Our staff
Our workforce is highly skilled and experienced in all aspects of social care. Over 600 staff work across Scotland, inspecting thousands of services.
Our inspectors work in specialist national teams that allow best practice to be shared across the country. We also want to make sure that the people inspecting care services have frontline experience in the same sector.
We believe that people in Scotland should experience a better quality of life as a result of accessible, excellent services that are designed and delivered to reflect their individual needs and promote their rights.
Our values are:
1. Person-centered: we put people, empathy, compassion, and kindness at the heart of everything we do
2. Respect: we value everyone's dignity and are respectful in everything we do
3. Equity: we embrace diversity and nurture an inclusive environment where everyone is supported to achieve equal outcomes
4. Integrity: we act impartially, fairly, and consistently, upholding transparency and accountability in all our actions
5. Impact: we focus on making a positive impact for everyone experiencing care in Scotland whilst ensuring our work delivers the best value to the public
Our offices are based throughout the country. Find an office near you.
It is important to remember that all Care Inspectorate staff carry identification and you should ask to see this. If you are not sure of the person who has called or visited you, you should call us on 0345 600 9527 to confirm their identity.
About us
The Care Inspectorate is a scrutiny body which supports improvement. That means we look at the quality of care in Scotland to ensure it meets high standards. Where we find that improvement is needed, we support services to make positive changes.
Our vision is that everyone experiences safe, high-quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.
Our 600 staff work across Scotland, specialising in health and social care, early learning and childcare, social work, children’s services, and community justice.
Meet our Board and our senior leadership team.
We inspect individual care services
We register more than 11,000 registered care services in Scotland and our inspectors visit every one. Higher-risk services are inspected more often. Our inspectors talk to people using the service, staff and managers. We want to make sure that people experience high-quality care, and that care services are making a positive impact on people’s lives, based on their needs, rights and choices.
We give care services grades when we inspect them, and look at key areas like care and support, physical environment, quality of staffing, and quality of management and leadership. Each area of each care service is assessed on a scale from 1 to 6, where 1 in unsatisfactory and 6 is excellent. After every inspection, we publish an inspection report showing our findings, which is helpful if you are using service or thinking of doing so.
We inspect how care is provided across areas
We work with other scrutiny and improvement bodies to look at how local authorities, community planning partnerships and health and social care partnerships are delivering a range of services in their communities across Scotland. These inspections look at how well services are working together to support positive experiences and outcomes for people. This helps partnerships understand what is working well, and what needs to improve. You can read our joint inspection reports here.
Supporting improvement and driving up standards
Our job is not just to inspect care, but help the quality improve where needed. This means we work with services and support them, offering advice, guidance and sharing good practice to help care reach the highest standards. You can find lots of advice for care professionals on our dedicated website, The Hub.
We want everyone to experience high-quality care that meets their individual needs. Scotland’s Health and Social Care Standards describe what people should expect from care. The Standards are what we refer to when we are assessing how well care is performing.
What if things are not good enough?
If we find that care isn’t good enough, we take action. We can make recommendations for improvement and issue requirements for change and check these have happened. If a care service doesn’t improve, we can carry out enforcement action including, as a last resort, closing it down subject to the decision of a sheriff.
If you think a care service isn’t good enough you can share your concern or make a complaint to us. Find out more about concerns and complaints here.
The Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice
The Care Inspectorate is required by the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 to follow the Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code. The Code is issued by the Scottish Ministers and sets out the approaches we should take in dealing with those we regulate. We comply with the requirements of the Code in all that we do, ensuring that we always prioritise the safety, health and wellbeing of vulnerable people over commercial or business interests.
Care services in Scotland must be registered with the Care Inspectorate and a broad range of the individuals who work in those services must be registered with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). You can find more information about the SSSC on their website.
About Us
Inspector - Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) (0)
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.