Our inspections will report on the experiences of children and young people subject to compulsory supervision orders living at home with their parents. When we use the term ‘children and young people’ in this page we are referring to this group.

Through a joint scrutiny approach, we will consider the experiences and views of children and young people. We will explore how well services are directed and delivered to ensure children are supported to live at home within their families to achieve positive outcomes.

The scope and timeline of the joint inspections

• Our legislative basis is the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, section 115
• We undertake joint inspections with scrutiny partners, including Healthcare Improvement Scotland, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland and young inspection volunteers. At times, we also involve associate assessors in our joint inspections.
• We will identify up to six local authority areas in 2025/2026 in which to conduct our joint inspections.
• The joint inspections will take a multi agency approach, liaising with community planning partners and corporate parenting partners responsible and accountable for this area of practice.
• We will take a scoping approach to our joint inspections, that is, learning iteratively as the inspection progresses to determine the best ways to seek the evidence required.
• We will conduct each joint inspection over a 12 week period, publishing one final report per local authority area.
• We will focus on a retrospective two year period and scrutinise the impact of services for children and young people in that period of time.

The principles of the joint inspections

We will use a rights based approach in the joint inspections, embedding the experiences of children and young people at the heart of planning,

implementation and analysis of findings. We will report on the extent to which the relevant rights of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child are central to decision making in supporting these children and young people. Participation of children, young people and families is a core element of our approach. Our approach and design will reflect what children and families have told us matter the most to them, as encapsulated within the Promise.

We will consider the planning and progress that has been made by children’s services partnerships as they seek to keep The Promise. We will consider the five Promise Foundations and related priorities of family, care, voice, people and scaffolding which enable children to grow up loved, safe and respected.

Our approach and framework

Our approach will be proportionate to the evidence required, with a hybrid model of on-site and virtual activities. Our methods will include information and data gathering; a literature review; meetings with children and young people and families and focus groups with staff; reading the records of children and young people and surveys for children, young people, families and staff.

We will use the quality framework for children and young people in need of care and protection (November 2022). This framework is informed by the principles of the European Framework for Quality Management (EFQM) model which incorporates three tenets:

• Direction – clarity of purpose and strategy to achieve aims
• Execution – implementation of the strategy through delivery
• Results – what results have been achieved

Our approach to reporting

We will publish one written report following each joint inspection. The report will be specific and tailored and will complement and build on the meetings and feedback discussions inspectors hold with partnerships during the inspection. We will also develop accessible reporting specific to children and young people, following consultation with our young inspection volunteers.

In our report we will consider the three key areas outlined below. We will evaluate three quality indicators on our six point scale. These are:

• Quality indicator 2.1: Impact on children and young people
• Quality indicator 5.3: Care planning, managing risk and effective intervention
• Quality indicator 9.2: Leadership of strategy and direction

Resources

Our resources pages provide information for community planning partnerships (CPP) about the process for the joint inspection of services for children and young people. This includes services for children under the age of 18 years, or young people up to 26 years if they have been previously looked after.

What you think really matters. If we are inspecting your area, and you have experience of services, you may want to speak to us about the help that you have been getting.

We will offer a range of ways for you to give us feedback. As well as a survey we will arrange one-to-one discussions and group meetings. Our one-to-one discussions can take place in person, or we can contact you by phone or other ways such as Facetime or MS Teams.

If you give us information anonymously, we may not be able to get in contact with you if you raise concerns about your own safety or the safety of anyone else. If you have such concerns, we would encourage you to contact your local authority and ask for their child protection or adult protection service. You can also contact Childline on 0800 1111. If we have any concerns about the safety of individuals, we will share this with protection agencies in the relevant area.

Our inspection team also includes young inspection volunteers. These are young people aged 18 – 26 with experience of care services who help us with our inspections. If you are a young person, you can choose to speak with one of them and you can have someone to support you when you meet them. If you are a young person and want to know more about becoming a young inspection volunteer or how to get involved, click here to find out more.