Covid Winter Support Webinars

The Care Inspectorate are inviting you to participate in a series of Covid Winter Support Webinars.

This three level approach will support both care homes for older people and care at home services to prepare for the challenges of winter in a Covid-19 context.

Individual service specific webinars will be delivered initially by region and will begin in mid-November 2020.

All care home and care at home services will receive an invite to the webinars in due course.

Level 1 content: 1-hour webinars

• Sign posting to Covid-19 and infection control specific resources taken from national guidance and simplified by the Care Inspectorate into a one stop shop for adult social care.
• Share the learning from frequently asked questions (FAQs) from services.

Level 2 content: 1.5-hour webinars

• Review key question 7 from the quality framework for care homes – How good is our care and support during the Covid-19 pandemic?
• Introduce key question 7 from the quality framework for care at home – How good is our care and support during the Covid-19 pandemic?
• Share the new Care Inspectorate Covid-19 self-evaluation and improvement planning tool for care homes for older people and care at home

Level 3 content:

• Looking at specific topics, resources and guidance based on the themes identified by the sector and Care Inspectorate intelligence, as highlighted in the recent letter to services from our Chief Executive Peter Macleod.

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.  

Staying up to date and getting in touch

Operating your care service

All services

Adult and older people services

Children and young people services

All services 

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, visit our Covid-19 information pages and the guidance links on this page.

Relaxation on adult to child ratios removed from 28 February (Added 24 February 2022)

Like all services, early learning and childcare settings were operating under unprecedented circumstances due to the pandemic. The Omicron variant was extremely challenging, particularly in terms of staffing.

To support continued delivery of safe, high-quality childcare for children and families we temporarily adjusted our policy position on adult to child ratios and introduced a new notification. This relaxation of adult to child ratios was used by very few settings as high-quality experiences for children and the wellbeing of your staff was paramount.

We have continued to monitor staff absence and Covid-19 cases across the sector and the current impact of Omicron has reduced. We are therefore removing the relaxation on adult to child ratios as of Monday 28 February. From this date, the linked notification will no longer be available for submission.

We will continue to monitor the impact of the pandemic on settings and where changes can be made to support the continued delivery of high quality childcare we will consider any options to support the sector through pandemic recovery.

Inspection of early learning and childcare Settings (Added 24 February 2022)

Due to the impact of Omicron, we suspended our usual inspection programme except for those settings that were identified as high risk. We have been monitoring the progression of the pandemic and the impact on services and the wider community alongside the Government’s Strategic Framework.  The new staged approach to easing protective measures will help Scotland manage and recover from the ongoing pandemic.  In line with this new phase, we have decided to expand our inspection programme from 7 March 2022 using risk and intelligence.

We will prioritise inspections by considering in the first instance: settings that have not been inspected since registered; and where an inspection has not taken place within the frequency model. Risk and intelligence, including regulatory history and previous evaluations, will also be considered to identify settings for inspection.

The impact of the pandemic is still relevant across society including the early learning and childcare sector. Our inspection activity will be focused on the continuing health and wellbeing of children and the setting’s current priorities and improvement plan. Working with practitioners, we will take account of the impact of the pandemic and identify actions where needed for improvement in the quality of children’s health and wellbeing.

Inspections will gather evidence on the impact of the pandemic and help us identify any national areas for focusing improvement support. We will work with local authorities through our inspectors and relationship managers to co-ordinate support for improvements across the sector.

We will remain vigilant and are committed to carrying out our inspections safely, and we take our responsibility to the welfare of children and staff in your service seriously.  We will continue to reduce if appropriate the time we need to spend in your setting  and carry out some activities remotely, such as interviews with staff or parents wherever possible.

We recognise challenges across the sector will continue for some time to come and we remain committed to supporting the sector to provide high-quality care and learning for all of Scotland’s children.

Updated guidance on self-isolation exemption (Added 18 January 2022)

The Scottish Government has updated the self-isolation exemption guidance for health and social care staff. The updated guidance will be shown on this webpage in due course: Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates

The guidance means that staff who are identified as contacts and are fully vaccinated no longer need to undertake a PCR test before returning to work. They should take an LFD test instead. If the LFD test is negative and they don’t have a fever or other symptoms, they can continue to work following a risk assessment by their line manager. They should also continue to take an LFD test every day for a 10-day period.

The guidance clarifies that staff who test positive should pause their workplace LFD testing for 28 days (from day 1 of symptom onset or asymptomatic test date). If they are also required to PCR test weekly, they should also pause this for a period of 90 days.  Please note that the guidance highlights that the likelihood of a positive LFD test in the absence of a high temperature after 10 days is low, so further testing is not advised unless they have renewed symptoms.

The Scottish Government will produce a flowchart and FAQ document in the coming days to support the guidance.

Updated policy on self-isolation for social care workers (Added 6 January 2022)

Scottish Government has issued an updated policy framework setting out self-isolation guidance for health and social care staff. This is as a result of changes to the Covid-19 self-isolation guidance for the general population, which applies from 6 January, following the First Minister’s announcement on 5 January.

The policy framework sets out the conditions that will enable health and social care staff who are Covid-19 index cases (confirmed as positive cases), or contacts of a positive Covid-19 case to exit isolation early, in line with updated guidance for the general population.

As health and social care workers provide care and support to people for whom a Covid-19 infection can present a higher level of risk, additional safeguards will continue for care staff. These include testing regimes, infection prevention and control measures and personal protective equipment. This updated framework replaces the previous version dated 24 December 2021.

Letters to care homes and letter to housing settings (Added 20 December)

The Scottish Government has issued two letters following the First Minister’s Parliamentary Covid-19 statement relating to further population based guidance and measures to take effect from midnight on 17 December to stem the flow of transmission of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.

The first letter contains updated advice on adult care home visiting. The second letter contains updated guidance on visiting and social activities within supported housing settings.

