We are recruiting a new chief executive

The Care Inspectorate is recruiting a new chief executive. You can find out more about the role below and make an application here.

The Care Inspectorate is the independent scrutiny, assurance and improvement support body for social care and social work in Scotland. We provide public confidence in the quality of care delivered to people by individual services and across local communities and collaborate and take action where experiences and outcomes are not meeting individual needs.

To achieve our vision of world-class social care and social work in Scotland, where everyone, in every community, experiences high-quality care, support and learning, tailored to their rights, needs and wishes, we require an exceptional Chief Executive to lead us through the next phase of our exciting change journey and to drive us forward.

Leading the Care Inspectorate and effectively navigating and responding to the ever-changing health and social care landscape to ensure a person centred, human-rights based and outcome-focussed social care provision across Scotland, the successful candidate will effectively promote the Care Inspectorate as a high-profile, risk-based, problem-solving organisation.

The Chief Executive must act as an outstanding ambassador for the Care Inspectorate, and in response to the intensified level of public and media scrutiny, ensure the organisation’s reputation is protected and enhanced, whilst also building and sustaining credibility with the public and service providers and working in strategic and operational partnership with other scrutiny bodies.

We are seeking a strategic thinker and an experienced values-based leader who has a strong understanding of both scrutiny and improvement. Able to work effectively in a highly politicised environment, our new Chief Executive will also be able to demonstrate the ability to develop and maintain effective relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders, creating alliances and establishing professional credibility.

Passionate about the quality of social care and social work services in Scotland, the successful candidate should also bring direct experience of effectively managing resources and budgets, delivering long term financial sustainability and value for money and a strong commitment to best practice coupled with a drive for continual improvement.

NB: The Care Inspectorate embraces agile working and whilst our headquarters are in Dundee, the successful candidate would not necessarily need to be based in Dundee full time.

For more information on this exciting opportunity please contact Douglas Adam at Livingston James, our retained recruitment partner.

The Care Inspectorate is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status or pregnancy and maternity.

Chief Inspector (Adult Services)

Contract:      Permanent

Salary:           £82,920 – 40 hours per week

Location:      Flexible – Any Care Inspectorate office across Scotland

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 the role

We are currently looking to recruit a Chief Inspector to lead on the planning, development, and delivery of strategic inspection activity in respect of adult services including joint inspections of health and social care integration, adult support and protection and justice services.

The successful candidate will ensure excellence in scrutiny, assurance and improvement work in collaboration with scrutiny partners, providers, Community planning partners and integrated joint boards.

You will support the Executive Director of Scrutiny and Assurance to ensure that the Care Inspectorate meets its responsibilities as defined by the Public Services Reform Act 2010 and other relevant legislation, and where appropriate provide strategic contribution and leadership to inform national policy and strategy.

You will work with senior managers and colleagues to support significant cultural change, consolidate excellence in the Care Inspectorate’s activities and continue to invest in our competent, confident workforce in a way that puts collaboration at the core of our work.

Adept at challenging traditional thinking in a positive and constructive way, you will be an articulate and positive communicator, both verbally and in written form, with the ability to engage, influence and lead the development of a wide range of key stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally.

You will also be politically astute and demonstrate a broad knowledge of trends and relevant issues within social work and social care services.

The Care Inspectorate has its headquarters in Dundee, but with offices throughout Scotland, your work base is negotiable.

The Application process

To apply you must be:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent.
• Hold an appropriate post-graduate professional qualification in social work or other relevant professional qualification

We are looking for someone who has:

• Extensive experience of leading and managing staff in the area of adults, justice and/or protection services.
• Extensive experience of developing and/or applying quality assurance/improvement frameworks to support self-evaluation and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrable experience of strategic planning and delivery of services and supporting and embedding sustainable business and transformational change.
• Extensive experience of collaborative and values-based leadership including working with partners at both a strategic and operational level.

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

Next steps

You’ll find more information in the:

• job profile
• person specification
• job advert

For an informal chat about the role please contact the HR team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will arrange a suitably convenient time for you to discuss any questions you may have with the Executive Director of Scrutiny and Assurance.

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. by Monday, 14 February 2022 at 8.00am.

It is anticipated that the selection and interview date for this post will be held on Tuesday, 8 March 2022.

Corporate parenting

Corporate Parents are public bodies with legal duties and responsibilities towards care experienced children and young people. Part 9 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act, 2014 relates to Corporate Parenting. This applies to every child who is looked after by a local authority, and every young person under the age of 26, who was looked after on their 16th birthday.

