our early learning and childcare

The following table shows how our quality framework for children, childminding and school-aged childcare link to Education Scotland’s ‘How good is our early learning and childcare’ quality indicators.

How we do it

Justice social work: inspection of community payback orders 

In our overview report published December 2021, we presented the key findings aggregated across all five inspections.

Between September 2018 and November 2020, we completed five inspections of justice social work services with a particular focus on community payback orders in these areas:

• Scottish Borders
• West Dunbartonshire
• Inverclyde
• Dumfries and Galloway
• Aberdeen City.

We produced an inspection guide for this activity. In summary the inspection methodology involved:

• submission of a self-evaluation by each local authority area
• review of a representative sample of relevant records of people who were or had been subject to a community payback order
• interviews with people currently subject to a community payback order
• focus groups and interviews with members of staff, partner agencies and stakeholders, and senior managers, chief officers, elected members with responsibility for community justice social work
• verbal feedback to the local authority on findings based on the analysis and evaluation of all aspects of the inspection
• publication of an inspection report for each participating local authority area that included evidence-based evaluations of key quality indicators using a six-point scale.

Community justice partnerships: supported and validated self-evaluation 

Between 2018 and 2020, we worked in partnership with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) to support the implementation of the new community justice model through a validated self-evaluation approach. We carried out assurance activities across the following five community justice partnerships, one of which incorporated three local authority areas:

• North Lanarkshire (did not involve HMICS)
• Clackmannanshire
• Ayrshire (North, South and East)
• Shetland
• East Lothian

For more information on the supported and validated self-evaluation methodology please refer to our guidance and additional information. In summary our activity included:

• support and guidance from a strategic inspector for partnership areas to undertake self-evaluation
• submission of a self-evaluation by the partnership
• analysis of the submitted documents by the Care Inspectorate/HMICS team
• follow-up activities with the partnership to explore any areas of uncertainty (these included visits, interviews and focus groups)
• verbal feedback on the findings to each partnership based on the analysis of all the evidence gathered
• publication of the validation letter.

Community justice social work: throughcare review 

The Scottish Government established the national criminal justice Recover, Renew, Transform (RRT) programme in response to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on the justice system in Scotland. One of the tasks of the Recovery of Community Justice and Prevention of Offending sub-group was to explore breach of licence and recall to prison. This was to further understand recall and related processes to reduce the number of people being recalled to custody, where appropriate.

In March 2021, the Care Inspectorate received a request from the sub-group to undertake a focused piece of work relating to breach of licence/recall to custody. The strategic justice team undertook a review of throughcare with a primary focus on community justice social work practice.

The review sought to:

• identify potential barriers to reintegration; and
• seek assurance that community justice social work contributions to breach and recall processes were operating as they should.

As part of the review, we also gathered the views of individuals from across Scotland who had been recalled to prison following a breach of their throughcare licence conditions.

We published a report of our findings in September 2021. The report contains more detail on the methods we used.

Our collaborative work with scrutiny and improvement partners 

We have a long-standing commitment to contribute to inspections of prisons and other institutions led by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in Scotland (HMIPS). Over the past three years, our contribution has been led by the strategic justice team with support from other strategic colleagues as appropriate. Throughout 2020/2021, we contributed to HMIPS Covid-19 liaison activities through on-site visits and remote contact with community agencies.

Throughout 2021/2022, we will continue to work with scrutiny and justice partners to contribute to the thematic prison review of risk management, progression and early release.  

A separate piece of collaborative work will focus on the extent to which community justice partners are delivering on national priorities relating to early intervention and prevention.

In July 2023, we commenced a joint thematic review of prison-based social work, in partnership with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in Scotland (HMIPS). This thematic review will consider the strengths and challenges in the governance, leadership, and accountability of prison-based social work services in Scotland. The full Terms of Reference for the review can be found here. This work will conclude in April 2024.

Inspection during Covid-19

Covid-19 inspection safety precautions for early learning and childcare services including childminders (Added 29 April 2021)

We are committed to carrying out our inspections safely, and we take our responsibility to the welfare of children and staff in your service very seriously.  We have worked with Public Health Scotland to ensure our inspection process is as safe as it possibly can be. 

All our staff have had infection prevention and control training that includes minimising the risk of contact and the safe use of personal protective equipment (PPE).  Our inspectors are undertaking twice weekly testing and are required to have a negative lateral flow test before visiting a service. If the test is positive, they self-isolate and arrange to undertake a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.   No inspector will visit a service if they have any of the recognised symptoms of Covid-19.

We have amended our processes to minimise the time we need to spend in your service carrying out key tasks.  We will carry out some activities remotely, such as interviews with staff or parents.

When our inspectors are in your service, they will maintain physical distancing from your staff and each other and wear moisture resistance face masks.  You may see your inspector change these across the time they are in your service.  They will wash their hands regularly and carry supplies of hand sanitiser where hand washing may be more difficult, such as in outdoor areas.

Inspectors will limit the items they bring into your service and will use their tablets to record and photograph information rather than taking paper copies.

Inspections of services for children and young people (except childminders) (Added 27 April 2021)

We suspended our normal inspection programme in March 2020 in response to Scottish Government national restrictions on movement put in place to help suppress the spread of Covid-19. We maintained close contact with services across the country, providing advice and guidance to help providers continue to deliver services through a time of unprecedented challenge.