Visiting in adult care homes updated in light of Omicron (Added 16 December)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to adult care homes, setting out updated guidance on visits in and out of adult care homes. This guidance follows the First Minister’s parliamentary Covid-19 statement of 14 December relating to further population-based guidance and measures to take effect from midnight on Friday 17 December to stem the flow of transmission of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.

The letter emphasises that visiting and outings from care homes should continue to be supported and the measures that should continue to be in place to more safely enable these. This includes stringent IPC, testing and recommendations to limit the number of households that meet with a resident at any one time to a maximum of two households.

You can read the letter here.

Supporting visiting over the festive season (Added 8 December)

We acknowledge care services’ continued commitment to care for people with compassion and dignity. We recognise the complex and difficult circumstances that care homes in Scotland have been operating under during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the recent emergence of the Omicron variant.

Over the festive season, it is important that residents and their families can celebrate together. We expect care homes to support normalised visiting during the festive season so that residents have meaningful contact with their family and friends.

Effective infection prevention and control measures are essential to minimise the risk of transmission of Covid-19 and protect vulnerable residents.

• Staff must wear fluid resistant surgical masks (FRSM) over the nose and mouth at all times.
• Staff must maintain physical distant from others except when personal care or other tasks require closer contact.
• Robust hand hygiene practice is essential and includes hand washing and the use of hand sanitiser at key moments. See Five moments for hand hygiene.
• Rooms must be well ventilated by opening windows, whenever possible.
• Managers must ensure staff have read and are familiar with the winter respiratory guidance to support effective measures and minimise the risk of transmission.
• Carrying out risk assessment and quality assurance supports high-quality compliance with infection prevention and control measures.
  • Staff must follow the current Scottish Government travel guidance including car sharing when travelling to and from the service or the homes of people they provide care to.
  • Support staff to protect themselves, residents and the public by getting the Covid-19 vaccination and booster. Book the vaccination online.
  • Continue to follow the testing regime as detailed in the social care testing guidance.

We acknowledge concerns about visiting, particularly with the new Omicron variant. However, any concerns must be balanced with the human rights of residents, which must be at the heart of decisions about visiting arrangements. Blanket decisions to restrict or prevent visiting are not acceptable or appropriate. Such decisions should only be in place at the explicit request of the local public health team. See Open with Care.

If your care home is experiencing difficulty meeting visiting requirements, please contact your inspector who can offer support and assistance. Our Covid-19 webpages are a good source of further information and guidance to support services. You can also get support from your local oversight team.

Care Inspectorate

8 December 2021

Covid-19: advice for pregnant employees (Added 23 November)

The British Government has updated guidance for those who are pregnant and working as an employee. This includes pregnant healthcare professionals and is applicable in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has issued a letter which summarises these changes. 

Supporting short notice recruitment and deployment (Added 16 November)

In light of ongoing staffing problems due to Covid-19, the Care Inspectorate is maintaining current flexibility that allows providers to deploy staff before satisfactory recruitment checks are returned.  Providers are reminded of the importance of ensuring that all appointments are risk assessed and that staff with pending checks are mentored and supervised at all times. 

Similarly, the Care Inspectorate and SSSC are continuing to allow greater flexibility regarding staff being temporarily deployed to work in different types of care service. Staff are usually registered by the SSSC for a particular type of care service and need to make a separate application in order to work in a different setting. 

Under the current circumstances, providers can now recruit and deploy SSSC registrants flexibly across different service types in order to fill gaps in staffing directly caused by Covid-19.

Opening with care beyond Level 0

Scottish Government have issued two letters – one for care homes and one for care at home services - on opening up visiting now we are at Level 0. The letters outline expectations of services and include links to guidance that services should follow.

You can read the letter for care homes here.

You can read the letter for care at home services here. 

Exemption of fully vaccinated social care staff from isolation in exceptional circumstances (Added 26 July 2021)

The Scottish Government has agreed that in extremis, where criteria is met, double vaccinated social care staff who are self-isolating can voluntarily return to work. 

This will include staff who have been contacted as a close contact of a case of Covid-19 by NHS Test and Protect, or advised to self-isolate by the NHS Scotland covid app.

The decision has been taken in response to social care services/providers asking for the measure to ease critical staff pressures and support safe services.

You can find out more and access related checklists and factsheets on the Scottish Government website.

Day care for adults (as Covid-19 restrictions ease) (Added 15 July 2021)

In March 2021, when the pandemic began, it was acknowledged that the registration and variation processes were crucial to ensuring that services met the needs of service users. We anticipated that this may have required exceptional measures to enable the care and support to those affected or impacted by the spread of the virus. We therefore adopted contingency approaches to support services to continue to deliver care to service users during the pandemic. As we move through and out of the pandemic the reopening of day care of adults services requires some providers to review services and consider long term service delivery. We will continue to work with providers collaboratively to support good outcomes for people who use services.

As a result of those flexible contingency arrangements some support services providing day care for adults had a condition altered or added to their certificate of registration to enable them to provide support to people in their own homes. These were agreed for a time limited period only. Variations were generally given for a period of 6 months. Many services further extended their time limited condition for another 6 months as the pandemic continued.

Current Expectations

As Covid-19 restrictions lift and day care services for adults begin to open again, these time limited conditions will expire. It is acknowledged that some providers have found this element of provision beneficial to people who use their service. If providers want to continue to deliver a care at home service provision as was stated in the time limited condition, they will require to apply to do so.

If a service meets the single service criteria they should apply through the variation process; if the service does not meet the single service criteria the provider should apply for a new registration. The single service criteria is detailed in the Dispersed Services guidance available here.

Conditions will be applied to reflect the service provision as a part of that service delivery. If providers subsequently decide they don’t want to continue providing both day care of adults and care at home they can apply, through the variation process, to have whichever part of the service they don’t want to provide removed from the conditions.

