Professional

We are the national regulator for care services in Scotland.  We also inspect the social work services provided by local authorities and we carry out joint inspections with partner organisations.

We are here to:

• provide assurance and protection for people who use services, their families and carers and the wider public
• play a key part in improving services for adults and children across Scotland
• act as a catalyst for change and innovation
• promote good practice.

People have the right to expect the highest quality of care and their rights promoted and protected.  It is our job to drive up standards of care and social work services through regulation and inspection.

Choose from the menu items on the left to find the information you need to deliver care and social work services.

Our website, The Hub offers a wide range of resources to support services to learn, innovate and improve.

Covid-19

We regularly update the information and guidance on our Covid-19 web pages. Some of the information on these pages comes from the Care Inspectorate and some comes from other official bodies involved in pandemic response across social care. We encourage all care services to keep themselves up to date by revisiting these pages on a regular basis. We also encourage visiting other online sources of information and guidance such as the websites of Scottish Government, NHS Inform and Public Health Scotland.

Care Inspectorate guidance for services

As information, guidance and practice about Covid-19 is becoming established and less subject to rapid change, we are no longer maintaining the Covid-19 FAQs or the Covid-19 compendium. For key information, view our Covid-19 information page below and the guidance links on this page.

Archived Updates

You can find older updates on the Archived Updates page.

Care homes for older people Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidance: what has changed during September 2022? (Added 29 September 2022)

The changes to IPC guidance throughout September bring care services ever closer to business-as-usual for service delivery.

We recognise that there may be anxiety around implementing some of the changes. With continued application of Standard Infection Control Precautions (SICPs) and, where needed, Transmission Based Precautions (TBP) when caring for individuals who have suspected or known infection the risks can be managed and reduced.

The Care Inspectorate support the implementation of updated IPC guidance and will take this into account when visiting services.

You can find a summary of guidance changes and links to further information here.

Joint statement supports winter vaccination programme (Added 8 September 2022)

Scottish Care, the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland, the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council have issued a joint statement to support the winter vaccination programme for social care staff. You can read the statement here.

Scottish Government provides update for social care on face masks, testing and vaccination (Added 8 September 2022)

Updated Covid-19 face mask guidance for social care including adult care homes

Following a review of advice, the Scottish Government has updated its guidance on the use of face masks in social care settings including adult care homes.

The updated guidance recommends that face masks do not routinely need to be worn at all times within social care settings. Instead face masks should be for particular situations (for example following staff judgement, advice from health protection / public health or personal choice). This is because although Covid-19 continues to spread, transmission rates are lower and the virus is currently milder than at earlier stages in the pandemic resulting in a reduction in severity of illness and hospitalisation.

Full details are available online Coronavirus (Covid-19): use of face coverings in social care settings including adult care homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Importantly, the fundamental principles of infection prevention and control precautions continue to be essential.

Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland and Public Health Scotland will update their associated guidance documents as soon as practically possible.  

Providers are recommended to implement the face mask guidance as soon as possible from 14 September, or earlier if they are ready to do so. The recommendations in the guidance will require discussions with staff and those receiving care and support before adoption. For some services, the changes may be able to be implemented fairly quickly while for others, it may take longer.

Scottish Government is working with Scottish Care to host a webinar regarding changes to face masks and testing within social care. This will be open to all staff within social care to ask any questions they may have about the guidance. The date will be circulated within networks once agreed.

Review of asymptomatic testing in health and social care

A review has taken place of the remaining regular asymptomatic testing in place for health and social care staff and in high-risk settings. Scottish Government will issue advice for health and social care in the week beginning 12 September. This will have updated guidance materials and an implementation date of the end of September. Until this guidance is issued, staff should continue to test as per Coronavirus (Covid-19): social care and community based testing guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Covid and flu vaccination – autumn/winter 2022

Vaccination and the protection it offers staff and those they care for and support is important.  The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has issued advice for the Winter Covid-19 and flu programme recommending those most at risk, or those who come into regular contact with those most at risk, become eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine dose to maximise their protection over winter. Where possible, this will be co-administered with the flu vaccine, which is a safe and effective way to deliver protection.

The online booking portal for frontline health and social care workers can be accessed, along with other information on the programme and eligibility, at Winter vaccines | NHS inform. The direct portal page link is Login - Customer Service (nhs.scot).

