Share your thoughts on our equality outcomes

Published: 01 October 2024

Help us improve equality outcomes in care services

Introduction 

We are currently consulting on our equality outcomes for 2025-2029 under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). Your feedback is important because it helps us:

  • Make Better Decisions: We want to ensure that the voices of people from all backgrounds, especially those with protected characteristics, are heard and considered.
  • Legal Compliance: We are committed to meeting the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 by working to eliminate discrimination, advance equality, and foster good relationships between diverse groups.
  • Better Outcomes: By listening to a wide range of voices, we can design policies and services that are more effective and fairer for everyone.
  • Be Transparent and Accountable: We want to show how we consider equality considerations in our decision making.
  • Build Trust: By engaging with communities, we hope to build trust and confidence.

Your feedback plays a vital role in shaping our equality outcomes and improving social care and social work services in Scotland. By hearing from people who receive care, as well as their families and carers, we can better understand the needs of diverse groups. This helps to drive improvements, supporting social care and social work services to meet everyone’s needs, including people from underrepresented groups.

We invite you to share your views and help shape a more inclusive and equitable future.

 

Our ongoing commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion  

The Care Inspectorate’s Corporate Plan 2022-2025 places a strong focus on equality. The plan is committed to delivering high-quality care for everyone, improving outcomes for all, and ensuring that every individual’s rights are respected and realised. It prioritises promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in every aspect of its work.

By actively engaging with diverse communities and gathering public feedback, the Care Inspectorate seeks to identify and address any potential areas for improvement to ensure care is both fair and accessible to everyone. It further empowers care providers to enhance their accountability and responsiveness to the diverse communities they serve. This commitment will:

  • Ensure fair treatment and equal opportunities for everyone.
  • Shape policies that directly impact care services.
  • Help us better understand the needs and experiences of different communities.

Our people

We have a dedicated team leading the consultation on equality outcomes. The team are committed to actively engaging with diverse communities, collecting meaningful feedback, and identifying areas where we can improve. By focusing on equality outcomes, we aim to reduce inequalities, promote fairness, and enhance the quality of care. This dedicated effort reflects our commitment to creating an environment where everyone’s needs and rights are respected and met. 

How to participate

You can share your views by completing our online survey

Step-by-step guide: 

  1. If you have a link to the form, click on it.
  2. Once the form is open, read the questions clearly. 
  3. For multiple-choice questions, click on the option you want to select. 
  4. For text questions, click in the text box and type your response
  5. If there are any checkbox options, click the boxes next to the answers you want to choose.
  6. Submitting the Form: After you have filled out all the required questions, look for the “Submit” button located at the bottom of the form. 
  7. Click “Submit” to send your responses. 
  8. You will receive a confirmation message after submission. 

Conversation Cafes  

  • Thursday 10 October 11:00-12:30. This conversation café is for professionals (for example providers or people working in health and social care) 

  • Thursday 24 October 13:30-15:00. This conversation café is for people who experience care/loved ones/unpaid carers. 

Conversation Cafes will be held online via Microsoft Teams. You can book your place here.

Resources and information 

Contact information 

Phone number: 0345 600 9527 

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Privacy Policy 

Read more about our Privacy policy here.

Downloads: 601

Solicitor

Published: 16 January 2020

Job title: Solicitor

Salary: £49,710 – £54,975

Location: Flexible (Any Care Inspectorate office)

Hours: 35 hours per week

Contract: Temporary Maternity Cover to 6 January 2026


About us

We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.

We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.

Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance thatpromotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We are moving towards an expectation that all staff will work collaboratively, within and across teams, in person, for approximately 40% of their working week.

Starting salary

Please bear in mind that new entrants start on the grade minimum for the role. However, we have a generous benefits package which you will find on our website.

About the role

Due to a period of maternity leave, reporting to the Head of Legal Services, you will have the opportunity to play an influential role in the regulation and improvement of care services. You will provide legal advice to operational staff within the Care Inspectorate. You will provide legal support for a wide range of team based corporate projects and contribute to the development of policy and guidance. You will also undertake some appearance work, representing the Care Inspectorate at court hearings and inquiries.

About you

The ideal candidate will be confident, articulate and have excellent communication skills. You will have at least 2 years’ post qualifying experience but could be an experienced solicitor interested in a challenging and varied post. You should have Sheriff Court experience, preferably in relation to statutory licensing or regulatory matters and you will hold, or be entitled to hold, a full Practising Certificate issued by the Law Society of Scotland.

