What to expect when we inspect

How we inspect

When we visit a care service, the goal is simple: to check that people are getting safe, high‑quality care that meets Scotland’s national standards. We do this in a way that’s open, fair, and focused on the real experiences of the people who experience care and support.

Every inspection is based on the quality frameworks for that particular service type. These frameworks outline what good care looks like and what we should expect to see in practice, for example, core assurances (which must be in place in all services), strong leadership, good staff practice, and well‑planned support that must be in place to support people’s wellbeing and ensure good outcomes for people.

We are continually developing how we inspect regulated services to ensure that our approaches are intelligence-led, responsive and proportionate (in line with the regulators code). Our current inspection types include:

• Core assurance inspections (adult services)

• Promise assurance inspections (children and young people services)

• Quality framework inspections where, as well as looking at the core assurances, we assess a service against a selection of the key questions / headings and quality indicators within the relevant framework. We take a targeted and proportionate approach, so inspections will not be the same for every service. Some services will receive a fuller inspection that considers all key questions or headings, while others may be inspected using selected quality indicators.

• Shared inspections with other regulators such as HMIE and HIS

We will use the quality illustrations, which are based on the Health and Social Care Standards, legislation and good practice in our professional evaluations about the care and support we see.