How we recruit
How we recruit
Our recruitment process is based on a five-stage model designed to give you the best opportunity to demonstrate your experience and skills.
Stage 1: Apply
If you meet the minimum criteria for the job role, apply as per the method described on the advert. This could be to complete our application form or to submit your CV and personal statement and/or to include a cover letter. If you are an external candidate we will also ask you to complete our equal opportunities form. We’ll send you an automatic email to confirm we’ve received your application.
Where a person specification asks for an appropriate professional qualification as an essential requirement for the role, we are asking for a qualification in addition to the qualifying educational qualification for the role. For example, a postgraduate course, a leadership or quality management qualification or another qualification relevant to the job role.
To assist us to monitor the effectiveness of our equality and diversity practices, we would encourage you to complete our equal opportunities monitoring form as part of our application process.
Application Form Tips
CV Guidance for Applicants
Cover Letter Guidance for Applicants
Personal Statement Guidance for Applicants
Stage 2: Shortlist
We’ll review your application against the person specification and shortlist it against the qualification, experience, skill and competency requirements for the role. If you meet our essential criteria and are eligible through either of our guaranteed interview schemes we’ll automatically shortlist you.
Stage 3: Interview, assessment and selection
If you’re shortlisted, we’ll invite you to attend an interview and other skills assessments relevant to the role. If you’re successful we’ll let you know that you’re the preferred candidate.
Stage 4: Selection and conditional offer of employment
As the preferred candidate, we’ll send you a conditional offer of employment setting out your main terms and conditions of employment. Your conditional offer will be subject to pre-employment checks and satisfactory references.
Stage 5: Pre-employment checks and confirmed offer of employment
We’ll carry out pre-employment checks so we can confirm your offer of employment. These include:
- proof of ID / right to work in the UK
- two successful references, where one is from your current or most recent employer
- a standard disclosure check
- occupational health questionnaire and referrals, where appropriate
- registration and qualifications check, where relevant.
Once all checks are complete, we’ll agree a start date and formally confirm your offer of employment by providing you with a contract outlining your terms and conditions.
How we recruit inspectors
Our inspector recruitment process also follows the same model with the addition of a two-step selection stage.
Selection assessment 1
If you’re shortlisted, we’ll invite you to complete our online selection assessment. This is a written exercise designed to test your potential to be an inspector.
Selection assessment 2
If you successfully complete the online assessment, you’ll be invited to attend an interview and complete an exercise.
If you’re successful at this stage, we’ll let you know and confirm next steps. We’ll either confirm you’re the preferred candidate for a suitable vacancy (based on your specialism and location) or you’ll be invited to join our talent pool for future vacancies.
For more information about our talent pool please see the FAQs here.
Total rewards package
We offer an excellent total rewards package - it’s a comprehensive and strategic approach to employee compensation and benefits, that aligns with the Care Inspectorates’ aims. It encompasses various elements that will contribute to your overall employee experience, including compensation, benefits, work-life balance, and development.
Competitive salary
We offer competitive salaries for each job role with incremental pay progression for most roles. Salaries are reviewed annually and reward skills, qualifications and contributions to the Care Inspectorate’s success. New entrants will normally start on the minimum of the pay range.
Continuous service
Continuous service is recognised either where there are no breaks in service or if there is a break, it does not exceed 7 calendar days.
Continuous service is currently recognised with the following employers for the purpose of calculating statutory entitlements e.g. notice periods and redundancy entitlements: Local Authorities, National Health Service and all employers listed on the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government, etc) (Modification) Order 1999 (as amended).
Continuous service with the following sectors in addition to the above, is currently recognised for the purposes of calculating entitlements to occupational sick pay, maternity leave and annual leave: further and higher education sector and the voluntary and private providers of the care sector.
Hours of work
We have a standard working week of 35 hours for all employees and managers and 40 hours for senior manager roles. Inspectors work 140 hours over each 4-week period.
Flexible working
We have several policies in place that support flexible working and time off when you need it, such as flexitime, flexible hours, carers leave and special leave. Most of our people work flexibly and value how this supports their work-life balance.
Our flexitime system gives you the flexibility to temporarily change your times of work each day to meet your personal requirements. You can use or accrue up to half a day as flexi on any day without requesting time off from your manager, further time off should be planned in discussion with your manager.
