Our contact centre will be open late for all services every Thursday between 16:00-19:00 during the annual return period. There will be limited staff available, so we ask for your patience while we answer your calls. Call us on 0345 600 9527📞

Our contact centre will be open late for all services every Thursday between 16:00-19:00 during the annual return period. There will be limited staff available, so we ask for your patience while we answer your calls. Call us on 0345 600 9527📞

We're holding engagement sessions for the ELC sector on the new quality improvement framework. We hope that practitioners will welcome these opportunities to engage with inspectors to become familiar with the new framework. Register your place here

The annual return submission deadline is 2 March 2025. Our contact centre will be extremely busy leading up to the deadline date, therefore, we would ask services not to leave completing their annual return until the last few weeks. For advice, call 0345 600 9527.

We're recruiting inspectors to work within our early learning and childcare, children and young people, adult, registration and complaints teams. For more information about the role and how to apply visit

The volunteers, of all ages, who support the Care Inspectorate, add so much value to the work we do. They not only support inspections but also other initiatives with their experiences, time and dedication. Apply to become an inspection volunteer here

Did you know, the most annual returns so far have been completed by childminders!🙌 Submit yours today at Remember to submit before 2 March 2025. For more information visit

The Care Inspectorate is taking part in #REW25, a week where organisations and employees across the country unite by taking action to address race inequality in the workplace. Join the movement. Find out more at #EveryActionCounts @RaceEquality_UK

We're recruiting inspectors! We’re 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. Apply today

Residents at Eilean Dubh care home in Fortrose swapped their slippers for stilettos as they rolled out the red carpet for Black Isle Style, a fundraising auction and fashion show. Read the full story in our latest edition of #CareNews here

It's #TimeToTalkDay, the nation’s biggest mental health conversation. It is a day that friends, families, communities, and workplaces come together to talk, listen and change lives. Talking openly and honestly can be the first step towards better mental health for everyone.

Visit our sharing good practice page on #TheHub to read our #PromiseInPractice stories #ThePromiseScotland #GoodPracticeStories

As part of everyone's journey to meet the Promise, we reviewed our key inspection question 7 with inspectors, young people who experience or have experienced care and providers to evaluate the impact it was having and how well it was supporting the sector to self-evaluate its own performance. We made some changes as a result of this review and agreed to continue to use key question 7 for inspections from April 2024 onwards. #ThePromiseScotland

Last year we published a report on the experiences of children and young people placed in residential care settings in Scotland from other UK jurisdictions. We found that young people were supported in various ways to keep in touch with the people who were important to them and all young people felt they had their voices heard at reviews. Find out more at #ThePromiseScotland

Bairns’ Hoose offers holistic, child-centred support to those who have been victims or witness of abuse and to children under the age of criminal responsibility whose behaviour has caused harm. Recent progress in Bairns’ Hoose development has focussed on establishing research arrangements for learning and the identification of core quantitative indicators for measuring implementation and outcomes. A key aspect of local implementation has been to ensure that, in line with Promise, participation is woven throughout the process. #ThePromiseScotland

We published our Children’s rights, care experience and corporate parenting plan 2024-2027. This high-level plan details our commitments and priority actions to meet our obligations, as corporate parents, to care experienced people. It details our commitments and priority actions, and recognises that all staff at the Care Inspectorate are corporate parents. Find out more at #ThePromiseScotland

The Promise stated that Scotland must strive to become a nation that does not restrain its children and robust self-evaluation of restrictive practices plays a key role in this journey. The Care Inspectorate, as a member of Restraint Reduction Scotland, has therefore worked collaboratively with the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG) to review and update our restrictive practices self-evaluation tool. #ThePromiseScotland

We recently published the first annual report on restrictive practices used in Scotland’s residential childcare settings. One of the recommendations of The Promise related to the recording and reporting of both restraint and seclusion. This recommendation was made with the intention of better understanding how often and how these restrictive practices are used. The Care Inspectorate collects data from Scottish care services on the use of restraint and restrictive practices. The introduction of annual publication of this data contributes to the national learning needed to make the Promise happen. #ThePromiseScotland

The Promise highlights the importance of relationship-based practice. As part of our review of transitions for care experienced young people, we wanted to learn more about the ways young people are supported and encouraged to make decisions about staying put and moving on. We focussed on hearing as much as we could from young people and how they experienced services and relationships to support them and how they felt. #ThePromiseScotland

Last year we carried out a review to learn and understand more about disabled children and young people’s views and experiences of the support they received from social work services. We listened to the views and experiences of 83 disabled children and young people in 4 local authority areas. Our review found that respectful relationships were key to building a culture of listening to and respecting children and young people’s views. This ensured they were engaged in decisions about their care and support. #ThePromiseScotland