Services who wish to continue providing both sub-categories (day care and care at home) will be expected to provide updated aims and objectives for the service and evidence that policies and procedures reflect all parts of the service provision (as we would have expected pre-pandemic).

Services providing care at home will be subject to the inspection frequency for care at home and staff will be required to register with the SSSC.  Temporary Covid-19 legislation allows workers up to 12 months to gain registration (formerly 6 months) but staff should be supported to apply within reasonable timescales to ensure they achieve registration within the 12 month deadline. 

You can find out more information about SSSC registration requirements here.

Restrictions to staff movement – update on the guidance (Added 6 July 2021)

The Scottish Government Adult Social Care Winter Plan for 20-21 recommended restricted staff movement across social care settings to limit transmission of Covid-19.  With the range of protections now in place, care homes can exercise discretion to relax the restrictions on staff movement safely. As a result, Sustainability Funds available to support additional costs of restricting staff movement were withdrawn from 30 June 2021.

It remains the case that minimising staff movement across social care settings helps limit virus transmission, and continuity of staffing promotes better care quality and experience.  These should be key considerations in workforce planning.

Health Protection Scotland guidance remains unchanged and up to date:

HPS Website - Covid-19 - information and guidance for care home settings (scot.nhs.uk)

Annex B of the guidance will be updated shortly. 

Effective Covid-19 care home staff PCR testing (Added 27 May 2021)

NHS Scotland has produced a list of best practice tips for Covid-19 PCR testing for staff. The list aims to improve process and reduce errors.

Advice card – ventilation advice for everyone at work (Added 27 May 2021)

The Scottish Government has issued a new sector advice card with ventilation advice for everyone at work. You can find this, and all previous sector advice cards, here.

Updated guidance for repurposing prescription only medicines (POMs) in care homes and hospices during the Covid-19 pandemic (added 18 May 2021)

We have updated our guidance for repurposing prescription only medicines (POMs) in care Homes and hospices during the Covid-19 pandemic. The guidelines for repurposing prescription medicines have been extended for one more year alongside a recommendation to keep small quantities of medicines.

Symptomatic childcare testing programme - letter to ELC and SAC settings (added 11 May 2021)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) and School-aged Childcare (SAC) settings which are participating in the asymptomatic childcare testing programme.

The letter requests services' help in promoting the key elements of the programme and in
identifying areas for improvements through a survey.

Please continue routine regimes for asymptomatic testing (added 4 May 2021)

Testing does not change with the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine. Even after social care staff have received the vaccination, asymptomatic routine staff testing should continue to happen, and government advice and FACTS should still be followed.

The vaccine does not interfere with the Covid-19 test. The current vaccines have demonstrated a high level of protection against coronavirus but no vaccine provides 100% immunity. Vaccination reduces your risk of developing coronavirus and your symptoms are likely to be milder if you do get it. The duration of effectiveness of the vaccines remains unknown so further doses may be necessary in future. 

Testing continues to be important because it can identify cases even where people have no symptoms, so they are able to self-isolate and protect others. Asymptomatic testing protects people experiencing care and care staff colleagues and it is an important part of protecting against Covid-19 alongside other infection prevention and control measures, including PPE, physical distancing as appropriate, and remaining vigilant for symptoms.

Scottish Government is reviewing the asymptomatic staff testing strategy specifically in care homes, to take account of improvements in community prevalence. It is likely that testing in some form will remain but it is likely to be reduced. More details will follow soon.

More information:

Care Inspectorate information about testing

Coronavirus (Covid-19): Advice for key workers | NHS inform

Guidance for school age childcare services (added 27 April 2021)

For the attention of school age childcare services

The Scottish Government has published updated guidance to support the return of secondary age children to school age childcare settings.

From 12 April 2021 secondary age children have been able to return to school full-time. To align with this return, secondary age children can return to regulated school age childcare settings - subject to the following mitigation measures:

• Secondary age children should maintain a 2m distance from other secondary age children and from adults in order to reduce risks of transmission 
• To align with the guidance for secondary age pupils in school, children of secondary age should wear face coverings indoors

You can find the full updated guidance for school age childcare services here.

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. Find out how we will be inspecting here.

Letter for all childminders (added 27 April 2021)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all childminders with an update on expanded access to testing which childminders may wish to undertake.

Letter for all day care of children providers (added 27 April 2021)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all day care of children providers containing an update on reporting any issues with testing including deliveries. The letter also reiterates important key points about the asymptomatic testing programme.

Update to school age childcare guidance - return of secondary age children (added 21 April 2021) 

The Scottish Government has published updated guidance to support the return of secondary age children to school age childcare settings.

From 12 April, secondary age children have been able to return to school full-time. To align with this return, secondary age children can return to regulated school age childcare settings, subject to the following mitigation measures:

• Secondary age children should maintain a 2m distance from other secondary age children and from adults in order to reduce risks of transmission

• To align with the guidance for secondary age pupils in school, children of secondary age should wear face coverings indoors

You can find the full updated guidance for school age childcare services here.

Key changes in the latest guidance are as noted above.

Open for Care - Visiting health, social care and other services in care homes and communal activity (added 14 April 2021)

The Scottish Government has provided updated advice for care homes on visiting professionals and communal activities.

Updated guidance for the regulation of guardianship arrangements in boarding schools (added 13 April 2021)

We have updated our guidance for the regulation of guardianship arrangements in boarding schools. The updated version includes guidance on home visits. 

Scottish Covid-19 Community Health and Care Settings Infection Prevention and Control Addendum (Added 8 April 2021)

The Scottish Covid-19 Care Home and Community Health and Care Settings Infection Prevention and Control Addendum is now available. You can access it on the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual website.

Letter to all ELC and School-aged childcare settings (Added 6 April 2021)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all ELC and School-aged childcare settings with an update on routine asymptomatic testing for staff.

