Week by week guide
Our joint inspections of services for children at risk of harm last for around 22 weeks in total from the notification letter being received by the partnership being inspected to the report being published. The actual timespan may be longer if the period of the inspection includes school or public holidays.
Each inspection begins with a preparation stage, is then conducted over three phases, and concludes with a reporting stage. More information about what happens during each of these is available here:
We will share information about the scope and process of the inspection and the rationale for this, during scheduled meetings with partnership representatives at the start of and during the inspection. We will discuss which scrutiny activities will best help us to clarify any areas of uncertainty.
Read more
Registering school holiday, activity and food provision programmes
Does your school holiday, activity and food provision programme need to be registered?
Services offered to children and families as part of school holiday, activity and food provision programmes may need to be registered with the Care Inspectorate. The information below relates to children and young people from primary school age and above.
It is an offence to operate a care service in Scotland without being registered with the Care Inspectorate and the Care Inspectorate is happy to provide advice.
For advice on registration, you can email our registration team: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Childcare service or school holiday, activity and food provision programme
Is the provision advertised as school holiday childcare?
If the answer is yes, then generally the service needs to be registered.
Is the service provided to enable/support parents to work, study or attend training?
If the answer is yes, it would be a childcare service and needs to be registered.
If the service is providing a school holiday club/activity club/playscheme/youth club that is activity based, then it needs to be promoted as such. It should not be promoted as providing childcare.
If you are solely providing an activity-based programme, then this does not need to be registered.
Mealtimes
Depending on the level of support the individual child needs at mealtimes, this could be considered as care, then the service would require to be registered.
Personal care
Do children need help with personal care such as going to the toilet, taking off or putting on appropriate clothing?
If the answer is yes, then the service requires to be registered.
Children with additional support needs
Do the children attending the service have additional support needs (ASN)?
If the answer is yes, then generally the service needs to be registered and the Care Inspectorate would need more information about what type of support children are being given.
Legislative definitions of types of services
It is an offence to operate a care service in Scotland without being registered with the Care Inspectorate.
Section 47 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 defines the types of services that must be registered with the Care Inspectorate.
Day care of children service:
A “day care of children” service is described in paragraph 13 of Schedule 12 as “subject to paragraphs 14(b) to 17, a service which consists of any form of care (whether or not provided to any extent in the form of an educational activity), supervised by a responsible person and not excepted from this definition by regulations, provided for children, on premises other than domestic premises, during the day (whether or not it is provided on a regular basis or commences or ends during the hours of daylight).”
Regulations made under the Act, namely The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Excepted Services) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/44) (“the Excepted Services Regulations”), restrict the definition of a day care of children service to those services which have as a primary purpose the provision of care to children.
Regulation 4 of the Excepted Services Regulations states “There is excepted from the definition of “day care of children” in paragraph 13 of schedule 12 to the Act any service unless its primary purpose is the provision of care to children”.
Support service:
A support service is defined by the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 as
“a service provided, by reason of a person’s vulnerability or need (other than vulnerability or need arising by reason only of that person being of a young age), to that person or to someone who cares for that person by-
- a local authority;
- any person under arrangements made by a local authority;
- a health body; or
- any person if it includes personal care or personal support.
Consider whether the ‘vulnerability’ is solely through age. If it is and care is being provided and is provided for more than two hours, then consider if registration as a daycare of children service is more appropriate.
Consider if the ‘vulnerability’ is through some form of additional support need and ‘care’ is required. If it is, consider registering as a support service.
Already a registered provider with the Care Inspectorate
If you are already a registered childcare or support service provider, it might be possible to vary the conditions of your existing service. This is called a variation, as it is varying the existing conditions of your registration with the Care Inspectorate. You can ask for advice on this from our registration team or your inspector.
Get in touch
The Care Inspectorate is happy to provide guidance to support the development and registering of school holiday, activity and food provision programmes for children and families.
Please contact our contact centre on 0345 600 9527 or email Care Inspectorate enquiries at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For advice on registration, you can email our registration team: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Read more
How the framework links to How good is our early learning and childcare
The following table shows how our quality framework for children, childminding and school-aged childcare link to Education Scotland’s ‘How good is our early learning and childcare’ quality indicators.