Our organisation is one of a list of 24 corporate parents mentioned in the Act. 

​​​​​​​A person is care experienced if they have ever been looked after by a local authority; whether that be in foster care, kinship care, residential care, secure care, or if they have been subject to compulsory measures of supervision at home.  Children and young people who are care experienced have among the poorest outcomes of all children and young people in Scotland. It is our job as corporate parents to try and improve this. 

In 2020, we took the decision to refer to care experienced young people as “our children and young people”. This reflects our values, responsibilities and commitments as corporate parents.

As a corporate parent, we expect to carry out many of the roles any parent should. We have a duty to work with other corporate parents, to best meet our shared responsibilities, promote the wellbeing of our children and young people and keep them safe from harm.

Our Corporate Parenting Report (2017-2020)

Our corporate parenting group has made some significant achievements during the three-year cycle of our plan, which are discussed in our corporate parenting report (2017-2020). We also have a version of our corporate parenting report for children and young people.

Some of our key achievements and improvement include:

• The development of a complaints text service for children and young people and improved materials to inform children and young people on how they can make a complaint.
• Personal care planning guidance: our children and young people have personal plans. These give guidance to care services on how to meet their needs, wishes and choices. We met 120 of our children and young people to help them develop these to a high standard.
• Our young inspection volunteers support a range of our inspection activities. This short video provides a little insight into how they help us  engage with children and young people meaningfully. 
• We have worked with Who Cares? Scotland and our young inspection volunteers to develop and deliver training for all board members, executive group members and senior managers.

Our Corporate Parenting Plan (2021-2023)

Our Corporate Parenting Plan (2021-2023) has six high level commitments with four areas of focus and a set of detailed actions. We have also developed a version of our Corporate Parenting Plan for Children and Young People.

We pledge to listen to our children and young people, take action and do our best to improve their life chances. These are our six commitments. The action plan in our Corporate Parenting Plan (2021-2023) shows in detail how we will meet them:

• We will strive to meet the needs of our young people and promote their rights.
• We will listen to our young people and we will learn how their experiences of the ‘care system’ can best shape our approach to scrutiny, engagement and improvement to help improve the lives of others.
• We will continue to inspect different services and partnerships and report on how well they work together. We will help services share what works well and learn from what needs to improve, to help make sure that our young people get the right support at the right time.
• When one of our young people makes a complaint about the care they receive, we will take that complaint seriously and we will respond in a timely, thorough and proportionate way. We will always provide feedback to the person who made the complaint in a way that they will understand.
• We will improve opportunities for our young people to develop skills, experience, and confidence to achieve their personal, employment and career ambitions.
• We will work with other corporate parents to make sure that together we can do our best for our young people.

How we recruit inspectors

We are currently recruiting inspectors for adult services and early learning and childcare servies. Find out more from the job adverts here.

How we recruit inspectors

Our inspector recruitment process also follows the same model as our other roles with the addition of a two-step selection stage, detailed below. 

Selection assessment 1

If you’re shortlisted, we’ll invite you to complete our online selection assessment. This is a written exercise designed to test your potential to be an inspector.    

Selection assessment 2

If you successfully complete the online assessment, you’ll be invited to attend an interview and to speak to your written exercise response on how you would give feedback.

If you’re successful at this stage, we’ll let you know and confirm next steps.  We’ll either confirm you’re the preferred candidate for a suitable vacancy (based on your specialism and location) or you’ll be invited to join our talent pool for future vacancies. 

For more information about our talent pool please see the FAQs below.

FAQs about inspector recruitment

What qualifications do I need to become an inspector?

To become an inspector, you must be registered with, or able to register, and hold a qualification that meets the registration requirements of one of these regulatory bodies:

• Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)
• General Teaching Council (Scotland) (GTC)
• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) 
• General Medical Council (GMC) Health and Care Professions Council (applies to the following roles only: occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and practitioner psychologists)
• Other equivalent professional bodies for the UK nations

Inspectors eligible to apply for registration with the SSSC must hold a suitable practice qualification at SCQF level 9. For more information on the list of suitable qualifications please see the section below.