Scottish Covid-19 testing support helpline (Added 1 April)

The Scottish Covid-19 testing support helpline is now part of a portfolio of helpline services offered by The National Contact Tracing Centre (NCTC). 

Issues and queries may be submitted to the Scottish COVID Testing Support Helpline:

• Directly on 0800 008 6587 from 09:00 to 17:00 every day
• Electronically via support button on www.covidtestingportal.scot at any time

 Our position on opening for visiting in care homes and supporting essential visiting (added 1 April 2021)

People must be able and supported to have meaningful contact with loved ones and, now that the vaccination programme in care homes is well underway, it is right that care homes open again to visitors. People’s rights and needs must be the focus of decision making.

To help care homes, the Scottish Government has published Open with Care and we strongly support this. Open with Care is guidance that clearly sets out how care homes can welcome visitors safely with the appropriate measures in place.

We fully expect every care home to facilitate visiting and implement Open with Care. Having visits is essential for wellbeing and good mental health.

Read our statement in full here.

Funding for school age childcare providers (added 23 March 2021)

The Scottish Government has announced up to £3 million of dedicated funding through the next round of the Temporary Restrictions Fund (TRF).  This is targeted solely at providers of school aged childcare following the full reopening of nurseries and other early learning and childcare (ELC) settings.

School age childcare providers, including childminders registered to provide care for 12 or more children, will be able to access a support grant for each week in which they are open.  Grants will vary depending on their capacity and how many weeks the setting was open. 

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to registered school age childcare providers with informamtion on how to apply. 

Applications will open on 7 April 2021 and close on 4 May 2021. 

In addition, all registered settings, whether open or closed, will be able to claim a restart grant to support reopening following the end of restrictions. 

Childminding business sustainability fund: now open to applications (added 11 March 2021)

On 9 February the Scottish Government confirmed that additional funding would be made available in order to increase the Childminding Business Sustainability Fund to £3.2 million.

The increased funding allows the Scottish Government to provide a £750 business sustainability grant to all childminding services who are registered with the Care Inspectorate as of 1 February 2021.

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to registered childminders with information on how to apply. 

Applications open on 11 March and will close at midnight on 17 March, you have 7 days to submit your application, after this the application window will be closed and no late applications will be possible.

Letter to all registered school age childcare providers (Added 2 March 2021)

Today the First Minister confirmed that, following a continued suppression of the coronavirus figures, regulated school age childcare settings can re-open to all primary school children from 15 March alongside the return of P4-7 children as part of the phase 2 return. The plans are conditional on continued progress on suppressing coronavirus (Covid-19).

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all registered school age childcare providers with more information. 

Letter to daycare of children services: update on the temporary restrictions fund (Added 2 March 2021)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all registered daycare of children services with an update on the Temporary Restrictions Fund.

This letter provides details of Round 2 of the Fund covering the four week period from 1 February – 26 February 2021.

Supporting short notice recruitment and deployment (Added 28 January 2021)

The Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council have issued a joint statement to support short notice recruitment and redeployment of staff by employers:

To support providers, who are reporting significant numbers of staff needing to self-isolate at short notice as a result of Covid-19, we’d like to reiterate the position on short notice recruitment and redeployment of staff to maintain levels of care and support.

We are continuing to apply the following.

• Providers can deploy staff while awaiting the outcome of recruitment checks. Providers are reminded they must carry out a risk assessment and staff whose checks are pending should be mentored and supervised at all times.
• Staff can work in a service for up to 12 months without being registered with the SSSC. This means new staff don’t have to register straight away and staff registered on one part of the Register can be redeployed into roles that fall into other Register parts. In these circumstances, providers should carry out an individual risk assessment and ensure an appropriate level of induction is given.
• If a member of staff is not registered on a relevant part of the register within the 12 month period and there are exceptional circumstances, this may be considered a ‘reasonable excuse’ which may allow the worker to continue working. For example, a provider may temporarily promote a worker to cover an absence, such as a secondment of another employee but may not know whether the period will extend beyond a year.

PVGs

Disclosure Scotland advise that if providers have had no response from them about PVGs within 14 days, you should highlight the case details immediately to their operations management via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and they will take action as a priority.

The Care Inspectorate and the SSSC will review these temporary measures on an ongoing basis and tell providers when they change.   

Coronavirus (Covid-19): Visiting an adult care home (Added 7 January 2021)

Guidance for the safe visiting of adult care homes during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is available here. This NHS inform page provides advice and information for family and friends of people living in adult care homes.

Helping people you care for to have video calls (Added 23 December 2020)

This guidance for helping people you care for to have video calls outlines key points to think about and get right when you are supporting someone with a video call. It has been prepared by the Care Inspectorate along with SSPS, Scottish Care and COSLA after consultation with care home managers, clinicians and people receiving care.

Safety Huddle Tool – Turas Care Management (Added 21 August)

On Thursday the 13th August, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport announced that the Safety Huddle – Turas Care Management tool would launch on Friday 14 August 2020.  The Scottish Government has issued guidance on the tool which you can read here.

National pilot of secure video technology to connect residents and loved ones (Added 21 August)

The Scottish Government through the Technology Enabled Care programme is funding a 12-week pilot with ten care homes across the country. The pilot aims to measure the positive impact that short video updates might have for people living in care homes, their families and care home staff. 

Letter from Jeane Freeman (Added 4 August)

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeane Freeman, has issued a letter which contains an update on national actions to support local re-establishment of respite and day care services in Scotland. 

The letter also sets out next steps in the wider reopening of adult day centres and residential respite for both children and adults.

Registration and variation guidance for our staff (Added 31 July)

To support flexibility and responsiveness to the Covid-19 pandemic, we produced contingency registration and variation guidance for our staff to follow in March 2020. We have recently updated this guidance to reflect that we are now requesting fee payments for all new registration applications, and may, under certain circumstances, carry out a site visit. You can download the updated document here.