During the autumn and winter we recommenced our inspection programme on a revised basis. We carried out as much activity as possible remotely, using digital and other means. We undertook assurance activity to respond proportionately to any concerns and continued to make visits to services wherever we judged it was necessary to gain assurance about children’s wellbeing.

We have now revised our inspection priorities for 2021-22. They will be determined taking into account a number of factors including:

• intelligence which gives us cause for concern or suggests there are areas requiring further exploration. Intelligence may come from notifications or from a failure to comply with the notification system, and from complaints or relevant information provided by other bodies;
• inspection history, particularly where the last inspection identified significant areas for improvement and where we now need to assess the extent to which improvements have been made;
• services which have not been inspected since registration with the Care Inspectorate;
• inspection frequency timescales.

For all high and medium risk services, we aim to carry out on-site visits to engage in fieldwork, gain assurance about the wellbeing of children and young people and assess how their needs are being met. We will work sensitively with services to ensure this is done safely, in a way which reduces risks for everyone. Inspection feedback will continue to be provided through a virtual meeting.

For all other services, we will continue to carry out as much activity as possible remotely, using digital and other means. We are asking services for continued cooperation and support in providing documentary evidence timeously and facilitating conversations between inspectors and children, families, staff and other stakeholders. This helps us to complete inspections without undue delays.  We will continue to make visits to services wherever we judge it is necessary to gain assurance about children’s wellbeing.

All of our inspectors have received Covid training to help keep everyone in the service and themselves as safe as possible. They undertake regular lateral flow tests and make appropriate use of PPE and face masks.

We will be flexible and will amend plans as necessary in the light of changing circumstances locally and nationally.

Operating an early learning and childcare setting (including out of school care and childminders) during Covid-19 (Updated 12 August 2020)

We have developed ‘Key Question 5’, a self-evaluation resource and tool which asks you to evaluate how well you are supporting children and families during Covid-19. The aim of this resource is to enable settings to gather information and continually evaluate their progress in supporting staff, children and families to have confidence in the provision of ELC by specifically evidencing how they have implemented the national guidance for Covid-19, while ensuring positive outcomes for children. This is the only Key Question we expect ELC providers (including out of school care and childminders) to compete. This key question will sit alongside our Quality Framework for Early Learning and Childcare when this is published later this year (which will include Key Questions 1-4).

We encourage you to complete the ‘self-evaluation tool’. The tool asks you to take account of performance data when evaluating your service.  This will be individual to your service.  It may include how you communicate with families or other settings where there are blended placements. It may also be some examples of evidence which you wish to include within the tool e.g. Supporting evidence of how you have implemented and reviewed the national guidance relevant to your service:

• Guidance for early learning and childcare services
• Guidance for childminding services
• Guidance for school age childcare services
• Guidance for fully outdoor childcare services

Inspectors will request the completed self-evaluation from providers on a risk and sampling basis. Please do not send this to us until requested. This will not be before 10 August 2020.  However, we may undertake other scrutiny activities in settings before this date. Read more about this here. 

Covid-19 Scrutiny Assessment Tool (SAT) (Added 30 July 2020)

The Covid-19 Scrutiny Assessment Tool (SAT) is a trigger tool developed by the Care Inspectorate to identify indicators of potential concerns in care homes.

From 14 August this will replace the current Risk Assessment Rating (RAD) for all Care Homes (Adults, Older People, Children and Young People). Inspectors will begin this process from 30 July.

A list of questions that the inspectors will answer when completing the SAT in the RMS system can be found here.

This is for service provider’s information only.

The SAT is not a risk assessment in the same way that the RAD was but will support us to identify what level of support and scrutiny is appropriate for a service taking account their current circumstances.

In developing the Covid-19 SAT we considered specific information relevant to the current Covid-19 pandemic. It is based on what our intelligence has so far identified as being key indicators or concerns within services to allow us to consider where additional support and/or scrutiny may be required. 

The Covid-19 SAT is based on a Scrutiny Assessment Tool we have developed and tested that included information from our enforcement review.  The release of the new tool was delayed due to the pandemic, we are planning to release the full SAT for all service types later in the year. 

Key question 7 for children and young people residential services (Added 6 July 2020)

We have developed key question 7 for children and young people residential services.

Where there are concerns relating to Covid-19 in a residential childcare setting this key question is to be used as part of our scrutiny.

Where there are concerns not relating to Covid-19, areas from the existing quality framework will be used as a basis of our scrutiny work.

New key question for care home inspections (Added 10 June 2020) 

In order to robustly assess care home arrangements to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, our inspections are placing particular focus on infection prevention and control, personal protective equipment and staffing in care settings. 

We have developed Key Question 7 to augment  our quality framework for care homes for older people and our quality framework for care homes for adults.  We have done this to meet the duties placed on us by the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No. 2) Act and subsequent guidance that we must evaluate (grade) infection prevention and control and staffing.  

This means we will carry out targeted inspections that are short, focused and carried out with colleagues from Health Improvement Scotland and Health Protection Scotland, to assess care and support for people experiencing care and support during the Covid-19 pandemic. We will continue to put the wellbeing for people experiencing care at the heart of our inspections.