Making sure everyone is working together for

children

Sarah BlackmoreDepute Director (Children’s Services & Criminal Justice)

Who we are

• We are Scotland’s independent scrutiny and improvement body responsible for:– regulation and inspection of care and support

services (including criminal justice services)– scrutiny of social work services– joint inspections, with partners, of services for

adults and children.

Who we are• We regulate and inspect care services for

people of all ages

• We help services improve the quality of care

• We were established under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 as “SCSWIS”

• We operate independently from the Scottish Government but are accountable to it and publicly funded.

Aberdeen office

Dundee office and headquarters

Musselburgh office

Hamilton office

Paisley office

… and 11 local offices throughout Scotland.

Where we are

• Annette Bruton: Chief Executive

• Karen Anderson: Depute Chief Executive / Director of Strategic Development

• Gordon Weir: Director of Corporate Services

• Dr Robert Peat: Director of Inspection

Senior staff

• The Care Inspectorate believes 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. 

Vision

• We inspect and grade around 14,000 regulated care services used by people of all ages

• We provide scrutiny of social work services in Scotland’s 32 local authorities

• With partner bodies, we carry out joint inspections of children’s and adult services on a strategic basis

What we do

What we inspect

• Inspectors moved from working in generic teams to working in teams of specialist knowledge

• 142 inspectors & team managers for children’s services, across teams in children, young people, and justice

• Based across Scotland but work in national teams

• This enhances our work in improvement

Inspectors

• Provide assurance and protection for people who use services, their families and carers and the wider public

• Play a key part in improving services for adults and children across Scotland

• Act as a catalyst for change and innovation

• Promote good practice

It’s our job to…

Person-Centred: we will put people at the heart of everything we do

Fairness: we will act fairly, be transparent and treat people equally

Respect: we will be respectful in all that we do

Integrity: we will be impartial and act to improve care for the people of Scotland

Efficiency: we will provide the best possible quality and public value from our work

Our values

The current Corporate Plan sets three outcomes - key ways of knowing if the Care Inspectorate is successful:

The quality of services in Scotland is improving

People understand the quality of service they should expect and have a good experience of services centred on their needs, rights and risks

The Care Inspectorate performs effectively and efficiently as an independent, scrutiny and improvement body and works well in partnership with other bodies

New plan due from April 2014.

Corporate Plan

Resources• 600 staff (300 are front-line inspectors)

• Annual budget of around £34 million• Current budget is 8.6% lower than the combined

budgets of predecessor bodies• Build in efficiency savings targets in all that we

do• Savings fund the cost of additional inspection

and improvement work, including the new statutory requirement to inspect every care home and care-at-home service annually

• Our inspection plan is agreed by Scottish Ministers

• Most inspections are unannounced or short- notice

• More focus on poorer and high risk services

• Inspectors use a variety of methods to inspect

• We follow up inspections with recommendations, requirements and enforcement action if necessary

How we inspect

Inspecting• We visit every service we inspect and talk to

users, carers and families• We talk to staff and managers privately & in

groups• Examine what quality of care is being provided• Look at the activities happening on the day• Examine records and files• Ensure people have choices that reflect their

needs and promote their rights

Inspecting• Visits can last a day or multiple days• For regulated care services, we usually use

one inspector, but not always• We take account of:

– self assessment– National Care Standards– recommendations we made previously– any complaints against the service– any enforcement actions we have

Developed by Scottish Ministers, they:

• apply to care services

• are written from the perspective of the person using the service

• guide service providers on how to provide good quality care

• inform people who use care services about what to expect.

Consultation on new NCS is

about to be launched

National Care Standards

Experts• Inspectors can draw advice from a team

of in-house experts:

• Team of consultants:– child & adolescent mental health, infection

• Team of professional advisers in:– pharmacy, palliative care, mental health,

nutrition, infection prevention & control, medical practice

Involvement• We want to hear as many views from users of

care services as possible

• We involve inspection volunteers in some inspections: people with experience of care

• Mainly in adult services, but we have a commitment to increase the involvement young people across all our work

• For joint inspections of children’s services, we are involving young inspectors as full members of the inspection teams

Grading• All regulated care

services are graded:Grade 6 – Excellent

Grade 5 – Very good

Grade 4 – Good

Grade 3 – Adequate

Grade 2 – Weak

Grade 1 – Unsatisfactory

• 4 quality themes are assessed:– quality of care and

support– quality of environment– quality of staffing– quality of management

& leadership

• All reports are published online

Care services• Summary of grades at 31 January 2014

Theme 1: Quality of Care and Support

Grade 6 – Excellent 8.4%

Grade 5 – Very good 53.8%

Grade 4 – Good 30.3%

Grade 3 – Adequate 5.9%

Grade 2 – Weak 1.3%

Grade 1 – Unsatisfactory 0.3%

Complaints• Our national complaints team investigate

complaints about care services

• Can be made anonymously to our National Enquiry Line

• In 2012/3, we received 3,172 complaints

• The 3 most frequent subjects were:– health & welfare– communication with users/relatives– staffing levels

Ministers asked the Care Inspectorate to lead joint inspections of services for children and

young people, to:

• improve outcomes for all children and young people• provide assurance about the quality of services for

children and young people • help to improve services and build capacity

Our overarching approach:

• is in line with the principles of Getting it right for every child• is child-centred and based around the experience of the child’s

journey• supports improved self-evaluation• where possible, joins up scrutiny and makes use of evidence

from other inspection• builds upon the successful model of the joint inspections of

services to protect children

This requires an inspection footprint of 6 months, but only 13 days on site.

Key features

a framework of quality indicators:How well are the lives of children and young people? A guide to evaluating services using quality indicators

a focus on how well services are working together to

improve the lives ofall children vulnerable children and young peoplecontinued focus on children in need of protection

Scope of the inspection

• the child’s journey from pre-birth – 18 years and beyond for care leavers

• applicable to vulnerable groups of children and young people and families

• collective leadership of the community planning partnership – shared responsibility, integration and transformational change

Who is involved?

Care Inspectorate– Strategic Inspectors – Young Inspectors– Team Manager– Associate Assessors

HMICSEducation ScotlandHealthcare Improvement Scotland

Admin Officer/Head of Inspection

Where are we now?

• 4 pilot inspections completed and published(City of Edinburgh, Orkney, Argyll and Bute, North Ayrshire)

• 7 inspections in 2013/14East Dunbartonshire and Midlothian – published

Dumfries and Galloway, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, East Lothian and Highland underway

• 6 inspections in 2014/15East Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire already announced

Associate Assessor

We are establishing a pool of associate assessors to join inspection teams. They are practitioners and managers across a range of partners who will:

•bring the perspective of current practice and challenges of partnership/integrated working •increase transparency and credibility•build capacity for joint self-evaluation and improvement

Young inspectors

Specially trained young people with experience of care who join inspection teams and play a full role. They:•interview senior managers and chief executives •explore corporate parenting and the involvement of children and young people in policy and service development•examine strategic plans from a young person’s perspective•speak to young people

Young inspectors video