Carers who are aged 16+ are eligible for both Covid and flu vaccination this winter. The majority will be called for vaccination later in the programme, as part of the ‘at risk’ group. At this point, appointments can be booked on the portal or through the helpline for those who don’t have digital access. The only exception is that the over 65s will shortly be sent letters with timed appointments. In those letters, it will say that unpaid carers are eligible for vaccination and give instructions on how they can book. If someone they care for gets a letter, the carer can book their appointment from that time. 

Removal of notification requirement (Added 9 June 2022)

Early in the pandemic, we introduced a notification for providers to notify us if a service was closed due to the impact of Covid-19. While services are still dealing with the effects of the pandemic including a low level of infections, there are far fewer restrictions on how we live and impacts on the operation of care services.  In recognition of this, we have decided to remove the notification ‘Change of service delivery due to Covid-19’. Therefore, there is no requirement to notify us if a service is closed for a short time due to Covid-19.

We understand there are certain circumstances when services close for a period of time and can apply to be inactive for a period of up to 12 months. You can find the details of when this can be considered and how to apply here.

New guidance materials on Open with Care: Supporting Meaningful Contact in Adult Care Homes (Added 2 June 2022)

The Scottish Government has produced new guidance materials for Open with Care - Supporting Meaningful Contact in Adult Care Homes.  

• Guidance principles document for adult care homes
• Family leaflet
• Easy read for residents

These new documents build on best practice by care homes and have been developed in consultation with a range of people including care home provider representatives, Public Health Scotland, health and social care professionals, relatives, residents and the Care Inspectorate. They have been designed to provide information for different audiences, in as relevant a way as possible.

The purpose of this suite of documents is to:

• update the Open with Care visiting guidance
• set out principles and expectations for supporting people living in care homes to maintain connections
• give an overview of the measures in place to support visiting, signposting to more detailed guidance where relevant. 

The guidance principles document should be should be read in conjunction with public health and infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance from Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) Scotland (Winter Addendum) and Pubic Health Scotland guidance for care homes (see links in document).

To support communications, hard copies of the family leaflet will be issued to care homes by the end of June.

PHS Covid-19 - information and guidance for care home settings (for older adults) v.3 (Added 2 June 2022)

This guidance was updated on 31 May with one change: New staff or agency staff working in the care home: Agency staff are now advised to undertake a PCR test within the previous 7 days before starting in the care home (formerly 48 hours). Risk assessment considerations are included for care home management in situations where this may not be feasible including the use of LFD testing.

you can access the updated guidance here.

Variation changes for care homes and care at home extended to April 2023 (Added 7 April 2022)

Social care continues to face challenges as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we continue to support the care sector by adapting what we do, when needed.

To support services to provide support to a wider group of people, there will continue to be no requirement for providers to submit a variation for any care service type where:

• a care home for older people is caring for youngeradults or vice versa
• care at home services care for clients with different careneeds
• there is a change of operationalhours.

This will continue until April 2023.

In these circumstances, there is no requirement to submit a variation form. Instead, you should simply confirm in writing through eForms, using the notification ‘Changes to service delivery’.

Within the notification, you should note what the change is and confirm the service can meet people’s care and welfare needs.

The notification will not trigger an inspection but may trigger contact from the inspector to discuss the changes you have put in place.

For care homes that are supporting people on an interim basis until care at home is available in their area, there is no requirement to notify the Care Inspectorate. We will get this information from the oversight teams of homes being used in local areas. 

Coronavirus (Covid-19): adult care homes visiting guidance (Added 4 April 2022) 

The Scottish Government has updated guidance on visiting care homes during the pandemic plus tools and resources on visiting, and supporting residents in homes with Covid-19.

Clarification on asymptomatic testing for social care staff (Added 1 April 2022)

As soon as possible

The Scottish Government has advised that daily asymptomatic (work day) LFD testing will no longer be required and social care settings should revert back to their routine, baseline asymptomatic testing as soon as this is possible. This is either a weekly PCR or twice-weekly LFD (apart from adult care home staff who will continue to test with a weekly PCR and twice-weekly LFD).  

This approach to testing in social care has been informed by clinical advice and is subject to ongoing review. LFD tests are extremely effective at picking up the virus in asymptomatic individuals, specifically when they are most infectious and therefore more likely to pass it on to others. This is considered proportionate while still offering sufficient protection to those at highest risk.