Hybrid working
You’ll be able to work from home and the office, as part of our hybrid working approach. Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We expect all staff to work in person for at least 40% of their working time. This is two days a week for those on a standard 35 or 40 hour contract.
Annual leave
You’ll receive a generous 37 days annual leave (after five years’ service) as well as six fixed public holidays. Also, our offices are closed over the Christmas period!
Family focussed
We have a family friendly policies in place including maternity, adoption and shared parental leave. We also aim to create a supportive working environment for carers in the workplace.
Wellbeing
Should you become ill or be unable to work due to an injury we will continue to pay sick pay for authorised periods of absence dependent on your level of service allowing you to focus on getting better.
We supply an employee assistance programme, supplying unlimited access to a range of specialist support and information on finances, relationships, health, legal and family care and you’ll have access to healthcare insurance plans.
We also offer a wide range of wellbeing initiatives, including specialist webinars, counselling, and a listening service.
Employee development
We are committed to the development and learning of all our staff. Everyone takes part in regular supervision through our LEAD (learn, experience, achieve and development) performance and development process. We provide training and support so you’ll be the best you can be and provide opportunities to learn, develop and share your skills and experience with others.
- Secondments - Secondments help develop and nurture talent and help colleagues to reach their full potential. We offer three types of secondment opportunities: 1. Internal assignment, where existing Care Inspectorate employees undertake work for a fixed period that is not their usual job. 2. Incoming secondment, where a person comes from another organisation to fill a post. 3. Outgoing secondment, where a Care Inspectorate employee undertakes work for another organisation.
- Career Breaks - Your circumstances may change, for a variety of reasons, and you may need to take time out or take up another development opportunity. Our Career Break Policy allows eligible employees to take an unpaid break, of between six months and two years. Our career break scheme enables employees to take an extended period of unpaid leave and provides a guaranteed return to work later.
Travel expenses
We have access to a nationwide network of offices. Where your role includes travel, you will be able to claim up to 45 per mile (per the policy) and subsistence allowances where you must stay overnight. Overnight stays and public transport bookings (which are preferable) can be made and paid in advance by the organisation.
Saving schemes
My Lifestyle provides our cycle to work and childcare voucher schemes along with discounts to a huge range of retailers including supermarkets, restaurants, holiday operators, cinemas and much more.
All staff can claim a financial contribution of up to £70 towards the cost of glasses or contact lenses where needed for Display Screen Equipment (DSE) purposes.
There is also access to credit union membership (a community loans and savings organisation, an alternative to a high street bank usually with helpful terms).
Pension
We offer a defined benefit pension scheme on a career average basis. Employee contributions range between 5.5% and 10%, depending on earnings, and are matched by employer contributions of 17%.
The scheme is administered on our behalf by the Tayside Pension Fund where you will find full details of the scheme and how benefits are calculated.
Flexible retirement
If you are age 55 (or over) and you have at least 2 years membership with the Tayside Pension Fund you can request flexible retirement. This is a choice where you can access all, or a proportion of your pension earned to date but at the same time as receiving your pension you can continue working for the Care Inspectorate. Flexible retirement is an attractive way it can help with work life balance and the transition into full retirement.
To qualify you must reduce your working hours and/or grade to the extent that your revised salary is no more than 80% of your current salary.
Person specification
Attributes |
Essential |
Desirable |
Experience |
|
Experience of collaborative/ partnership working.
|
Education, qualifications and training |
|
3 Higher Grades or equivalent. HNC or equivalent. |
Skills and knowledge |
|
Understanding of project management
|
Key performance outcomes |
Essential |
Desirable |
Leading others |
|
Demonstrates experience of delivering change and improvement at an operational level. |
Management of resources |
|
|
Effective communication |
|
Good public speaking skills with ability to represent the Care Inspectorate at conferences, events.
|
Impact and influence |
|
Ability to take account of wider political and organisational sensitivities to deliver strategic objectives. |
Objective decision making |
|
|
Job profile
Job title: Planning Manager
Responsible for: Planning Co-ordinator
Principal working contacts
- Executive Director of Scrutiny and Assurance
- Chief Inspectors
- Service Managers
- Team Managers
- Strategic Inspectors
- Inspectors
- Business Support staff
- Managers and employees of the Care Inspectorate
- External agencies/service providers/service users and carers
- Education Scotland
Job purpose
To manage and co-ordinate the delivery of national inspection planning across a wide range of social care services and services for children and adults to ensure that the Care Inspectorate makes the best use of its resources and performs effectively and efficiently as an independent scrutiny and improvement body.
