Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation of Social Care in Scotland: progress update 2025 – easy read

What has been happening with the recommendations

In March 2024 I said we need to work on the recommendations. This would happen in stages so the work can be delivered in the way the Independent Review wants.

We cannot list all of the work being done for the recommendations. Some of the main areas of work being done are:

Recommendation 1: People must be at the centre of any checks on how their social care support service is working.

In December 2024 a toolkit was shared. This was made so support has a person-centred approach. This will help people to make better decisions about their support.

A toolkit is a set of simple things that help you to do something well.

Person-centred means listening to what a person wants and needs. They are at the centre of decisions that are made about their care.

Recommendation 4: People with lived experience must be involved in designing how checks on social care support are done.

This should include:

• the things used to do the checks (tools)
• the rules that say how checks should be done

Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate work together to check services for children and young people. Young people who have been in care help with these checks.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland check how well services are working to make them better for everyone.

Care Inspectorate do checks to make sure social care services are safe and good in Scotland.

Recommendation 8: There is a co-produced registration scheme for Personal Assistants (PAs).

Co-production means everyone taking part in the way something is planned and put together has an equal level of power.

Everyone’s view is important and everyone helps to make decisions.

Personal assistants could join a new registration scheme. A registration scheme is a list of people who have signed up to join it.

The PA Programme Board will continue to work with Disclosure Scotland on its workplan activities. This will support personal assistants to be seen as members of the social care workforce.

Disclosure Scotland do background checks to help keep people safe.

The PA Programme Board is a group to support PAs and the people they work for. So far, the PA Programme Board has:

• written a new direct payment agreement
• helped people understand safety checks
• made a new training plan with PAs and people with lived experience.

The direct payment agreement helps people understand how to manage care payments.

I thank the PA Programme Board for the work they have done so far. When the work listed above has been completed I believe this will meet the aims of recommendation 8.

Recommendation 13: Review The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011.

Make sure this still fits for social care in Scotland. The Scottish Government and the Care Inspectorate are working on this review together.

Recommendation 15: Review Schedule 12 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

The review will check if the types of care services and how the law describes them are still right and will:

• try and stop the same work being done again when it does not need to be
• make it easier for staff to work across different services
• support rules to be extended to other social care services in the future

I am pleased to say this work is going well.

The Scottish Government, the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council are working together on this.

We will work in partnership to use the experience of a wide range of people, including those with lived and living experience in this work.

Scottish Social Services Council look after people who work in care and social work in Scotland.

Recommendation 18: The Scottish Government and people who check services (regulators) work together to improve inspection work.

The Scottish Government should work with the regulators to make it clear:

• who does what in inspections
• what peoples’ and organisations’ responsibilities are.

Responsibilities are what people must do. This will make inspections more efficient.

In January 2025, a new plan to make inspections better for children and young people was published.

The plan is called the ‘Quality Improvement Framework’ for inspection of Early Learning Childcare (ELC), Childminders and School Age Childcare Providers.

The plan makes rules and responsibilities clearer. Over 200 service providers are helping to test the plan. Service providers have a duty to share information very carefully.

The plan will be in place for use later this year.

Recommendation 20: Those checking social care support services should make sure outcomes and improvement are a big part of checking services.

Outcomes are the results we want to get from our actions. They are about making things better for people who use social care support services.

The Scottish Government is working with other organisations on a new plan for improving social care. The plan is called the Scottish Learning and Improvement Framework for Adult Social Care and Community Health (SLIF).

The plan aims to improve things that matter to people who use social care support services.

Recommendation 30: Says that the right type of information should be used to improve services.

Service providers have to share information very carefully. A board has been set up to look at how information is collected and used.

Recommendation 31: It is important that information is collected for the right reasons. It should support delivery of good service management and improvement.

A group has been set up who will make sure that information is used better. It will find better ways to share information with people.

Recommendation 33: There should be a review of the Health and Social Care Standards.

This will make sure the Standards:

• are based on human rights
• include ethical commissioning – this means following the rules about what is right and wrong when choosing which services are needed and putting them in place
• focus on the way we want something to turn out.

I am pleased to say this work is going well.

The Scottish Government, the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Social Services Council are working together on this.

We will work in partnership to use the experience of a wide range of people, including those with lived and living experience in this work.