Fees update for care service providers: July 2020 (Added 17 July)

The Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Government decided in March 2020 to defer the collection of all continuation of registration fees due by care services until July 2020. This was to support service providers to focus on the immediate Covid-19 crisis.

Following a review, we will be recommencing fee collection with immediate effect for all services except childminding, daycare of children and childcare agency services.  We will confirm the position with these childcare service types by the end of July.

We will begin contacting individual services later today. In the meantime, find out what this means for your service in our fees update.

We will update childminding, daycare of children and childcare agency services once the position with fees due by these services is confirmed and agreed with the Scottish Government. 

Letter to all care home staff from Jeane Freeman (Added 24 June)

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeane Freeman, has issued the following letters to care home staff and care home managers regarding testing staff for Covid-19.

Enriched model of psychological needs (Added 23 June)           

Over the last few weeks, we have heard how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the mental health of people who use care services, relatives and staff. By isolating or shielding in order to protect ourselves and others, we limit our opportunities to engage with people or activities that are important to us. This can undermine our psychological wellbeing and quality of life.

We have produced a poster which outlines the key elements of the ‘Enriched Model of Psychological Needs’. This can be used within care services to help staff consider what actions they could take to help promote better psychological outcomes for the people who use services, relatives, staff and themselves.  

Covid-19 guides for social service workers (Added 17 June)

The Scottish Social Services Council have produced a range of 'bite-size' resources to support those working in healthcare during Covid-19. 

There are currently 9 guides that range from "key measures for infection prevention and control" to "support with death, dying and bereavement." 

Staffing during the Covid-19 crisis (Added 16 April) 

We’re working with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), the Scottish Government, COSLA and other partners to set up a system to help social care services recruit staff during this critical time. 

It’s important you remember to submit your RAG information to us. 

Social service staff are being added to the new SSSC recruitment portal daily and the SSSC will use this to assess services and match those in urgent need to care staff in your area. 

Find out more here. 

Scotland’s first Bereavement Charter for Children and Adults (added 15 April) 

The Charter together with Guidance notes and frequently asked questions (FAQs) contains 15 statements which describe what the best bereavement care and support should look like. It has been developed to support individuals and communities who struggle with the death of someone they know or someone in their community. 

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Adult and older people services 

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

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.

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

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)

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.

Booking systems and time restrictions for care home visits (Added 9 May)

It is our expectation that people who use services can see their friends and family at any time and without restriction.

We have received concerns about booking systems that some services are now operating and that are restricting the times when friends and family can visit. Families are telling us that some services request 72 hours’ notice before a visit, and some visits are being time limited. 

While we understand that a booking system may be required during an outbreak, this should be in place for the shortest possible time. Booking systems should not be required to visit people who live in care homes except when the service has an outbreak.

A few changes to visiting can make all the difference and we are here to help. If you want to discuss visiting or your home’s situation, please contact your inspector who will provide support and advice.

We heard from a care home manager about the positive improvements to visiting they were able to make.

Scottish Government issues letter to sector with new guidance on Covid symptoms in staff (Added 2 May 2022)

The Scottish Government issued a letter to services on Friday 29 April that sets out new guidance, active from today, as part of its Test and Protect transition plan.

You can read the letter here.

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

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. 

A few changes to visiting made all the difference – a care home manager shares their experience (Added 3 March 2022)

Getting visiting arrangements right can be challenging but our inspectors are here to support and advise care homes in a positive way. We heard from a care home manager recently about their experience and the positive outcomes that followed. We are grateful to them for allowing us to share their story, which you can read here.

If you have concerns about visiting arrangements, contact your inspector for advice.

Changes to self-isolation and visiting for adult care homes (Added 20 January 2022)

The Scottish Government has reviewed policy with Public Health Scotland and ARHAI Scotland and made updates outlined in a letter to the sector.

In summary, the updates are:

1. Self-isolation periods for residents who are contacts of Covid-19 positive case or are themselves Covid-19 positive has now changed from 14 days to 10 days.
2. Precautionary 14 days self-isolation of residents following discharge from hospital to a care homes has now been removed for residents on the non-respiratory pathway and has reduced from 14 to 10 days for residents on the respiratory pathway (the respiratory pathway is determined by the Respiratory Screening Tool as per the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual: Winter (21/22), Respiratory Infections in Health and Care Settings Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Addendum. To summarise, if you are on the respiratory pathway this means those that have answered ‘yes’ to the screening tool, that is they are Covid-19 positive or a close contact of someone who is Covid-19 positive within 10 days).
3. Removal of guidance on limiting the number of households that can visit a care home resident at any one time to two. This follows the First Minister’s announcement on changes to guidance for the general public.
4. Named visitors should be supported during outbreaks unless there are exceptional circumstances.
5. Named visitors who visit a resident who is Covid-19 positive can visit the resident again during their isolation period.

Further details on these changes including any conditions that may be attached to them are detailed in the letter. The Scottish Government webpages will be updated by the end of the week to fully reflect these changes and Public Health Scotland will update its guidance to incorporate these changes.

Winter respiratory infections in health and care settings: IPC Addendum (Added 21 October)

ARHAI Scotland (Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection) has produced infection prevention and control guidance for this coming winter on respiratory infections in health and care settings. The guidance recognises a surge is likely in respiratory viruses and infections in addition to Covid-19 over this winter season and it supersedes the three Covid-19 addenda for acute, care home, and community health and care settings first published in October 2020. 

The guidance is aligned with soon-to-be-published UK guidance Infection Prevention and Control for Seasonal Respiratory Infections in Health and Care settings including SARS-CoV-2 for Autumn Winter 2021/2022.

You can access the guidance and appendices with the following links:

• Winter (21/22), Respiratory Infections in Health and Care Settings, Infection Prevention and Control Addendum
• Appendix 17 (AGPs and Post AGP Fallow Times)
• Appendix 18 (Physical Distancing in health and care settings).

