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Scrutiny and inspection

Where is Scotland in 2024?

There is evidence of progress across Scotland as organisations with scrutiny and inspection responsibility have worked to integrate the promise into scrutiny programmes and align approaches with promise principles. This includes supporting babies, children and young people on the edges of care and with care experience, and aligning efforts with participation, equalities, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), corporate parenting, national best practices. and upholding Health and Social Care standards.

Across the scrutiny and inspection landscape, there have been positive steps towards valuing children's experiences in inspection feedback. This indicates a proactive approach to enhancing inspection processes and incorporating child perspectives into regulatory practices.

However, the lack of comprehensive data on the 'care system' poses significant challenges to monitoring progress effectively. Criticisms regarding data collection priorities and interruptions in policy reviews, such as the National Care Service consultation, further highlight the need for improved data management practices and policy coherence. These challenges highlight the complexities involved in implementing new regulatory frameworks that align with the promise across Scotland.

Scrutiny and inspection

Where does Scotland need to be by 2030?

By 2030, Scotland will have transformed its standards of care so what ‘good’ looks like is based on what matters to children, young people, families, and care experienced adults. This means:

  • There will be established, consistent care standards across all providers, subject to independent scrutiny and accreditation that values what children, young people, families, and care experienced adults value.
  • Regulation and scrutiny will focus on listening and ensuring that children and young people they feel loved, safe, and respected, and that families and care experienced adults feel supported, measuring the things that matter to them and support their ability to thrive.
  • Scotland will have fundamentally changed how it inspects children's services and regulates its workforce. The Care Inspectorate, the SSSC, and other regulators will have created a holistic framework covering the entirety of care journeys, including aftercare and advocacy services, focused on children's experiences and their ability to find and sustain safe and nurturing relationships.
  • Consistency across all regulators will align the evidence base, avoid duplication, and ensure shared values and focus within inspections.
Where does Scotland need to be by 2030?

The route map to get there

Focus must be on the fact that money is not always focused on the right things and budgets are decreasing, leading to overstretched services and increasing numbers of families in poverty. There are clear tensions in what Scotland says it wants for its children and families, and what it is doing with the resources it has. For progress to be made, work must prioritise resolving this to ensure the money that is spent is clearly aligned to need and impact across the 'care system' and all adjacent systems.

Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate will implement a new shared inspection framework for early learning and childcare services.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) will work with The Promise Scotland to develop a resource to help children and young people to access and engage with the new Codes of Practice for Social Service Workers and Employers.

The SSSC will publish the refreshed Common Core, providing a national framework of the values, knowledge and skills expected of everyone working with children and young people.

The Care Inspectorate will publish findings of their review in relation to assessing the involvement and wellbeing of children with disabilities receiving social work services.

Scrutiny bodies, through the Strategic Public Sector Scrutiny Network, are developing a new approach to scrutiny. This aligns with the relevant themes set out in the Independent Care Review (putting voice at the centre and focusing on outcomes), and the Crerar Review and will be tested in 2024/25.

The Care Inspectorate will continue to strengthen their approach and methodologies to prioritise the quality of children's relationships over care processes and increase engagement with children through more service visits in the 2024/05 inspection year.

The SSSC will complete a review of the National Occupational Standards, considering children’s views as part of the review. It will revise language and strengthen elements of the current qualification to meet the ambitions of the promise.

Audit Scotland has confirmed it will be publishing a briefing, on behalf of the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission, on outcomes for care experienced children and young people. This is expected to report in early summer 2025.

The actions outlined in the Voice foundation are fully embedded at every stage to progress actions on Scrutiny and inspection.

What is helping?

The Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny, and Regulation of Social Care in Scotland (IRISR) was published in September 2023 and made 38 recommendations. This included a review of health and social care standards, to focus on rights that are person-centred and outcomes-focused; to listen to lived experience; and to ensure that people are involved in decision making around their lives. Further recommendations were suggested about the need for inspection, scrutiny and regulation to be more streamlined, to increase consistency and avoid duplication. The Scottish Government responded in March 2024, accepting all 38 recommendations.

The Care Inspectorate (CI) has taken steps to ensure that relationships have greater prominence in the quality improvement frameworks that underpin inspections. It has taken steps to better integrate children's voices into inspection through applying a LUNDY model lens, contemporary research, examples of good practice and stakeholder collaboration focusing on accessibility and inclusion.

A pilot project is underway to create a feedback loop for children after an inspection, showing them how their views influenced inspection outcomes and subsequent actions.

A refresh of CI’s quality framework and guidance for regulated children and young people's services was published in November 2022, to ensure they are rights-based and aligned with the promise. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and Education Scotland are all signed up to this framework.

Changes have been made to the questions asked as part of the inspection of regulated children and young people’s services. This has resulted in creating a more balanced regulatory footprint to support services recovery and development post-pandemic. These questions (Key Question 7) prioritise the quality of children's relationships over care processes and increase engagement with children through more service visits.

There is ongoing consultation with stakeholders regarding CI ‘s inspection methodologies and development of new self-evaluation tools, such as the use of restrictive practices within children’s residential care settings.

Work has been undertaken with CI early learning and childcare (ELC) teams, to align local inspection practices with the promise.

The Secure Pathway Review, published in September 2023, examined the experiences of 30 children living in or at risk of needing to live in secure care. CI met and listened to the children, their parents, carers and the staff who supported them before, during and after experiencing secure care to find out what helped them most. Effective practice and areas for improvement were highlighted.

Education Scotland have been working to improve the awareness, knowledge and skills of education leaders and practitioners to best meet the needs of children and young people who have care-experience through collaboration and professional learning.

The recent announcement to create a new organisation to support the independent His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education is an opportunity to ensure approaches to the inspection of education is in line with the principles of the promise.

SSSC’s Future Proofing Programme (a key initiative to uphold the promise’s call to ‘declutter and streamline professional codes, procedures, and processes)’ resulted in changes to registration in June 2024. The aim is to make registration with SSSC more straightforward, highlighting the benefits and value of being registered. Additionally, the programme aims to inform people about the standards, skills and qualifications required to deliver high-quality care.

Who must act?

Public Bodies

Public Bodies
Scottish Government

Scottish Government
Scrutiny

Scrutiny

Here is what matters to children and families

When organisations and people who support me are given feedback about what they need to be doing better, that feedback is based on what ‘good’ looks like to me, my family, and what matters to us.

Find out more about the what matters questions here.

Also connected to this theme

Documenting decisions
Listening
Participation and engagement
Leadership
Workforce support
Data and information
Governance
Legislation
Rights

Mapping

This is how Plan 24-30 relates to other frameworks and plans

Independent Care Review conclusions  Plan 21-24 priority area
the promise pgs. 27-28; 111-112 What matters to children and families
  Listening
  Building capacity 

 

 

UNCRC GIRFEC
Articles 3; 20 Safe
Concluding observation 13a-b Nurtured
  Respected
  Responsible



Plan 24-30 foundations