From Monday 18 April 

The role of Covid-19 testing is changing from population wide testing, to targeted testing to support clinical care. The Scottish Government approach to testing in social care has been informed by clinical advice and is subject to ongoing review.

Based on this advice, regular asymptomatic testing will continue for parts of the health and care workforce. This is primarily in settings which are still considered high risk and/or where those using services are deemed to be at a higher risk of hospitalisation from Covid-19.

Testing will stop for staff groups in settings that are now deemed to be lower risk and/or in services which do not involve close personal care and contact or where clients are no longer at a higher risk of Covid-19.

For pathways/services continuing to test, we are moving away from using PCR testing (with the exception of adult care home staff) and asking staff to test twice weekly with LFD tests.

As stated, LFD tests are extremely effective at picking up the virus in asymptomatic individuals and specifically when they are most infectious and therefore more likely to pass it on to others.

Providers with excess LFD stock can pause their deliveries by calling the NSS helpline on 0800 008 6587.

For an overview of the social care asymptomatic pathways and changes in these pathways from Monday 18 April, click here.

Further information

Information is available on the NHS Inform website. The key messages for Scotland are:   

• As part of the Scotland-wide, coordinated response to coronavirus, NHS 24 provides the most up to date information and advice here.  
  

• NHS 24 has also set up a dedicated helpline for people who do not have coronavirus symptoms but are seeking information. The helpline number is 0800 028 2816 and is available Monday to Friday, 0800 to 1000, Saturday and Sunday, 0900 to 1700. 

• People who have travelled to an affected area and have symptoms of a cough, fever or difficulty breathing should stay at home and phone their GP (family doctor), or call NHS 24 on 111 if their GP surgery is closed.

• People with general questions are advised to visit www.nhsinform.scot/coronavirus in the first instance. This is the quickest and easiest way to get information and it also means that the 111 service is able to help those people with more immediate clinical need. NHSinform includes an interactive self-help guide where people can answer a few simple questions on line to assess whether they need to seek further help or advice by telephone.

• There is a communications toolkit with information for health and care settings to download, share and print  – please be aware that this is updated as the situation develops so should be checked frequently. Please use the latest version in your setting and update if required. 

NHS 24 has active Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels that are the official social feeds for Coronavirus in Scotland. You can follow these from the links below. 

• https://twitter.com/NHS24
• https://www.facebook.com/NHS24
• https://www.instagram.com/nhs24.scot/

Health Protection Scotland has also produced information and guidance which should be useful and this is updated at regular intervals.

The Scottish Government summary of response arrangements for coronavirus in Scotland can be found here.   

Other guidance

• Tell Us Once service (last updated 08 April 2020)
• Information and guidance for social or community care and residential settings Version 1.6 (last updated 2 April 2020)
• Coronavirus (Covid-19): social distancing in education and childcare settings (31 March 2020)
• Coronavirus (Covid-19): childcare closures and emergency provision (30 March 2020)
• clinical guidance for the management of clients accessing care at home, housing support and sheltered housing (last updated 26 March 2020)
• clinical guidance for nursing home and residential care residents (last updated 26 March 2020)
• letter from the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Social Work Adviser about Covid-19 clinical guidance for social care settings (last updated 26 March 2020)
• advice note for practitioners from Mental Welfare Commission (updated 26 March 2020)
• guidance for non-healthcare settings (last updated 25 March 2020)
• guidance for childminders (last updated 25 March 2020)
• social care at heart of response to coronavirus (updated 23 March 2020)
• guidance for non-healthcare settings (last updated 20 March 2020) (guidance for educational and early learning and childcare settings has now been updated and incorporated into this guidance)
• letter from Deputy First Minister to local authorities on school and ELC closures (19 March 2020)
• letter from Care Inspectorate chief executive (17 March 2020)
• letter from Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport - social care guidance (13 March 2020)
• factsheet on the coronavirus for places of education

NHS Inform has published guidance leaflets and posters in a variety of different languages and easy-read format. You can download these from their website here.   

Inspections

Infection prevention and control (IPC) standards published

Healthcare Improvement Scotland has published new IPC standards that apply to health and adult social care settings

The standards will act as a key component in the drive to reduce the risk of infections in health and social care in Scotland. They will support services to quality assure their IPC practice and approaches, and the IPC principles set out in the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual.