Key responsibilities
Strategic management
- In conjunction with the Chief Inspector, develop and manage systems and processes to support effective national inspection planning in order to meet corporate aims and objectives.
- Build and maintain effective partnerships with Education Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and other scrutiny and improvement partners to support effective and efficient joint inspection planning.
- In conjunction with the Chief Inspector develop and deliver strategies, action plans and targets for inspection planning in support of corporate aims and objectives.
Operational management
- Manage and co-ordinate the effective and efficient delivery of scrutiny and improvement planning activity.
- Manage and maintain scrutiny plans for the current year and draft plans for subsequent years, ensuring inspection planning activities are consistent with the Care Inspectorate’s objectives and targets.
- Ensure that the provision of the inspection and capacity planning information is accurate, up-to-date and reliable for managers and staff throughout the organisation to support the planning and delivery of the Care Inspectorate’s scrutiny and improvement functions.
- Plan and execute the strategic objectives for inspection planning systematically in alignment with the Care Inspectorate’s business objectives.
- Promote continuous improvement in all aspects of inspection and capacity planning, including quality assurance and consistency of practice.
- Participate in the recruitment and selection of staff as required.
- Prepare and present reports to the Chief Inspector, Executive Director of Scrutiny and Assurance or Executive Team as required.
- Deputise for the Chief Inspector and undertake such other duties as may be required by the Executive Director of Scrutiny and Assurance.
People management
- Lead and manage a team, ensuring that they work effectively and efficiently to meet the aims, objectives and targets of Care Inspectorate.
- Provide advice, guidance and support to team members through regular one-to-one supervision, performance development reviews and personal development plans to ensure continuous improvement in their work and support their personal and professional development.
- Coordinate and monitor administrative support to the team
- Promote consistent, high quality practice amongst team members, manage their performance and monitor their standards and behaviour.
- Promote the health, safety and welfare of staff in accordance with Care Inspectorate policies, procedures and guidance.
- Promote diversity and equality of opportunity, ensuring that these principles are upheld across all areas of work.
Relationship management
- As a manager, model corporate behaviour and demonstrate a strong commitment to organisational values.
- Develop effective working relationships within the team and with managers and staff across the organisation ensuring effective collaborative and cross-directorate working.
- Develop and maintain effective working relationships with partner scrutiny and improvement bodies and other key stakeholders.
- Contribute to the continuous development of the Care Inspectorate and manage change effectively and creatively.
- Promote the work of the Care Inspectorate and raise aware of its work in a positive manner.
- Ensure effective working protocols in accordance with the Care Inspectorate’s Communications, Human Resources, Finance, IT and Operations function.
- Demonstrate a commitment to the Care Inspectorate’s aims, vision and values and to the Care Inspectorate’s overall objective of improving care in Scotland.
- Ensure effective communication of the Care Inspectorate’s work with people who use care services, carers, relatives and advocates.
Other duties
This job may require some travel and may involve some overnight stays and unsocial hours.
This job description is a broad picture of the post at the date of preparation. It is not an exhaustive list of all possible duties and it is recognised that jobs change and evolve over time. Consequently, the post holder will be required to carry out any other duties to the equivalent level that are necessary to fulfil the purpose of the job, and to respond positively to changing business needs.
Planning Manager
Job title: Planning Manager
Salary: £38,553 - £42,597
Hours: 35 hours per week
Location: Flexible (Any Care Inspectorate office)
Contract: Temporary for up to 12 months
About us
We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.
We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.
Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We are moving towards an expectation that all staff will work collaboratively, within and across teams, in person, for approximately 40% of their working week.