Please note, if you don’t meet the full two years essential experience listed in the person specification of ‘relevant post qualifying experience, including recent Sheriff Court experience’ but still feel you meet the remaining essential criteria, then we would still consider an application from you.

To apply

You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.

If you would like more information or an informal chat about the role please Kenneth McClure, Head of Legal Services, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – please note our offices are closed during the Christmas holidays.

If you believe that you are a suitable candidate for this post, please complete our online application form by 08:00 on Monday 6 January 2025.

We expect interviews to take place no sooner than 23 January 2025.

Downloads: 10726

Strategic Data Officer

Published: 23 April 2021

Job title: Strategic Data Officer

Salary: £30,495 – £31,740

Location: Flexible (Any Care Inspectorate office)

Contract: Temporary until 31st July 2025


About us

We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.

We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.

Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. Our hybrid working policy gives you the flexibility to mix working from home with attendance at your base office and other work locations, spending no more than 60% of your working time working from home, measured over a 4-week period.

Starting salary

Please bear in mind that new entrants start on the grade minimum for the role. However, we have a generous benefits package which you will find on our website.

About the role

This is a national role and an exciting opportunity for a motivated and enthusiastic individual to use their current IT skills and develop new analytical and data skills to make a real difference for people experiencing care across Scotland. You will support the Intelligence team in delivering key analytical support to our strategic inspection programmes, working closely with a multi-disciplinary team of Care Inspectorate colleagues and those from external agencies.

You will support the Intelligence team in providing an analytical function throughout the inspection process through the improvement and maintenance of data collection tools and by identifying and summarising key inspection findings and preparing accurate statistical reports for a range of internal and external audiences.

About you

You should be educated to SCQF level 7.

The Intelligence Team will offer training and support for the specialist software and skills required for this role. However, you will need to be confident working with raw data and comfortable working with Microsoft Excel. The successful candidate will pay close attention to detail in order to clean and validate data and identify opportunities to improve data quality.

As well as having good literacy skills, you will have an aptitude for working with facts and figures to a high degree of accuracy. Excellent IT skills are a pre-requisite, enabling you to present complex information in a meaningful way.

You will be expected to work with colleagues across the Care Inspectorate and other external organisations, and so must have excellent interpersonal skills and be prepared to develop a sound understanding of the inspection data to respond effectively to the requirements of the role.

Next steps

You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.

For an informal discussion about the above posts, please contact Francesca Colaco by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you believe that your skills, experience and motivation make you a suitable candidate for this post, please complete the online application form by 08:00 on Monday 9 December 2024. CVs will not be accepted.

It is anticipated that interviews will be held Wednesday 18 December 2024 at our Dundee office.

Downloads: 6508

Team Manager – Adults

Published: 12 November 2021

Location: East of Scotland                    

Salary: £48,453 - £53,502 (140 hours over 4 weeks)

Contract: Permanent or secondment


About the role

We are looking for a full-time team manager to manage a team of inspectors in our adult’s specialism in the Edinburgh area.

Our team managers support their team of inspectors to manage the inspection workload, consider risk factors and maximise performance. They also manage enforcement activity and support service development and improvement. Team managers work closely with our registration and complaints teams to ensure effective regulation of care services.

Team managers have a relationship manager role with a number of local authorities and national providers. They are expected to take part in and keep up to date with national initiatives and development to support the work of the team. Team managers also provide professional development to the team of inspectors that they manage.

About us

As a national regulator and scrutiny body, we inspect care across communities, report on the quality of care people experience, and ensure it is as good as it can be. We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement.

We inspect care services individually. We also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in local areas.

We champion high-quality care whenever we encounter it across the thousands of inspections we carry out each year, and we work closely with all care providers to support them to improve all the time. We collaborate with other organisations too, supporting improvement across public services. Our work plays a big role in reducing health and social inequalities between people and communities.

About you

You will be educated to degree level or equivalent and hold an appropriate professional qualification and be committed to your own continuous professional development.

You should have significant experience of operational scrutiny activity and professional regulatory practice within health, social care, or other relevant sectors. You will have experience of implementing improvements and managing change.

You will need to be able to provide leadership and direction to a diverse team of professional staff. You will need to demonstrate a significant knowledge of working with inspection and regulation of care as well as a commitment to the principles of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and the principles of better regulation.