|
Care Inspectorate quality framework for daycare of children, childminding and school aged childcare |
Links to How Good Is Our Early Learning & Childcare |
|
Quality indicator 1.1 Nurturing Care and Support |
2.4 Personalised support 2.6 Transitions 2.7 Partnerships 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion |
|
Quality indicator 1.2 Children are safe and protected |
2.1 Safeguarding and child protection |
|
Quality indicator 1.3 Play and learning |
2.2 Curriculum 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessment 2.6 Transitions 3.2 Securing children’s progress 3.3 Developing creativity and skills for life and learning |
|
Quality indicator 1.4 Family engagement |
2.5 Family learning 2.6 Transitions 2.7 Partnerships 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion |
|
Quality indicator 1.5 Effective transitions |
2.5 Family learning 2.6 Transitions 2.7 Partnerships 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion |
|
Quality indicator 2.1 Quality of the setting for care, play and learning |
1.5 Management of resources to promote equity. |
|
Quality indicator 2.2: Children experience high quality facilities |
1.1 Self-evaluation for self-improvement 1.4 Leadership of management and practitioners 1.5 Management of resources to promote equity |
|
Quality indicator 3.1 Quality assurance and improvement are led well |
1.1 Self-evaluation for self-improvement 1.3 Leadership of change 1.5 Management of resources to promote equity |
|
Quality indicator 3.2 Leadership of play and learning |
1.2 Leadership of learning 1.3 Leadership of change 1.4 Leadership and management of practitioners |
|
Quality indicator 3.3 Leadership and management of staff and resources |
1.5 Management of resources to promote equity |
|
Quality indicator 4.1 Staff skills, knowledge, and values |
1.3 Leadership of change 1.4 Leadership and management of practitioners |
|
Quality indicator 4.2 Staff recruitment |
1.3 Leadership of change 1.4 Leadership and management of practitioners |
|
Quality indicator 4.3 Staff deployment |
1.3 Leadership of change 1.4 Leadership and management of practitioners |
Read more
Quality framework for daycare of children, childminding and school-aged childcare
The new Quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors is available on the Education Scotland website. It is important to note that we will continue to use our existing frameworks and approaches for inspection while the new approaches are developed, ahead of implementation in September 2025. The 18-month gap between Education Scotland and Care Inspectorate inspections will also remain in place.
We published our quality framework for daycare of children, childminding and school-aged childcare in March 2022, informing the sector that we would use the framework in our inspections from 1 June 2022. We want to take this opportunity to provide you with some additional materials to support understanding and use of the framework as a self-evaluation tool.
The framework focuses on children’s wellbeing and sets out the elements that will help us answer key questions about the impact care and learning is making to outcomes for children. The primary use of the framework is as a tool for self-evaluation to assist settings self-evaluate their own performance in delivering good care and learning for children. What influences good outcomes for children has not changed but we hope the way in which the framework is set out will reassure practitioners of how this will apply in their particular setting. This framework should support settings to showcase their strengths and identify improvement, where required.
You can read across the new key questions to the previous quality themes:
|
New key questions |
Previous quality themes |
|
1: How good is our care, play and learning? |
Quality of care and support |
|
2: How good is our setting? |
Quality of environment |
|
3: How good is our leadership? |
Quality of management and leadership |
|
4: How good is our staff team? |
Quality of staffing |
Our inspectors will use the framework to provide independent assurance about the quality of care, play and learning. In March 2022 we informed providers that when using the framework at inspections, we will select a small number of core quality indicators. We have taken account of what has been happening in some settings alongside recovery from the pandemic, imbedding of the expansion programme and staffing. We have therefore updated the list of core indicators and included deployment of staff. The core quality indicators that will be evaluated at inspection will be:
1.1 Nurturing care and support
1.3 Play and learning
2.2 Children experience high quality facilities
3.1 Quality assurance and improvement are led well
4.3 Staff deployment
*4.1 Staff skills, knowledge, and values. (For childminders without assistants)
Useful links
- Frequently asked questions
- How our framework links to Education Scotland’s ‘How Good is Our Early learning and Childcare'
We also want to share some good practice examples of how the framework is supporting improvement in settings and inspectors will be keen to hear from you on inspection about the improvements you have made since the introduction of the framework. We are excited to use the framework as our methodology will be transparent on how inspectors evaluate practice and supports settings deliver high quality play and learning experiences for children. We look forward to seeing how the framework is used across the ELC sector to enhance the quality of care, play and learning provided to our children in Scotland.
Pleased be assured when your inspector undertakes the first quality framework inspection of your setting, they will use the same approaches as previously used and at the beginning and throughout the inspection we will share information to ensure settings are fully informed and involved in the process.
Following the publication of ‘Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education’, including the recommendation, put forward by Professor Muir, to create a shared inspection framework for early learning and childcare settings, Scottish Government will undertake a consultation on approaches to scrutiny of early learning and childcare in the coming months. We are fully committed to working with the sector, other inspectorates and partner organisations to implement the findings of the consultation.
In the meantime this framework provides the sector with a framework that reflects national policy and best practice and will support settings moving forward and supporting good outcomes for children and their families.
Read more