About the role
Due to a period of absence a temporary vacancy has arisen within our planning team. In this demanding and challenging role, reporting to the head of business change, you will manage and co-ordinate the delivery of national inspection planning across a wide range of social care services and services for children and adults to ensure that the Care Inspectorate makes the best use of its resources and performs effectively and efficiently as an independent scrutiny and improvement body. This will include the management, co-ordination of inspection activities and national and team plans for the current year and draft plans for subsequent years, ensuring inspection planning activities are consistent with the Care Inspectorate’s objectives and targets.
About you
The successful applicant will have an operational background in planning activities, and system and processes, together with workload planning and prioritisation.
You will be educated to standard grade level and hold a relevant HNC qualification. You will have excellent communication skills and be able to demonstrate a broad level of knowledge of working within inspection/regulation of care and associated IT systems alongside the ability to translate plans into action.
Next steps
You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.
If you would like more information or an informal chat about the role please contact Deborah Holyroyd at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - please include a contact telephone number and times that would be best to reach you in your email.
If you believe that you are a suitable candidate for this post, please download and complete an application form and equal opportunities form and submit it by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 08:00 on Monday 22 April 2024.
It is anticipated that interviews will be held no sooner than Wednesday 24 April at our Stirling office.
Applications Manager
Job title: Applications Manager
Location: Flexible - Any Care Inspectorate office
Salary: £55,530 - £61,314
Hours: 35 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
About the role
Due to career progression, a permanent vacancy has arisen within our IT service delivery team.
The applications manager is a hands-on role, leading a multi-disciplinary team to deliver the planning, software development, integrations, implementation, release and on-going support of our applications, with a support model that ensures the delivery of service standards to agreed service levels, and leading the development of digital standards through continual service improvement.
About you
You will be educated to SCQF level 9 (e.g. IT degree or graduate qualification in a Software Engineering or related field), with work experience of leading digital/software development in medium-to-large-scale public sector projects. Also, you will be familiar with cloud-based application and development platforms.
You will be able to evidence extensive firsthand work experience of:
- Strong technical expertise in application development, coupled with a comprehensive grasp of computer systems and databases.
- Possess analytical skills to identify and troubleshoot issues, utilizing problem-solving abilities to find solutions and determine root causes designing, building and delivering working solutions to meet customer needs.
- Leading software development and application support teams
- High attention to detail and accuracy with excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills across all levels in an organisation
- Ability to multitask in a fast-paced environment to deliver effective outcomes/targets on time.
- A range of application development technologies.
- Formal Project Management methodologies (for example Agile, Prince2, etc.).
About us
We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.
We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.
Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We are moving towards an expectation that all staff will work collaboratively, within and across teams, in person, for approximately 40% of their working week.
Our headquarters is located in Dundee and due to the nature of delivery, it may be required to travel to Dundee or other Care Inspectorate offices.
Next steps
You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.
If you would like more information or an informal chat about the role please contact Graeme Ferguson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please include a contact telephone number and times that would be best to reach you in your email.
If you believe that you are a suitable candidate for this post, please complete our online application form by 08:00 on Monday 15 July 2024*.
*Please note that if we receive a sufficient number of applications, the advert may close earlier on Monday 17 June.
It is anticipated that interviews will be held at our Hamilton office no sooner than 22 July 2024 (or after 27 June 2024 if the advert closes on the earlier date).
Tester
Role: Tester
Location: Flexible (any Care Inspectorate office)
Salary: £40,608 - £43,962
Hours: 35 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
About us
We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.
We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.
Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We are moving towards an expectation that all staff will work collaboratively, within and across teams, in person for a minimum number of days each week.
About the role
Our vision for IT and Digital Transformation is: Our stakeholders have access to the digital services they need to enable them to improve care service outcomes for every person in the community in Scotland. We are looking to recruit a number of roles that can support our organisation's business applications, working within a dedicated IT and transformation team.
We want your skills to help us develop and enhance our existing services which support operational colleagues. This is an exciting time as we aim to develop and enhance these existing services through and blended agile and traditional approach to delivery. When you join us in this important role you’ll support the Digital Transformation team by contributing towards the overall planning, control and delivery of testing, test data, resources and tools. For example, you might work on the review of observation records, monitor the status and resolution of any defects raised, manage test coverage and traceability, and contribute to test readiness reviews. You’ll also oversee the delivery of end-to-end test plans, managing all activities in the plans to ensure that the acceptance criteria of new feature development is of the highest quality.