Why join us?

This is an exciting time to join the Care Inspectorate, with an opportunity to be at the heart of change as we consider the recommendations of the Independent Care Review.

We strive to be a great employer, knowing that competitive salary, leave and pension schemes are only part of that. We pride ourselves on the values we hold, person-centred; fairness; respect; efficiency and integrity - all supported with a culture of care and kindness. We’re proud to be a progressive, supportive employer, and equality, diversity and inclusion are important to us. 

All new entrants will start on the grade minimum for the role however we have a generous benefits package which is highlighted below.

Flexibility and agility are important to us. That’s why we have a number of policies in place that support flexible working and time off when you need it, such as flexi-time, flexible hours, home working, carers leave and special leave. The inspector role is flexible with 140 hours over a four week period.

Our annual leave allowances are generous, starting at 32 days (in less than 1 years’ service by 1 April) and climbing to 42 days after 5 years of service.

All our employees are eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme, which is a defined benefit career average scheme. Employee contributions range between 5.5% and 10% depending on earnings and are matched by employer contributions of 17%.

To apply

You’ll find more information in the:

Those who have applied in the last 6 months need not apply however this does not preclude current team managers from using the internal transfer process

For an informal chat about the job role, please contact the HR team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and a member of the team will arrange for you to receive a call back from one of our Service Managers.

If you believe that your expertise, skills and motivation make you suitable for this post, please complete an application form (and an Equalities Monitoring Form where you are an external applicant) and return by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than 8am on Monday 29 November 2021.

It is anticipated that interviews and selection will take place no earlier than 16 December 2021 . 

Downloads: 3214

Tester

Published: 08 January 2024

Role: Tester

Location: Flexible (any Care Inspectorate office)

Salary: £40,608 - £43,962

Hours: 35 hours per week

Contract: Permanent


About us

We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.

We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.

Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We are moving towards an expectation that all staff will work collaboratively, within and across teams, in person for a minimum number of days each week.

About the role

Our vision for IT and Digital Transformation is: Our stakeholders have access to the digital services they need to enable them to improve care service outcomes for every person in the community in Scotland. We are looking to recruit a number of roles that can support our organisation's business applications, working within a dedicated IT and transformation team.

We want your skills to help us develop and enhance our existing services which support operational colleagues. This is an exciting time as we aim to develop and enhance these existing services through and blended agile and traditional approach to delivery. When you join us in this important role you’ll support the Digital Transformation team by contributing towards the overall planning, control and delivery of testing, test data, resources and tools. For example, you might work on the review of observation records, monitor the status and resolution of any defects raised, manage test coverage and traceability, and contribute to test readiness reviews. You’ll also oversee the delivery of end-to-end test plans, managing all activities in the plans to ensure that the acceptance criteria of new feature development is of the highest quality.

This is an exciting opportunity to work with a great team delivering digital services which will improve how we support scrutiny, assurance and improvement for people who experience care in Scotland.

About you

You will have strong exploratory testing experience using test charters to focus test sessions. You will also have experience of testing web applications including aspects such as SQL skills, automated testing, multi-browser, accessibility, regression and usability testing.

You will be educated to degree level or hold equivalent relevant experience. You will also have strong analytical and trouble shooting skills, excellent communication skills and the ability to work under pressure and meet targets.

We are looking for the right candidate who is Scotland based due to collaboration and wellbeing support as part of the delivery process.

Next steps

You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.

For an informal discussion, please contact Stuart MacKenzie, Head of Transformation, by email in the first instance This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you believe that you are a suitable candidate for this post, please download and complete an application form and equal opportunities form and submit it by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 08:00 on Monday 29 January 2024.

It is anticipated that interviews will take place at our Stirling office no sooner than Tuesday 6 February.

Downloads: 5212

Thank you for your interest in this post

Published: 27 August 2021

Thank you for your interest in this post. 

Unfortunately you do not meet the essential qualification and registration requirements for the role and we are unable to take your application any further at this stage. 

Downloads: 1410

The Promise

Published: 26 August 2022

Our commitment to The Promise 

Playing our part to deliver on The Promise by 2030 is an important part of our organisation’s strategic objectives.

The Promise is the work of change that intends to strengthen Scotland’s care system to become more caring and collaborative.