The Care Inspectorate will take account of the standards in our inspection and regulation of adult and older people’s care services including care homes.

The standards can be found here. 

Our approach to inspection and self-evaluation

In consultation with the social care sector, we have developed a self-evaluation and quality framework model based on the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Standards.  We have used this model to develop a suite of quality frameworks for different service types.

Our inspectors use quality frameworks to evaluate the quality of care during inspections and improvement planning. 

All our frameworks are available to download from the publications and statistics area or on The Hub.

The frameworks replace our previous practice of inspecting against themes and statements.  Inspectors will look select a number of quality indicators from a number of key questions to look at. 

Framework structure

The frameworks better reflect the Health and Social Care Standards and provides more transparency about what we expect. 

They set out key questions about the difference a care service makes to people’s wellbeing, and the quality of the elements that contribute to that. These include:

• How well do we support people’s wellbeing?
• How good is our leadership
• How good is our staff team?
• How good is our setting?
• How well is our care and support planned?

Under each key question, there are three or four quality indicators, covering specific areas of practice. Each quality indicator has illustrations of what ‘very good’ quality would look like, and what ‘weak’ quality would look like. These illustrations are drawn from the Health and Social Care Standards but are not checklists or definitive descriptions. They are designed to help people understand the level of quality we are looking for.

A sixth question, ‘What is our overall capacity for improvement?’ is included in the framework to help care services in planning their improvement journey.

Each quality indicator includes a scrutiny and improvement toolbox.  This includes examples of how we might evidence the quality of care provided.  It also contains links to practice documents that will help services in their own improvement journey.

Key questions added as a result of Covid-19

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

We have developed a key question to augment our frameworks. 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 infection prevention and control and staffing.  

This means 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 during the Covid-19 pandemic. We will continue to put the wellbeing for people experiencing care at the heart of our inspections.  

This additional key question has been added to our frameworks for:

• Care homes for children and young people and school care accommodation (special residential schools)
• Mainstream boarding schools and school hostels
• Secure accommodation

Self-evaluation

The quality frameworks help services evaluate themselves. Self-evaluation is central to continuous improvement.  It enables care settings to reflect on what they are doing so they can recognise what they do well and identify what they need to do better.  We have published a guide to self-evaluation to support services in their improvement journey and a range of toolkits to support services undertake self-evaluation.

Where can I find out more?

The quality frameworks and key question 7's (KQ7s), and our inspection leaflet gives more information. 

Alternatively, you can contact your inspector, call us on 0345 600 9527 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Register a childminding service

Childminders must, by law, register with the Care Inspectorate. 

The legal definition of a childminder is a person who works with children for more than two hours a day in the childminder’s own home for reward.

We regulate childminders using the Health and Social Care Standards and the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

Before you apply to register as a childminder you should read: 

• Guidance for applicants on applying to register a care service
• Guidance for providers and applicants on aims and objectives
• A quality framework for daycare of children, childminding and school-aged childcare
• Self-evaluation for improvement – your guide
• Childminders: What to expect when we inspect
• Registering and running a childminding service: what you need to know
• Food Standards Agency - advice about operating as a food business
• Statement – EU Services Directive

You can also visit The Hub, our ‘one-stop-shop’ website which has a wide range of resources aimed at supporting improvement in social care and social work by sharing intelligence and research-led practice.

What to expect from the registration process

You can now apply to register a care service online, using our new, secure system.  The online application is simple to complete and only asks you questions that are relevant to your service type.

You can manage your application easily.  You can save it as you go and return to it later so you can complete and submit at your own pace.  You can go back to previous stages to check, change and add to your application.  The new application allows you to upload supporting documents and pay your application fee.

Read our guidance for applicants on applying to register a care service and online registration application form - user guide before applying. 

Fees

The registration fee for a childminder is £28.00.  This must be paid before we can consider your application.  An annual continuation fee of £17.00 is also applied for every year that you are registered.  

All application fees are non-returnable.

Find out more about our fees.

Fire safety information

The Chief Fire Officer Association on behalf of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has produced guidance on the fire precautions childminders should take.