This is an exciting opportunity to work with a great team delivering digital services which will improve how we support scrutiny, assurance and improvement for people who experience care in Scotland.
About you
You will have strong exploratory testing experience using test charters to focus test sessions. You will also have experience of testing web applications including aspects such as SQL skills, automated testing, multi-browser, accessibility, regression and usability testing.
You will be educated to degree level or hold equivalent relevant experience. You will also have strong analytical and trouble shooting skills, excellent communication skills and the ability to work under pressure and meet targets.
We are looking for the right candidate who is Scotland based due to collaboration and wellbeing support as part of the delivery process.
Next steps
You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.
For an informal discussion, please contact Stuart MacKenzie, Head of Transformation, by email in the first instance This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you believe that you are a suitable candidate for this post, please download and complete an application form and equal opportunities form and submit it by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 08:00 on Monday 29 January 2024.
It is anticipated that interviews will take place at our Stirling office no sooner than Tuesday 6 February.
Personal Assistant
Role: Personal Assistant
Location: Flexible – Any Care Inspectorate office
Salary: £27,696 - £30,357
Hours: 35 hours per week
Contract: Temporary (to 31 March 2025)
About us
The Care Inspectorate is the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.
We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services, and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.
Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We are moving towards an expectation that all staff will work collaboratively, within and across teams, in person, for approximately 40% of their working week.
The Care Inspectorate offers a range of great benefits in addition to hybrid working and you can find out about them here on our website.
About the role
The Strategy and Improvement Directorate is focused on helping to improve outcomes for people who use care services in Scotland. We are looking to recruit a Personal Assistant, reporting to the Executive Support Officer, to provide high quality, confidential PA support to the Executive Director. The Executive Director leads teams in delivering complex projects. This role will form a key part of the Executive Director’s leadership team and will provide ad-hoc administrative support to that team.
This role will include checking and prioritising the Executive Director’s email correspondence and meeting invitations; developing and administering a system for dealing with enquiries and composing responses to routine correspondence and co-ordination of the Executive Director’s diary by arranging meetings, events, booking venues, and organising hospitality for visitors as necessary. The role will also cover the preparation of agendas and paperwork for meetings, minute-taking and monitoring of action records.
About you
You will have experience of providing PA support to senior management in a fast-paced change environment. You are highly organised and able to plan and manage your time and workstreams efficiently and effectively. You understand that priorities and deadlines can change quickly and you respond flexibly and effectively. You will have a proactive approach and be confident in using your own initiative. Your attention to detail is meticulous and you have a clear commitment to maintaining high standards. You are a great team worker and able to build and maintain good working relationships. You will have excellent word processing and IT skills with experience of Microsoft applications. You will also have experience of diary management and minute taking.
Next steps
You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.
If you would like more information or an informal chat about the role please contact Claire Brown (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Please include a contact telephone number and times that would be best to reach you in your email.
If you believe that you are a suitable candidate for this post, please complete our online application form by 08:00 on Monday 10 June 2024.
It is anticipated that interviews will be held at our Stirling office on 27 June 2024.
Safe Staffing Adviser
Role: Safe Staffing Adviser – Safe Staffing Programme
Location: Any Care Inspectorate office (hybrid working is currently trialled)
Salary: £45,102 - £49,881 plus excellent benefits
Hours: 140 hours over 4 weeks
Contract: Temporary / Secondment until 31 March 2024
About us
We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices. We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.
About the role
The Health & Care (Staffing) (Scotland) 2019 legislation will impact on social care services that support children and adults when it is enacted in April 2024.
We are commissioned by Scottish Government to promote safe, high-quality services and appropriate staffing across all social care settings. We are looking to recruit Safe Staffing Advisers to join our Safe Staffing Programme.
The programme team works with key partners to provide support to care services, and the Care Inspectorate, in preparation for changes to the statutory basis for the provision of appropriate staffing in all care settings.
We are looking for experienced, enthusiastic and highly motivated social care professionals to support this national programme. If you are passionate about supporting quality improvement for people experiencing or working in care services, we want to hear from you.
About you
You will bring an improvement perspective, be confident and have the ability to build relationships and influence others.