It outlines the belief that, to do this, children’s services across Scotland need to transform. This process of transformation must be built on the experiences, views and voices of children and young people at its core.

As we outline in our corporate plan, we want babies, children, young people, and their families to

  • experience high quality, trauma informed, compassionate care and support  
  • have improved holistic outcomes (enabled by the services which support them)
  • feel that their voices are heard in decision making about them and that their rights have been protected, respected and realised.

We are aligning our current and future organisational activity with the messages of the Promise in how we regulate in support of babies, children and young people on the edges of care and with care experience. Our existing work in the areas of participation, equalities, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and corporate parenting is mutual and complementary to this.

In applying national best practice and upholding the Health and Social Care standards we are keeping the Promise.  

We are implementing an organisational Promise Development Model across 6 workstreams (3 internally facing and 3 externally facing). This is helping each of us working on behalf of children to reflect and act, individually and collectively on ‘What does the Promise mean for me in my role in the Care Inspectorate?’  Internally we are applying Promise thinking across our methodology, participation and learning and development activities. Externally we are working to ensure that we can contribute to the evidence and influence needed to enable national transformational change through the lens of our scrutiny and assurance role and in collaboration with other scrutiny bodies.

Promise Development Model graphic

Image: Our Promise implementation model. 

As part of our Promise commitment we have signed the national trauma leadership pledge and appointed four senior leaders as internal Trauma Champions. Here is what our Trauma Champions said.

Context

We are working to fulfil our commitments to Promise Change Programme ONE.  This programme of work follows on from Plan 21-24, which mapped and sequenced the calls to action from the Independent Care Review’s conclusions, identifying five priority actions.

We are a key partner in several areas of this detailed programme.

Our work with partners

The Promise has recommended comprehensive change to how care and support for children and young people is commissioned and provided.  It also recommended improvements in how we regulate and inspect our current system. 

It is one of the big drivers of change for us. 

We are shaping our scrutiny practice across service level regulation, strategic inspection and quality improvement, to ensure that our focus is on hearing and acting on what children and their families tell us makes a positive difference to children’s experience of care.

This work involves creating a common understanding, value base and approach across scrutiny and regulation in Scotland. 

We are committed to working collaboratively with our partner external regulators and other scrutiny bodies to: 

  • improve access to early preventative help for children on the edges of care
  • improve support for care experienced children and young people   
  • lower barriers to employment caused by bureaucratic approaches to regulation
  • counter discrimination.

For more information on #KeepingthePromise at the Care Inspectorate please contact:

Aileen Nicol

Children’s strategic inspector and Promise Lead

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


THEPROMISE 

 

 

Downloads: 7226

Total rewards package

Published: 03 April 2024

Recruitment banner total rewards package

We offer an excellent total rewards package - it’s a comprehensive and strategic approach to employee compensation and benefits, that aligns with the Care Inspectorates’ aims. It encompasses various elements that will contribute to your overall employee experience, including compensation, benefits, work-life balance, and development.

Competitive salary

We offer competitive salaries for each job role with incremental pay progression for most roles. Salaries are reviewed annually and reward skills, qualifications and contributions to the Care Inspectorate’s success. New entrants will normally start on the minimum of the pay range.

Continuous service

Continuous service is recognised either where there are no breaks in service or if there is a break, it does not exceed 7 calendar days.

Continuous service is currently recognised with the following employers for the purpose of calculating statutory entitlements e.g. notice periods and redundancy entitlements: Local Authorities, National Health Service and all employers listed on the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government, etc) (Modification) Order 1999 (as amended).

Continuous service with the following sectors in addition to the above, is currently recognised for the purposes of calculating entitlements to occupational sick pay, maternity leave and annual leave: further and higher education sector and the voluntary and private providers of the care sector.

Hours of work

We have a standard working week of 35 hours for all employees and managers and 40 hours for senior manager roles. Inspectors work 140 hours over each 4-week period.

Flexible working

We have several policies in place that support flexible working and time off when you need it, such as flexitime, flexible hours, carers leave and special leave.  Most of our people work flexibly and value how this supports their work-life balance. 

Our flexitime system gives you the flexibility to temporarily change your times of work each day to meet your personal requirements. You can use or accrue up to half a day as flexi on any day without requesting time off from your manager, further time off should be planned in discussion with your manager.

