Review of social work governance and assurance in Scotland

On 15 July 2024 we notified all local authorities and health and social care partnerships across Scotland of our intention to undertake a national thematic review of social work governance and assurance arrangements.

The review is being carried out between July and December 2024 and a national report will be published in March 2025. The legislative basis for the review is S.53 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

Through the review we will answer these questions.

How well do social work governance and assurance arrangements support leaders to:

• Ensure statutory duties are carried out safely and effectively?
• Enable social work staff to be supported, accountable and effective in their practice?
• Assist social work staff to uphold core social work values?

We will span all areas of statutory social work including adults, children and justice social work services and will cover all local authority areas in Scotland. 

The review will include: a review of documents, a national staff survey, interviews with key leaders from across Scotland and a range of focus groups with middle and senior managers.

Review timeline

More information about the review can be found in the following links:

• Review information
• Privacy statement
  

Secure care pathway review 2022-23

Our approach

We carried out a secure care pathway review between July 2022 and July 2023 to consider the impact of the Secure Care Pathway and Standards that were published in October 2020.  The review focused on young people up to the age of 18 who have been placed – or are at risk of being placed – by Scottish local authorities, in secure care accommodation.

The review centred on listening to and understanding the experiences of 30 young people across Scotland before, during and after experiencing secure care accommodation.   During the review period we tracked the journeys of these young people and this helped us to consider impact and outcomes over time.  The annual inspections of registered secure care providers continue to be carried out.  We worked jointly with the inspectors of these services to inform the review, particularly in relation to the ‘during’ stage of young people’s journeys through secure care.

Our review is now complete and you can read the report here.

More information

Information about the secure care pathway and standards can be found here.

Serious Incident Reviews

Serious Incident Reviews

The Care Inspectorate assumed responsibility for the oversight of learning from serious incident reviews when it was established in 2011.  The function is underpinned by the Care Inspectorate’s statutory duties under the Public Service Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.  The national guidance for serious incident reviews was developed in partnership with the Scottish Government and Social Work Scotland.   The guidance outlines what is expected of local authorities when a serious incident comes to their attention.

The reporting of serious incidents currently pertains to people who have received a final disposal from court following conviction.  This includes people made subject to the various requirements of a community payback order or a drug treatment and testing order.  It also relates to everyone released from custody subject to statutory social work supervision.  Guidance on the management and delivery of these orders and licences is contained within a variety of national outcomes and standards - Scottish Government collection of justice social work guidance.

When a serious incident occurs the local authority should notify the Care Inspectorate within five working days. The Care Inspectorate provides a quality assurance role in Serious Incident Reviews, by looking at how reviews have been conducted and whether these have been carried out in a robust and meaningful way. The Serious Incident Review guidance with appendixes to submit a notification and review can be found here.

If there are any queries in the meantime please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please submit the relevant forms/reports through secure email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The notification and review templates can be found here:

• Serious Incident Review: Notification
• Serious Incident Review Part One: Case Review
• Serious Incident Review Part Two: Reflective Learning Review

The main contact for this work is:

Mike Hendry, Strategic Inspector

Mobile 07388 709834

Staffing schedules

The Care Inspectorate has traditionally issued a staffing schedule to relevant service types at the point of registration.  This is a historical practice that has continued from previous regulatory bodies.  The issuing of staffing schedules has been reviewed over the years, but the practice of some service types having a staffing schedule remains.  We have recognised that the majority of staffing schedules in place do not reflect the changing needs of people who currently use the service. In a time of great change across the care sector, we want to promote innovation and also ensure people experiencs high-quality care and support that is tailored to their needs, rights and choices.  High-quality staffing that responds dynamically to people’s needs is essential for this.

We recognise that staffing schedules are prescriptive and that they merely set a minimum standard based on numbers and general assumptions around the needs of the residents at the point of registration, which may have changed significantly since then.  The staffing schedules are based on the assumption that services operating at full occupancy.  They do not take account of changes in residents’ dependency and capabilities, either among long-standing residents or new people coming to live in the home.

Consequently, we have taken the decision to move away from issuing staffing schedules to enable providers to apply judgement and flexibility in demonstrating how they meet the requirements of the relevant regulation (SSI 210 (15) Staffing) which states that:

‘A provider must, having regard to the size and nature of the care services, the statement of aims and objectives and the number and needs of service users…ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent persons are working in the care service in such numbers as are appropriate for the health, welfare and safety of service users.’

We will however retain the discretion to impose conditions about staffing, or any other matter, on any individual care service where that is necessary to ensure people experience high quality care.

The legal framework under which services operate is quite clear that the responsibility for assessing staffing according to need lies with the provider of a care service.  The Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice requires us to be proportionate in our approach and we believe that the safety, health and wellbeing of people who experience care can be enhanced without the issuing of fixed staffing notices at the point of registration.

The removal of staffing schedules will also remove reference to the management arrangements, however Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) 210: Regulation 17 (1) (c) – Appointment of Manager states: “A provider who is not, or does not intend to be, in full time day-to-day charge of the care service must appoint an individual to manage the service”.  We expect this regulation to be complied with and to see the management arrangements detailed in the aims and objectives for each individual service.

With the removal of staffing schedules, our scrutiny methodology will help provide assurance that the provider has systems in place to assess people’s dependency, regularly and as their needs change.  Providers will be required to maintain a daily record of the staffing level and skill mix which results from a dynamic process in relation to the assessment of need and capability.

Quality Indicator 3.3 in the new quality framework for care homes for older people states: ‘Staffing levels are right and staff work well together’.  Inspectors can and will evaluate providers systems and processes against this indicator to ensure that there are positive outcomes for people who receive services.  We strongly encourage providers to ensure this is part of their self-evaluation and quality assurance systems also.

This approach reflects the Care Inspectorate’s broader shift towards outcomes-focused regulation which seeks to ensure that care and support is responsive to people’s individual needs.  Providers of care and support have a clear responsibility to provide effective staffing, and we will continue to ensure through our scrutiny work that this is happening.

From 1 September 2018 we will no longer issue staffing schedules for new registrations.  A letter and variation template will be sent to all existing providers for services who have staffing schedules.  Between January and 31 March 2019 we will process variations for all providers who return a completed variation template.

It may take some time to complete variations for all relevant registered services.  We are therefore unable to give a timescale for completion of individual applications; however, we will endeavour to complete variations as quickly as possible.