• Fire precautions - a childminders' guide
• Fire guidance letter
• Guidance notes for fire safety checklist

You should complete the following documents and return them to the relevant organisation when you are ready to do so.  As the checklist is a declaration that everything is in place you may wish to wait until later in the process to do this.

• Fire safety checklist - This should be completed and sent your local fire authority.
• Fire safety checklist confirmation - This acts as your confirmation to us that you have sent the checklist to the local fire authority.  This should be completed and sent to us.

Membership of the PVG scheme and criminal records checks

You must pay an additional fee for the cost of a Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme record checks as appropriate.  We will determine from your application who this will be applicable to and be in contact with you to provide the relevant disclosure documentation.

You can find out more about the fees for PVG applications on the Disclosure Scotland website.

The Care Inspectorate must be a counter signatory to your own scheme record, and as such we require you to progress your PVG application through us.  Once we complete the first part of the PVG application, you’ll receive an email with a link to complete your section.

Please be aware that, in addition to the PVG check, the Care Inspectorate also run online searches of publicly available information.  If we have concerns about the information we find, we may contact Police Scotland.

Registering with Disclosure Scotland

For you to countersign PVG or disclosure checks for your staff or volunteers, you must be registered with Disclosure Scotland.  You can find out how to register with Disclosure Scotland on their website. You will have a number of responsibilities after your register, including:

• following Disclosure Scotland's Code of Practice
• referring individuals to Disclosure Scotland when harmful or potential harmful behaviour and you dismiss the person as a result (or would or might have done had they not otherwise left).

You can also use an umbrella body to countersign PVG or disclosure checks on behalf of your organisation.  A list of umbrella bodies is available on the Disclosure Scotland website.

Contact Disclosure Scotland if you need help:

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 0300 020 0040
Monday to Thursday: 9am to 4pm
Friday: 9am to 3:30pm

What happens next?

Once we have received your completed application and all the documentation we have asked you for, and you have paid the fee, we will contact you.  We aim to assess applications for a childminding service within three months and all other services within six months.  However, this presumes that you supply us with a competent and fully detailed application, as well as any additional information we request.  It is in your interest to give us all the information we ask for in the application form to prevent any delays or the risk of us closing or refusing your application.

Once you have submitted your application form our national registration team will assess and check:

• that the information you give us in the application form is appropriate and comprehensive
• that the correct fee has been paid
• whether you are fit to provide and manage the service
• if your premises (where the service is to be provided) is fit to be used for that purpose
• that the proposed service will make all the proper provisions for the health, welfare, independence, choice, privacy and dignity of everyone using the service.

We may also check the financial viability of the service.  Any information we ask for during this process is in accordance with the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

Successful registration

If your registration is successful, we will confirm this and also provide you with a certificate of registration, (electronically via our eForm portal), detailing the conditions of registration.  You should print the certificate and display it so that anyone who uses your service can read it.  The conditions of registration are also available on our care service list.

You will also see a list of records that you must keep and a list of notifications that you must make to the Care Inspectorate within our eForms portal.  See our guidance on records childminding services must keep and guidance on notification recording.

Decisions on an application to register a service

Following an application for registration, under Section 59(1) of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 ("the Act"), the Care Inspectorate can in terms of

s60(1):

• grant the application unconditionally, s60(1)
• grant the application subject to conditions, s60(2)
• refuse the application, s60(1).

If we propose to refuse your registration, or to grant registration subject to conditions that have not been agreed in writing, we must give you notice of our proposal to do so.  Such a notice, where sent by post, is deemed (by section 101 of the Act) to be received on the third day after the day it was posted. 

If you wish to dispute any matters, you must do this in writing within 14 days.  The notice of proposal will state where these must be addressed to.

If we propose to refuse registration, or to grant registration subject to conditions that have not been agreed in writing, you have a right of appeal to the sheriff.  This right is set out at section 75 of the Act.  Any appeal must be made within 14 days (17 days if we have sent this in the post). 

The Scottish Childminding Association

The Scottish Childminding Association is an organisation dedicated to supporting childminders in Scotland.  From helping you with your application to register, to offering courses to help you keep up with latest developments in childcare, you can get lots of helpful advice and information.  Visit their website or call them on 01786 445377.

Create an account to begin your application

Sign in to see an existing application 

If you need the application form in an alternative format, please call our contact centre on 0345 600 9527.