The Care Inspectorate regulates and inspects care services in Scotland to make sure that they meet the right standards. They also jointly inspect with other regulators to check how well different organisations in local areas work to support adults and children.
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There are around 14,000 registered care services in Scotland. Inspectors visit every care service they regulate. Higher-risk services are inspected more often. Their inspectors talk to people using the service, staff, and managers. They watch what happens in the service to help assess the quality of care people receive.
They want to make sure services safeguard people. They should be managed and led well, and make a positive impact on people’s lives, based on their needs, rights, and choices.
They give care services grades when they are inspected. We look at the quality of:
Each area of each care service is assessed on a scale from 1 to 6, where 1 in unsatisfactory and 6 is excellent.
Their job is not just to inspect care services, but to help them improve. This means they offer advice, guidance, and suggestions to help services reach the highest standards. If a service isn’t performing to the levels they require, they do not hesitate to act. They can issue recommendations for improvement and requirements for change and check these have happened. If a service doesn’t improve, they can close it down. They can also impose conditions on care service meaning they must start or stop doing something specific.