These documents are being issued to stakeholders to give advance notice of content and allow for implementation planning ahead of live launch on Monday 1 November 2021. 

The three current Covid-19 addenda will remain live and online until 1 November when they will be archived and the new guidance published. 

Letter from the Minister on re-opening of building-based days services for adults (Added 8 June)

Kevin Stewart, Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care has written to provide clarity for services on who has authority to sign off the risk assessments required for them to re-open. You can read the letter here.

Open for Care - Visiting health, social care and other services in care homes and communal activity (added 14 April)

The Scottish Government has provided updated advice for care homes on visiting professionals and communal activities.

Scottish Covid-19 Community Health and Care Settings Infection Prevention and Control Addendum (Added 8 April)

The Scottish Covid-19 Care Home and Community Health and Care Settings Infection Prevention and Control Addendum is now available. You can access it on the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual website.

Our position on opening for visiting in care homes and supporting essential visiting (added 1 April)

People must be able and supported to have meaningful contact with loved ones and, now that the vaccination programme in care homes is well underway, it is right that care homes open again to visitors. People’s rights and needs must be the focus of decision making.

To help care homes, the Scottish Government has published Open with Care and we strongly support this. Open with Care is guidance that clearly sets out how care homes can welcome visitors safely with the appropriate measures in place.

We fully expect every care home to facilitate visiting and implement Open with Care. Having visits is essential for wellbeing and good mental health.

Read our statement in full here.

Adult care homes: visiting guidance (added 25 February)

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

This guidance recommends that care homes now put in place the necessary arrangements to safely resume meaningful contact between care home residents and their loved ones.

Donna Bell, Director for Mental Health & Social Care, has issued a letter to care home providers explaining the new guidance and the steps to supporting

Adult social care workshop on trauma informed practice (Added 25 February)

The Improvement Service is hosting a free virtual event on trauma informed practice in the adult social care sector on 25 March 2021.

This workshop is open to all professionals in Scotland working to improve outcomes for people requiring adult social care in their local authority area who wish to learn more about trauma-informed practice, systems and services. This includes social care workers based in care homes, in the community, personal assistants, carer centre staff and social workers.

Covid-19 care home staff testing best practice (Added 25 February)

NHS National Services Scotland has created a document that highlights the best practice of Covid-19 care home staff testing.

Coronavirus (Covid-19): Visiting an adult care home (Added 7 January)

Guidance for the safe visiting of adult care homes during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is available here. This NHS inform page provides advice and information for family and friends of people living in adult care homes.

Webinar on Infection Prevention and Control/Covid-19 (Added 7 January)

NHS Education for Scotland invites all care home staff including agency staff to attend a webinar on Infection Prevention and Control/Covid-19.

The webinars will be delivered in January 2021. They are free and aim to provide staff with the key infection prevention and control information they will need to protect themselves and others in the care home setting.

Message to all staff, including EU and EEA citizens, working in social care in Scotland (Added 11 December)

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and the CoSLA Health and Social Care Spokesperson have issued a letter to the social care workforce.

The letter thanks them for their hard work in this unprecedented year, to reiterate to EU Citizen colleagues how valued they are and to encourage applications to the UK Government EU Settlement Scheme, and finally to highlight wellbeing support available to all social care staff.

Webinar on infection prevention and control / Covid-19 (Added 9 December)

NHS Education for Scotland is inviting all care home staff to attend a webinar on Infection Prevention and Control / Covid-19. Webinars will be delivered from December 2020 and more dates will be offered in January 2021. The webinars are free and aim to provide staff with key infection prevention and control information they will need to protect themselves and others in the care home setting.

You can find out more information on the webinars here. 

Re-opening day services for adults (Added 14 October)

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeane Freeman, has issued a letter regarding the re-opening of day services for adults.

The letter reiterates the importance of daytime support to people who need it and highlights that processes for signing off reopening plans should be well understood locally. 

Winter planning for care homes (Added 8 October)

Care Inspectorate chief executive Peter Macleod has written about winter planning during the pandemic in a letter for care home providers. You can read the letter here.

Care Home Staff Testing Feedback on DHSC Portal (Added 23 September)

A system is currently being developed to move care home staff testing in Scotland from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) portal to NHS Laboratory resources. In order to inform the process of development of and transitioning to the new system, care home providers and managers have been invited to provide feedback on their experience of using the current DHSC system and to to suggest improvements that could be made and to identify best practice you may have in place.

If you wish to participate in this feedback please complete this questionnaire and e-mail it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 5pm 30 September 2020. Please use the subject line: "Care Homes Staff Testing Questionnaire".

UK Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidance for the remobilisation of health and care services (Added 26 August)

The Scottish Government’s Chief Nursing Officer has issued a letter following the publication of UK-wide IPC guidance for the remobilisation of health and care services on Friday 21 August 2020.

The guidance has been issued jointly by Department of Health and Social Care, Health Protection Scotland, Public Health Scotland, Public Health Wales, Public Health Agency Northern Ireland, Public Health England and NHS England.

Phased return to visiting in adult care home services (Added 10 August)

On Saturday 8 August, the Scottish Government published updated guidance on the further relaxing of visiting in adult care homes. 

From Monday, 10 August, care home residents will be able to have up to three outdoor visitors from no more than two households provided their home meets strict criteria, with infection control measures remaining in place. 

Care home providers are also be asked to develop plans on how they can safely allow one designated indoor visitor for residents within their homes. These plans, which also must meet certain criteria, are to be submitted and signed off by the relevant health board’s Director of Public Health.

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to every adult care home in Scotland with further details of what this will mean for them which can be found here.

It confirms that care home residents will be able to receive more outdoor visitors from Monday, 10 August. From this date,  care home residents will be able to have up to three outdoor visitors from no more than two households provided their home meets strict criteria, with infection control measures remaining in place. 

