Joint statement from the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland on the shared inspection framework for early learning and childcare (ELC) services, including childminding and school-aged childcare in Scotland.
The Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland are continuing to work together to develop the new shared inspection framework. Our commitment remains to publish the framework and have it operational by September 2024. Throughout this time, we will continue to listen and respond to the views of the sector.
Later this month, we will gather your views on a draft version of the framework. We will announce the date for this engagement in the coming weeks. Once we have taken your views into account, we will publish the shared inspection framework in January. This is slightly later than the original date of 31 December and takes into account the festive period, when many settings are on holiday.
Pilot phase
We plan to test out the shared inspection framework on a number of inspections in settings from January 2024. During this time, we will continue to listen to and consider your views and ensure that we make changes that are needed.
Implementation timeframe
Following feedback received from stakeholders, the Care Inspectorate has changed its implementation date for using the new shared inspection framework from April 2024 to September 2024. This will allow more time for the sector to become familiar with the framework’s content before implementation. This means that both Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate will implement the new framework during inspections from September 2024.
We would like to thank you all again for your support in the development of this shared inspection framework and look forward to hearing your views and delivering the competed framework in due course.