Educated to degree level, you will have experience of working within children or adult care services. The diversity of our work requires an adaptable approach that can be applied to any setting including early learning and childcare, children and young people and adult services.
You will also have experience in successfully using improvement tools and methods and have excellent communication skills.
You will be experienced in developing, supporting and delivering learning to a variety of groups and individuals is preferable.
You understand the importance of involving people experiencing care in quality improvement initiatives.
To apply
You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.
If you would like any further information, or an informal chat, please contact Stephanie Thom, Programme Team Lead via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Please download and complete an application form and an equalities monitoring form and return by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by no later than 8am on Monday 5 June 2023.
It is anticipated that interviews will take place on Wednesday 21 June 2023.
Registrations
Time limited conditions expiration (Added 25 September 2020)
We are aware that many of you will have time limited conditions that were applied to your existing registration, to allow you to provide care services in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of these time limited conditions will be due to expire soon. We would like to remind you that if you wish to extend or amend the previous agreement (as detailed in the time limited condition), you are required to submit a variation for assessment.
This can be done through eForms.
If you no longer require the time limited condition, and wish for this to be removed from your registration certificate, please submit a variation for its removal.
Deferment of continuation of Registration Fees (added 8 April 2020)
The Care Inspectorate and Scottish Government recognise the financial and other pressures that providers of care services are currently under. To support service providers and assist with alleviating cash flow problems service providers are encountering at this difficult time the Care Inspectorate will delay the collection of continuation of registration fees due by care services until July 2020. We will review this position again in June 2020 before any fee collections are made.
This will mean care service providers need not pay any balance of the fees due for the 2019/20 financial year until July 2020.
Service providers normally due to receive fee invoices in April 2020 will not receive an invoice for the 2020/21 financial year until July 2020 (position subject to review in June 2020).
We are happy to make arrangements with service providers that would prefer not to defer the balance of 2019/20 fees. We are issuing more detailed guidance directly to care service providers.
Staffing in services during coronavirus outbreak (updated 20 March 2020)
Child to adult ratios feature in our registration and inspection of early learning and childcare (ELC). However, for other service types, including care homes, the Care Inspectorate stopped issuing staffing schedules at the point of registering a service in 2018. Instead, we expect the staffing numbers, and skills and experience of staff to reflect the needs of people who use services.
At this extremely challenging time, we will support all services in their need to apply flexibility and judgement around staffing to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people using the service. We recognise that services will need to be creative and make use of a wider range of resources. This could potentially include staff from other public services and volunteers. We recognise that this will mean services may not be able to undertake all normal recruitment checks as quickly and easily as they did before.
However, during this period it is important that providers put in place structures to support and oversee staff in their role, including any volunteers and unregistered staff. The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is responsible for registering the social care workforce. People can work in registrable roles for a period of 12 months without being registered, which enables services to adopt a flexible approach.
This highlights the six-month period after starting work to obtain registration. This applies to:
- new staff you might recruit
- workers covering other roles due to staff shortages
- students who seek work to help with shortages.
About Us
Inspector - Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) (0)
The early learning and childcare expansion…
Role: Inspector - Early Learning and Childcare (ELC)
Location: Forth Valley, Borders, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh & Glasgow
Salary: £31,083 - £39,069 plus excellent benefits
Hours: 140 hours to be worked over a 4-week period
Contract: Permanent or 2-year secondment (would be considered)
Join us and make a difference – for you, for everyone
It’s our job to ensure care for everyone, everywhere in Scotland is as good as it can be. If you are as passionate about high-quality care as we are, and you’re experienced in your field, we’d love to hear from you.
About us
As a national scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect care services and partnerships across Scotland, report on the quality of care people experience, and support improvements in services to facilitate improvements in outcomes for people.
We inspect care services individually. We also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in local areas.
We champion high-quality care whenever we encounter it across the thousands of inspections, we carry out each year, and we work closely with all care providers to support them to improve all the time. We collaborate with other organisations too, supporting improvement across public services. Our work plays a big role in reducing health and social inequalities between people and communities.
We are looking for talented people to join us in making a difference - specialists who understand how to put people’s needs, rights and choices at the heart of delivering social services – and how to lead improvement too. Our 600 staff work with services across the public, voluntary and private sectors. We have offices across Scotland and many of our staff work from home.