Care home providers will also be asked to develop plans on how they can safely allow one designated indoor visitor for residents within their homes. These plans are to be submitted by 24 August and will be signed off by the relevant health board’s Director of Public Health.

Alzheimer Scotland’s new resources for care homes (Added 5 August)

Alzheimer Scotland has been working to respond to the main concerns expressed by callers to their 24-hour Freephone Dementia Helpline (0808 808 3000) and now have a suite of resources on their website’s Coronavirus Information Hub including podcasts and videos. A specific section provides information and resources for all those supporting people living with dementia in Scotland’s care homes.

NHS Highland guidance on nutrition (Added 21 July)

NHS Highland has produced guidance on nutrition for care homes in their area. You may find the guidance useful too and we have published them on our website. There is guidance on nutritional care for residents and guidance on nutrition and hydration for staff 

Guidance from Health Protection Scotland on Covid-19 in care homes (Added 14 July)

Health Protection Scotland has published guidance to support those working in domiciliary care settings to give advice to their staff and users of their services about Covid-19.

Care home visiting from 3 July - FAQs (Added 3 July)

On 25 June the Scottish Government published guidance and a plan for the phased return to care home visiting, starting with outdoor visiting on 3 July.

FAQs are now also available through the link above to support these visits. The FAQs will be reviewed and updated as the phased return to visiting progresses.

Dementia care during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic (Added 22 May) 

We have published a new resource ‘Dementia care during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic’ for care services to support them when caring for people living with dementia.  

New palliative care toolkit includes section on care homes (Added 11 May) 

The Scottish Government has produced a palliative care toolkit for application during the Covid-19 outbreak. While it is primarily aimed at NHS Boards, it includes a section on care homes. The toolkit does not replace existing palliative care processes and guidance documents but offers a range of practical tools to strengthen any local response to theCovid-19 pandemic.

Covid-19: updated information and guidance for care home settings (Updated 4 May 2020) 

Health Protection Scotland have updated their Covid-19 information and guidance for care home settings. You can access this guidance here. 

Covid-19 Incident or outbreak control tool for social or community care or residential settings (Added 1 May 2020) 

Health Protection Scotland have released a control measure tool for the control of incidents and outbreaks in Social or Community Care & Residential Settings, specific for Covid-19, and should be used accordingly, following the general advice provided in the guidance. 

Infection prevention and control Covid-19 outbreak checklist (Added 1 May 2020) 

Health Protection Scotland have released an infection prevention and control Covid-19 outbreak checklist. The checklist is designed for the control of incidents and outbreak in healthcare settings and can be used within a COVID area when there is an individual case or multiple cases. 

Updated guidance for social or community care and residential settings (updated 22 April 2020) 

Health Protection Scotland have updated their Covid-19 guidance for social or community care and residential settings.

Updated guidance for social or community care and residential settings (updated 6 April 2020) 

Health Protection Scotland have updated their guidance for social or community care and residential settings to include information about personal protective equipment (PPE). 

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Children and young people services 

National guidance

You can find links to the national guidance relevant to your service below:

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

Updated Guidance for childcare settings regarding Covid-19 (Added 17 March 2021)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all all registered childcare providers and childminders with an update on a unified approach across chldcare settings regarding routine protective measures and testing.

Updated guidance for the regulation of guardianship arrangements in boarding schools (added 13 April 2021)

We have updated our guidance for the regulation of guardianship arrangements in boarding schools. The updated version includes guidance on home visits. 

Letter to all ELC and School-aged childcare settings (Added 6 April 2021)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all ELC and School-aged childcare settings with an update on routine asymptomatic testing for staff.

Scottish Covid-19 testing support helpline (Added 1 April 2021)

The Scottish Covid-19 testing support helpline is now part of a portfolio of helpline services offered by The National Contact Tracing Centre (NCTC). 

Issues and queries may be submitted to the Scottish COVID Testing Support Helpline:

• Directly on 0800 008 6587 from 09:00 to 17:00 every day
• Electronically via support button on www.covidtestingportal.scot at any time

Funding for school age childcare providers (added 23 March 2021)

The Scottish Government has announced up to £3 million of dedicated funding through the next round of the Temporary Restrictions Fund (TRF).  This is targeted solely at providers of school aged childcare following the full reopening of nurseries and other early learning and childcare (ELC) settings.

School age childcare providers, including childminders registered to provide care for 12 or more children, will be able to access a support grant for each week in which they are open.  Grants will vary depending on their capacity and how many weeks the setting was open. 

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to registered school age childcare providers with informamtion on how to apply. 

Applications will open on 7 April 2021 and close on 4 May 2021. 

In addition, all registered settings, whether open or closed, will be able to claim a restart grant to support reopening following the end of restrictions. 

Childminding business sustainability fund: now open to applications (added 11 March 2021)

On 9 February the Scottish Government confirmed that additional funding would be made available in order to increase the Childminding Business Sustainability Fund to £3.2 million.

The increased funding allows the Scottish Government to provide a £750 business sustainability grant to all childminding services who are registered with the Care Inspectorate as of 1 February 2021.

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to registered childminders with information on how to apply. 

Applications open on 11 March and will close at midnight on 17 March, you have 7 days to submit your application, after this the application window will be closed and no late applications will be possible.

Letter to all registered school age childcare providers (Added 2 March 2021)

Today the First Minister confirmed that, following a continued suppression of the coronavirus figures, regulated school age childcare settings can re-open to all primary school children from 15 March alongside the return of P4-7 children as part of the phase 2 return. The plans are conditional on continued progress on suppressing coronavirus (Covid-19).

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all registered school age childcare providers with more information. 

Letter to daycare of children services: update on the temporary restrictions fund (Added 2 March)

The Scottish Government has issued a letter to all registered daycare of children services with an update on the Temporary Restrictions Fund.