We welcome discussions on flexible working, as it enhances talent, engagement, performance, and retention while supporting our equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) goals. With guidance from Working Families and the Government’s Flexible Working Taskforce, we aim to design roles that prioritise flexibility.

Hybrid working

You’ll be able to work from home and the office, as part of our hybrid working approach. Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We expect all staff to work in person for at least 40% of their working time. This is two days a week for those on a standard 35 or 40 hour contract.

Annual leave

You’ll receive a generous 37 days annual leave (after five years’ service) as well as six fixed public holidays. Also, our offices are closed over the Christmas period!

Family focussed

We have a family friendly policies in place including maternity, adoption and shared parental leave. We also aim to create a supportive working environment for carers in the workplace.

Wellbeing

Should you become ill or be unable to work due to an injury we will continue to pay sick pay for authorised periods of absence dependent on your level of service allowing you to focus on getting better.

We supply an employee assistance programme, supplying unlimited access to a range of specialist support and information on finances, relationships, health, legal and family care.

We also offer a wide range of wellbeing initiatives, including specialist webinars, counselling, and a listening service. 

Employee development

We are committed to the development and learning of all our staff. Everyone takes part in regular supervision through our LEAD (learn, experience, achieve and development) performance and development process. We provide training and support so you’ll be the best you can be and provide opportunities to learn, develop and share your skills and experience with others.

  • Secondments - Secondments help develop and nurture talent and help colleagues to reach their full potential. We offer three types of secondment opportunities: 1. Internal assignment, where existing Care Inspectorate employees undertake work for a fixed period that is not their usual job. 2. Incoming secondment, where a person comes from another organisation to fill a post. 3. Outgoing secondment, where a Care Inspectorate employee undertakes work for another organisation.
  • Career Breaks - Your circumstances may change, for a variety of reasons, and you may need to take time out or take up another development opportunity. Our Career Break Policy allows eligible employees to take an unpaid break, of between six months and two years. Our career break scheme enables employees to take an extended period of unpaid leave and provides a guaranteed return to work later.

Travel expenses

We have access to a nationwide network of offices. Where your role includes travel, you will be able to claim up to 45 per mile (per the policy) and subsistence allowances where you must stay overnight. Overnight stays and public transport bookings (which are preferable) can be made and paid in advance by the organisation.

Saving schemes

My Lifestyle provides our cycle to work and childcare voucher schemes along with discounts to a huge range of retailers including supermarkets, restaurants, holiday operators, cinemas and much more.

All staff can claim a financial contribution of up to £70 towards the cost of glasses or contact lenses where needed for Display Screen Equipment (DSE) purposes.

There is also access to credit union membership (a community loans and savings organisation, an alternative to a high street bank usually with helpful terms).  

Pension

We offer a defined benefit pension scheme (CARE) on a career average basis. 

The scheme is administered on our behalf by the Tayside Pension Fund where you will find full details of the scheme and how benefits are calculated.

Flexible retirement

If you are age 55 (or over) and you have at least 2 years membership with the Tayside Pension Fund you can request flexible retirement. This is a choice where you can access all, or a proportion of your pension earned to date but at the same time as receiving your pension you can continue working for the Care Inspectorate. Flexible retirement is an attractive way it can help with work life balance and the transition into full retirement.

To qualify you must reduce your working hours and/or grade to the extent that your revised salary is no more than 80% of your current salary.

Downloads: 3030

Subcategories

The early learning and childcare expansion… 

Role: Inspector - Early Learning and Childcare (ELC)

Location: Forth Valley, Borders, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh & Glasgow

Salary: £31,083 - £39,069 plus excellent benefits

Hours: 140 hours to be worked over a 4-week period

Contract: Permanent or 2-year secondment (would be considered)

Join us and make a difference – for you, for everyone

It’s our job to ensure care for everyone, everywhere in Scotland is as good as it can be. If you are as passionate about high-quality care as we are, and you’re experienced in your field, we’d love to hear from you.

About us

As a national scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect care services and partnerships across Scotland, report on the quality of care people experience, and support improvements in services to facilitate improvements in outcomes for people.

We inspect care services individually. We also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in local areas.

We champion high-quality care whenever we encounter it across the thousands of inspections, we carry out each year, and we work closely with all care providers to support them to improve all the time. We collaborate with other organisations too, supporting improvement across public services. Our work plays a big role in reducing health and social inequalities between people and communities.

