What to expect when we inspect

We regulate care services for people of all ages in Scotland. Our work includes registering services, inspecting and evaluating (grading) them, dealing with complaints, carrying out enforcement action where necessary, and helping services to improve.

We are also here to champion good quality care whenever we encounter it across the thousands of inspections we carry out each year. We work closely with all care providers to support them to improve all the time. We will collaborate and take action where experiences and outcomes are not meeting individuals’ needs.

Almost everyone in Scotland, at one time or another, will use a service that we regulate. We regulate around 10,500 care services offering many different kinds of care to people with a wide range of needs. It’s our job to regulate and inspect care services so that:

• vulnerable people are safe

• the quality of these services is high and continues to improve

• people know the standards they have a right to expect

• we can report publicly on the quality of these services across Scotland

• we can support the review and development of how services are delivered.

When we inspect, our inspectors observe practice and engage with people using the service, staff and managers.  We give care services evaluations (sometimes referred to as grades) when we inspect them, and look at key areas like how well care, play and learning are supported, how well services support people’s health and wellbeing and the quality of the setting, personal planning, staffing, leadership and management. Each quality indicator is assessed on a scale from one to six, where one is unsatisfactory and six is excellent. After every inspection, we publish an inspection report showing our findings. All our inspection reports are public documents for all to see.

The purpose of inspection is to give assurance about the quality of care, support and learning and promote improvements, so that people enjoy positive experiences and the best possible outcomes.