This letter provides details of Round 2 of the Fund covering the four week period from 1 February – 26 February 2021.

Young People's complaints text service (Added 7 January 2021)

We launched a new children and young people complaint text service on 5 January 2021. This text service will add to the other ways young people can raise concerns about the quality of their care.

This service will allow young people to be more informed about their rights to quality care and support which we hope will build trust and allow us to improve their experience of care.

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 the scrutiny intervention.

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.

Supplementary national child protection guidance (Added 20 April 2020) 

The Scottish Government has issued updated national child protection guidance. The supplementary guidance addresses a potential rise in caseloads due to the impact of coronavirus. 

Contingency foster care arrangements during Covid-19 (added 10 April 2020) 

We are aware that the Coronavirus outbreak is likely to have a significant impact on the demand for care services, including a rise in the number of children requiring to be placed in foster care arrangements. Due to the potential impact of Covid-19 on authorities placing children and availability of foster carers, authorities may wish to augment the number of placements available.

They could do this by using staff employed by them in a relevant professional capacity who are registered with a professional regulatory body to care for the young person in the staff member’s own home. In these situations, we would expect that the fostering agency satisfy themselves of certain aspects which we have outlined here. 

Scottish Government supplementary national child protection guidance (31 March 2020) 

Scottish Government has written to key organisations with responsibilities around child protection to inform them of supplementary guidance now available to support them to carry out their duties during the Covid-19 emergency. 

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Testing

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

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.

Introduction of Test and Protect transition plan (Added 16 March 2022)

The Scottish Government published its Test and Protect Transition Plan. The Transition Plan set out the timelines for moving away from population-wide testing aimed at reducing transmission, towards a more targeted approach to testing. A notice explaining this can be found here.

Introduction of Orient Gene 7s LFD kits (Added 12 August 2021)

The Scottish Government has advised us that Orient Gene 7s LFD testing kits are being introduced. These new kits will begin to be distributed week beginning Monday 16 August when guidance and training materials will also be published here. All existing Innova 25s stock must be used up first. Please note you should enter the LOT number from the box when recording results on http://www.covidtestingportal.scot/. If you currently receive PCR kits, you will continue to do so and guidance remains unchanged.

Scottish Government update on testing (Added 16 July 2021)

The Scottish Government has updated its guidance on testing in care homes and adult social care as follows.

Care home staff

Care home staff – discretion to allow staff one LFD test per week at home using LFD test kits approved for self-test at home once available (most likely during August)

Coronavirus (Covid-19): adult care home lateral flow device testing

Care home visitors (friends/family)

Family/friend care home visitors - discretion to allow LFD testing at home where tests are collected through the community testing route.

Coronavirus (Covid-19): adult care home lateral flow device testing

Social care staff (excluding care homes but working in the services listed below)

Discretion to allow staff two LFD tests per week at home using LFD test kits approved for self-test at home once available (most likely during August). This is not applicable to staff who undertake PCR tests.

Coronavirus (Covid-19): social care and community based testing guidance

Social care staff

• short break/respite services
• Independent Living Fund Scotland assessors
• social workers
• learning disability settings
• women’s shelters
• personal assistants
• care inspectors
• care at home
• sheltered housing and housing with multiple occupancies
• adult day centres/adult day care services

LFD staff testing notifications guidance (Added 15 April 2021)

Following the introduction of regular LFD (Lateral Flow Device) testing for staff in a range of settings and services, we wanted to provide some clarification on which notifications to use following the outcome of tests:

LFD positive test for one or more staff – Please complete Covid-19: outbreak – notification of suspected case. Only one ‘notification of suspected case’ is needed even if several people have a positive LFD test.  Staff who have a positive LFD test must then arrange to have a confirmatory PCR test.

If the outcome of the subsequent PCR test(s) is positive – Please complete Covid-19: outbreak – notification of confirmed case for each individual who has a positive PCR test.

If the outcome of the PCR test(s) is negative – Please complete Covid-19: outbreak – end of suspected case(s).

Weekly testing for agency staff deployed to care homes for adults and older people (Added 24 July 2020)

The Scottish Government has issued guidance to ensure that all staff deployed to care homes for adults and older people from staffing agencies are tested for Covid-19 prior to deployment. They request that agencies provide assurance that a process is in place for testing staff prior to deployment to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Friday 31 July. You can access the guidance here.

Testing staff in care homes (Added 24 July 2020)

The Scottish Government testing directorate asks care homes to complete a weekly ‘safety huddle’ template on staff testing. There have been some inconsistencies in recording of the number of staff eligible for testing and the number of staff who have declined tests.  For clarity:

Recording of number of staff eligible for testing – Only staff who are at work in the care home should be included and those staff who are not at work for any reason should be excluded from this number e.g. annual leave, sick leave, days off, self-isolating or working elsewhere.  Staff who have previously tested positive and have returned for work are also excluded from this number as they are currently not included in the staff testing programme

Recording of number of staff who decline testing – Only staff who are eligible for testing as defined above that have declined testing should be included.  Staff who are at not work or staff who have previously tested positive should not be included in this number. 

You can find further guidance and the weekly template here.

Guidance from Health Protection Scotland on Covid-19 in care homes (Added 14 July 2020)

Health Protection Scotland has published guidance for PCR testing in care homes and the management of Covid-19 PCR test positive residents and staff.

Letter to all care homes on testing from Scottish Government (Added 23 April 2020)

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport Jeane Freeman has issued a letter for care all care homes to provide further details on procedures in place for testing care home staff and residents for Covid-19. You can read the letter here.

Interim guidance on Covid-19 PCR testing in care homes (Updated 16 May 2020)

Health Protection Scotland has released Interim guidance on Covid-19 PCR testing in care homes and the management of Covid-19 PCR test positive residents and staff. 

You can view the guidance here.