We are looking for talented people to join us in making a difference - specialists who understand how to put people’s needs, rights and choices at the heart of delivering social services – and how to lead improvement too. Our 600 staff work with services across the public, voluntary and private sectors. We have offices across Scotland and many of our staff work from home.

About you

Whether early or established in your career, you will share our determination that care, social work and justice services should work well for people – every time. You’ll be confident about what good-quality care looks like and how to deliver it. You’ll be good at analysing information and evidence. You will have excellent writing skills for narrative inspection reports that are clear, concise and focused on outcomes. You will be confident in working with a wide range of people and at supporting and advising on improvement.

You’ll currently be working, or have significant experience in, social care, social work, health, children’s services, early learning, child protection, or community learning and development. You will be registered or eligible to register with a professional body like the SSSC, NMC or GTC.

About the role

Our care inspectors work with care services: childminders, nurseries, care homes, care at home, housing support and a host of other specialist services. A specialist in your field, you may have helped lead a service and have a strong track record in delivering quality. You’ll be adept at leading improvement and influencing others. You will work with people experiencing care, and care service providers, managers and staff.

Why join us?

We strive to be a great employer, knowing that competitive salary, leave and pension schemes are only part of that. We pride ourselves on the values we hold, person-centred; fairness; respect; efficiency and integrity - all supported with a culture of care and kindness.

We believe in collective leadership and innovation. You’ll have a lot of autonomy to manage your own work and use the professional skills you’ve honed during your career – but in new ways. Starting on day one, our learning and development support will help you become confident in the craft of scrutiny and in supporting improvement. Because a lot of your role is about sharing effective practice across Scotland, the impact you can have on experiences and outcomes for people is significant. You will draw on management and leadership skills you’ve developed in the past.

We’re proud to be a progressive, supportive employer – we’re happy to talk about flexible working with you and we’re members of the Disability Confident Scheme, aiming to make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to the workplace.

New appointments will normally be placed on the minimum grade for the role; a higher starting salary may be offered in exceptional circumstances only.

ELC expansion

The Scottish Government is committed to expanding the provision of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) from 600 hours to 1140 hours per year by 2020. The expansion of ELC is aimed to support the reduction in the poverty-related attainment gap and improve long term outcomes for children and families.

Due to the ELC expansion programme we are looking for 7 further ELC Inspectors in addition to the “business as usual” Inspector campaign launched recently.

Principles and aims

The priority for the expansion to 1140 hours is to improve children's outcomes and close the poverty-related attainment gap. In addition, the expansion aims to support parents into work, study or training. The Scottish Government's four principles of the ELC expansion are: quality, flexibility, affordability, and accessibility.

The Scottish Government has stated that quality is 'at the heart' of the expansion and that achieving a high-quality ELC experience for children is a key objective.

Use and provision

A 2018 survey found that the main reason why parents use funded ELC is that they consider it beneficial for their child's learning and development. In addition, parents reported using the funded hours to either work, increase the number of hours they work, or look for work.

Funded ELC in Scotland is delivered by a wide range of providers including nurseries, crèches and playgroups, from across the public, private and third sectors. A small number of childminders also deliver funded ELC, but the Scottish Government hopes this number will increase under the expansion to 1140 hours.

Criteria to apply

  • We require you to hold a relevant qualification (minimum SCQF Level 9), register with either the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) or any other relevant professional body and undertake PVG checks.
  • You must also be prepared to do a Professional Development Award in Scrutiny and Improvement (Social Services) at SCQF level 10 with appropriate support from the organisation.
  • You will have a minimum of three years recent and demonstrable management experience in a relevant field. You must also be willing to travel with overnight stays as required.

Before you apply

  • Please contact the relevant body directly to resolve any queries you have regarding registration or eligible qualifications for registration (SSSC, NMC and so on) before submitting your application.
  • For an informal chat about the job role, please contact (Who?) You or Kim Connolly, Team Manager on 07766133161
  • For all other queries, please contact Human Resources at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To apply

  • If you are interested, please see the minimum criteria to apply as an Inspector and the specific guidance and directions to apply. Thereafter, click on the gateway questions link to apply.
  • Your completed application form (campaign number C39 only forms) and equal opportunities form should be returned to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.no later than Monday, 14 October 2019 at 8.00am.
  • We anticipate that selection days will take place in the week commencing Monday, 18 November 2019.