Inspectors must also hold or undertake one of these appropriate regulator's awards:

• Regulation of Care Award
• PDA Scrutiny and Improvement Practice (Social Services) SCQF level 10

Qualifications that meet the Scottish Social Service Council’s (SSSC) registration requirements

SCSWIS authorised officer – Care Inspectorate inspector (primary and secondary officer)

There are two qualification requirements
1. Practice
2. Regulatory

Practice qualifications

BA Childhood Practice
Postgraduate Diploma in Childhood Practice
BA Social Pedagogy (University of Aberdeen)
BA (Hons) Social Work (or equivalent)
PDA Childhood Practice at SCQF Level 9
SVQ Social Services and Healthcare at SCQF Level 9
SVQ Social Services (Children and Young People) at SCQF Level 9

Regulatory qualifications

PDA Scrutiny and Improvement Practice (Social Services)
Regulation of Care Award (ROCA)
European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)

Practice qualifications we also accept

SVQ 4 Children's Care Learning and Development at SCQF Level 9

SVQ 4 Health and Social Care at SCQF Level 9

Qualification meeting requirements of other regulatory bodies (practice requirement)

A qualification meeting the registration requirements for the following professional groups regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council:

• occupational therapists
• physiotherapists
• speech and language therapists
• practitioner psychologists.

A qualification meeting the registration requirements of the General Teaching Council (Scotland), Nursing and Midwifery Council or the General Medical Council

Degree/Diploma in Community Education as recognised by the Standards Council for Community Learning and Development for Scotland Approvals Committee

Qualifications which are no longer available, but we continue to accept (regulatory requirement)

Public Service Improvement Framework (PSIF)

If you have not found the information you need about your qualification and SSSC registration, please contact the SSSC using the web form on their contact us page.

What experience do I need to become an inspector

To become an inspector, we need you to have senior professional experience, expertise and knowledge of adult social care or health care, early learning and childcare or children and young people sectors.

You should also have experience of lead responsibility for complex professional practice through case management, managing people, projects or resources. We welcome applications from candidates with these professional backgrounds.

What support will I get to maintain my professional registration?

Maintaining your registration with your professional body is a core requirement for all inspectors.  To support this, we’ll provide you with access to a range of learning activities for your continuing professional and personal development.  Our learning management system automatically records all of your learning and we’ll support your re-validation with your professional body.  You’ll also participate in regular supervision and peer learning activities through our LEAD (learn, experience, achieve and development) performance and development process. 

All inspectors are also expected to undertake our Professional Development Award in Scrutiny and Improvement (Social Services) at SCQF level 10.

What is the salary and grade for the role of inspector?

The role is on an Inspector grade 7. Starting salaries are non-negotiable and all new staff start on the grade minimum for their role. Please see the current starting salary on the advert for the current recruitment campaign.

Following six months service, you will receive an annual increment on 1 April each year until you reach the top of the grade.

How much flexibility is there in terms of working hours and location?

Our inspectors work flexibly and you’ll work 140 hours over each four week period. This equates to 35 hours per week.

We have offices across Scotland and we support a range of flexible working arrangements including homeworking and hybrid working.

Once I apply, how long will it be before my application is considered?

We accept applications from prospective inspectors all throughout the year. We have two recruitment periods each year and your application will be considered during the next recruitment period, following your application submission. 

How long does the selection process take?

Our selection process is based on a two-stage assessment. Depending on the volume of applications we receive, we aim to complete each recruitment period within three months of the adverts closing date. Our recruitment team will communicate regularly throughout the recruitment period to ensure you’re up to date on the status of your application and you have all of the information you need to participate in our selection process.

What happens after I've been offered a role?

We’ll carry out pre-employment checks so we can confirm your offer of employment. These include:

• proof of ID / right to work in the UK
• two successful references, where one is from your current or most recent employer
• a PVG check
• occupational health questionnaire and referrals where appropriate
• registration and qualifications check

Once all checks are complete, we’ll agree a start date and formally confirm your offer of employment by providing you with a contract outlining your terms and conditions.

I've been invited to join the inspector talent pool. What does this mean?

If you successfully complete our selection process, we’ll either confirm you’re the preferred candidate for a suitable vacancy (based on your specialism and location) or you’ll be invited to join our talent pool for future vacancies.

Our talent pool is our bank of candidates who have successfully completed the inspector selection process and are available to be appointed to suitable vacancies, based on their specialism and location.

As a member of our talent pool, you’ll be a valued candidate and we’ll:

• monitor and identify suitable vacancies that we can offer you based on your specialism and location
• share regular updates about our vacancies, recruitment plans and other relevant Care Inspectorate news.

You don’t need to reapply for future inspector vacancies for up to two years.

Unfortunately, depending on our vacancies, we may not always be in a position to offer a role to all talent pool candidates.

If you would like to chat to us about our recruitment process or a particular job, please get in touch with our HR team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..