About you
Whether early or established in your career, you will share our determination that care, social work and justice services should work well for people – every time. You’ll be confident about what good-quality care looks like and how to deliver it. You’ll be good at analysing information and evidence. You will have excellent writing skills for narrative inspection reports that are clear, concise and focused on outcomes. You will be confident in working with a wide range of people and at supporting and advising on improvement.
You’ll currently be working, or have significant experience in, social care, social work, health, children’s services, early learning, child protection, or community learning and development. You will be registered or eligible to register with a professional body like the SSSC, NMC or GTC.
About the role
Our care inspectors work with care services: childminders, nurseries, care homes, care at home, housing support and a host of other specialist services. A specialist in your field, you may have helped lead a service and have a strong track record in delivering quality. You’ll be adept at leading improvement and influencing others. You will work with people experiencing care, and care service providers, managers and staff.
Why join us?
We strive to be a great employer, knowing that competitive salary, leave and pension schemes are only part of that. We pride ourselves on the values we hold, person-centred; fairness; respect; efficiency and integrity - all supported with a culture of care and kindness.
We believe in collective leadership and innovation. You’ll have a lot of autonomy to manage your own work and use the professional skills you’ve honed during your career – but in new ways. Starting on day one, our learning and development support will help you become confident in the craft of scrutiny and in supporting improvement. Because a lot of your role is about sharing effective practice across Scotland, the impact you can have on experiences and outcomes for people is significant. You will draw on management and leadership skills you’ve developed in the past.
We’re proud to be a progressive, supportive employer – we’re happy to talk about flexible working with you and we’re members of the Disability Confident Scheme, aiming to make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to the workplace.
New appointments will normally be placed on the minimum grade for the role; a higher starting salary may be offered in exceptional circumstances only.
ELC expansion
The Scottish Government is committed to expanding the provision of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) from 600 hours to 1140 hours per year by 2020. The expansion of ELC is aimed to support the reduction in the poverty-related attainment gap and improve long term outcomes for children and families.
Due to the ELC expansion programme we are looking for 7 further ELC Inspectors in addition to the “business as usual” Inspector campaign launched recently.
Principles and aims
The priority for the expansion to 1140 hours is to improve children's outcomes and close the poverty-related attainment gap. In addition, the expansion aims to support parents into work, study or training. The Scottish Government's four principles of the ELC expansion are: quality, flexibility, affordability, and accessibility.
The Scottish Government has stated that quality is 'at the heart' of the expansion and that achieving a high-quality ELC experience for children is a key objective.
Use and provision
A 2018 survey found that the main reason why parents use funded ELC is that they consider it beneficial for their child's learning and development. In addition, parents reported using the funded hours to either work, increase the number of hours they work, or look for work.
Funded ELC in Scotland is delivered by a wide range of providers including nurseries, crèches and playgroups, from across the public, private and third sectors. A small number of childminders also deliver funded ELC, but the Scottish Government hopes this number will increase under the expansion to 1140 hours.
Criteria to apply
- We require you to hold a relevant qualification (minimum SCQF Level 9), register with either the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) or any other relevant professional body and undertake PVG checks.
- You must also be prepared to do a Professional Development Award in Scrutiny and Improvement (Social Services) at SCQF level 10 with appropriate support from the organisation.
- You will have a minimum of three years recent and demonstrable management experience in a relevant field. You must also be willing to travel with overnight stays as required.
Before you apply
- Please contact the relevant body directly to resolve any queries you have regarding registration or eligible qualifications for registration (SSSC, NMC and so on) before submitting your application.
- For an informal chat about the job role, please contact (Who?) You or Kim Connolly, Team Manager on 07766133161
- For all other queries, please contact Human Resources at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To apply
- If you are interested, please see the minimum criteria to apply as an Inspector and the specific guidance and directions to apply. Thereafter, click on the gateway questions link to apply.
- Your completed application form (campaign number C39 only forms) and equal opportunities form should be returned to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.no later than Monday, 14 October 2019 at 8.00am.
- We anticipate that selection days will take place in the week commencing Monday, 18 November 2019.