More information

Background

Phase 1 of our programme of joint inspections of adult support and protection services has now concluded, having taken place during 2020-23. The purpose of Phase 1 of the programme was to provide baseline information across the 26 adult protection partnerships not previously inspected in 2017/18. The intention was to follow this programme of inspections with a second phase of scrutiny and/or improvement activity, informed fully by Phase 1 findings.

We are now undertaking further scrutiny across Scotland, at the request of Scottish Ministers and in line with the Scottish Government-led improvement plan.

Phase 2 commenced on 1 August 2023 and will last two years. This phase of the programme will blend scrutiny activity with improvement support and include close collaboration with adult protection partnerships.

Scrutiny approach

Phase 2, first year

The programme provides assurance on the ongoing protection and risk management for adults at risk of harm. The first year of Phase 2 will include revisiting the six adult protection partnerships that were subject to adult support and protection inspections in 2017/18. We will use the inspection methodology we employed in Phase 1. These inspections will focus on key processes and leadership (see our quality indicator framework).

The first year of Phase 2 will also involve further development of the adult support and protection quality improvement framework by inspection partners, with input from stakeholders across the sector.

Phase 2, second year

Activity in the second year of Phase 2 will provide assurance of improvement and will include those partnerships that received inspection reports during Phase 1 where areas of weakness outweighed strengths. Some additional partnerships may also be revisited to provide assurance of improvement.

Additionally in this second year, indicators related to early identification of risk, early intervention and a trauma-informed approach will be applied on a voluntary basis with a select group of partnerships, which will augment their planned self-evaluation processes.

Scrutiny partners

The inspection programme will be led by Care Inspectorate in collaboration with His Majesties’ Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland (HMICS) and Healthcare improvement Scotland (HIS).  Each scrutiny agency has identified dedicated staff with appropriate levels of experience and expertise in adult support and protection. This scrutiny and assurance will be undertaken in the context of health and social care integration.

Phase 2 inspection focus

The focus of our joint inspection will be on: 

• independent scrutiny and assurance of how partnerships ensure that adults at risk of harm are kept safe, protected, and supported  
• providing assurance to Scottish Ministers about how effectively partnerships have implemented the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007
• taking the opportunity to identify good practice and support improvement more broadly across Scotland
• providing a quality assurance framework for the adult support and protection community to use for multi-agency audit, self-evaluation and improvement activity.

Purpose of activity

The purpose of this programme of joint inspections is to seek assurance that adults at risk of harm in Scotland are supported and protected by existing national and local adult support and protection arrangements. The programme is one element of the Scottish Government-led improvement plan.

The partnership briefing document relating to phase two, first year inspections was prepared by the inspection team to give you an overview of the joint inspection programme and is available on our website. The documents below are referenced within the partnership briefing document.

• Definition of adult protection partnerships
• The public services reform (joint inspections) Scotland regulations 2011
  
• ASP Quality Indicator Framework
• Case File Sample Guidance
• Pre inspection return FAQs
  
• Position Statement template
• Supporting Evidence List
• Local authority notification letter

The joint inspection team has made a number of other documents available to support partnerships. Each partnership will receive the relevant documents at the appropriate time.

• ASP overview for staff
• Staff Briefing Focus Groups
• Guidance for remote access to files
• Key processes and timescales
• Pre inspection return March 2021 (.xlsx)
• Phase 1 main sample file reading guidance
  
• Phase 1 main sample file reading tool

Our inspections take account of the adult support and protection code of practice. For us to understand the degree to which partnerships were progressing with implementation we issued a single question survey. The survey was shared with Chief Social Work Officers, adult protection committee conveners and lead officers. The question was 'Please briefly describe your partnership’s approach to key processes, including the role of the Council Officer, around inquiries/investigations in light of the revised Code of Practice'. Please find our summary findings from that survey.

A communication and engagement strategy is available in relation to our Phase 2, first year quality improvement framework (QIF). The QIF is being designed in collaboration with the National Implementation Group and other stakeholders. Key elements of this will be used to inform our supported self-evaluation activity in Phase 2, second year.

We are at the very early stages of developing Phase 2, second year methodologies and will aim to include any relevant updates and material here when it is appropriate to do so.

Please email any enquiries to the joint inspection team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Joint inspections of services for adults

Our approach

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 sets the legislative framework for integrating adult health and social care.

Integrating health and social care services is important to ensure that people have quick access to the range of services and support they need, that their care feels seamless to them and that they experience good outcomes and high standards of support. This is particularly vital for the increasing numbers of people with multiple, complex, long-term conditions in Scotland.

Since April 2017, the Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland have had joint statutory responsibility to inspect and support improvement in the strategic planning and commissioning of integrated approaches.

In 2019, the Ministerial Strategic Group (MSG) for Health and Community Care asked us to further develop our joint inspections to focus on how integration impacts on people’s outcomes, to consider the performance of the whole health and social care partnership and to ensure a balanced focus across health and social care provision.

In response to the MSG recommendation, the Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland have reviewed our joint inspection methodology to answer the following question:

“How effectively is the partnership working together, strategically and operationally, to deliver seamless services that achieve good health and wellbeing outcomes for adults?”

In order to address the question over the broad spectrum of adult health and social care services, we will conduct a rolling programme of themed inspections, looking at how integration of services positively supports people’s experiences and outcomes. It’s important to note that these thematic inspections are not considering the quality of specialist care for each care group but are simply a means of identifying groups of people with similar or shared experiences through which to understand if health and social care integration arrangements are resulting in good outcomes. In this way, we’re looking at integration through the lens of different care groups which, taken together, will in time build a picture of what is happening more broadly in health and social care integration and how this is experienced by people and the outcomes achieved.

How we do it

Our inspections last for a number of months. We work closely with the partnership to co-ordinate our inspection activities.

We have a range of ways to gather information that will help us to assess how integrated services in the area are helping to improve outcomes for people and their unpaid carers. These include:

• asking for information from the partnership
• speaking to people who use health and social care services and their unpaid carers
• speaking with staff, managers and leaders across the partnership
• reading people’s records.

We communicate regularly with the partnership and keep them up to date with our findings.

After the inspection, we publish a report about our findings on the Care Inspectorate’s and Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s websites. The report explains what we have found, identifies strengths and points out areas that could be improved. We agree an Improvement plan with the partnership to address those areas.

Getting involved

The voices of people who use health and social care services and of their unpaid carers are at the centre of our inspection. We will use as many opportunities as we can to get people involved and talk to them about their experiences of health and social care services.

We have developed an engagement framework to support all our engagement activity. The framework sets out 12 statements about positive outcomes and experiences that we will speak with people about.

More information

You can find full information about joint adult inspections:

• The Partnership guide sets out the inspection process step by step and provides all the information that partnerships need to manage their part in the inspection. 
• The Quality Indicator Framework (QIF) explains the criteria we use to evaluate quality in our inspections
• The Engagement framework provides a set of “I” statements to help us consider the experience of people who use health and social care services and their unpaid carers. It underpins all the engagement with people and unpaid carers that takes place during the inspection. 
• Our joint inspection reports can be found here.
• The record review template and record review guidance supports our reading of health, social work and social care records. The current version is used to read the records of people living with mental illness.