Tester

Role: Tester

Location: Flexible (any Care Inspectorate office)

Salary: £40,608 - £43,962

Hours: 35 hours per week

Contract: Permanent


About us

We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.

We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.

Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We are moving towards an expectation that all staff will work collaboratively, within and across teams, in person for a minimum number of days each week.

About the role

Our vision for IT and Digital Transformation is: Our stakeholders have access to the digital services they need to enable them to improve care service outcomes for every person in the community in Scotland. We are looking to recruit a number of roles that can support our organisation's business applications, working within a dedicated IT and transformation team.

We want your skills to help us develop and enhance our existing services which support operational colleagues. This is an exciting time as we aim to develop and enhance these existing services through and blended agile and traditional approach to delivery. When you join us in this important role you’ll support the Digital Transformation team by contributing towards the overall planning, control and delivery of testing, test data, resources and tools. For example, you might work on the review of observation records, monitor the status and resolution of any defects raised, manage test coverage and traceability, and contribute to test readiness reviews. You’ll also oversee the delivery of end-to-end test plans, managing all activities in the plans to ensure that the acceptance criteria of new feature development is of the highest quality.

This is an exciting opportunity to work with a great team delivering digital services which will improve how we support scrutiny, assurance and improvement for people who experience care in Scotland.

About you

You will have strong exploratory testing experience using test charters to focus test sessions. You will also have experience of testing web applications including aspects such as SQL skills, automated testing, multi-browser, accessibility, regression and usability testing.

You will be educated to degree level or hold equivalent relevant experience. You will also have strong analytical and trouble shooting skills, excellent communication skills and the ability to work under pressure and meet targets.

We are looking for the right candidate who is Scotland based due to collaboration and wellbeing support as part of the delivery process.

Next steps

You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.

For an informal discussion, please contact Stuart MacKenzie, Head of Transformation, by email in the first instance This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you believe that you are a suitable candidate for this post, please download and complete an application form and equal opportunities form and submit it by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 08:00 on Monday 29 January 2024.

It is anticipated that interviews will take place at our Stirling office no sooner than Tuesday 6 February.

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Safe Staffing Adviser

Role: Safe Staffing Adviser – Safe Staffing Programme

Location: Any Care Inspectorate office (hybrid working is currently trialled)                       

Salary: £45,102 - £49,881 plus excellent benefits 

Hours: 140 hours over 4 weeks 

Contract: Temporary / Secondment until 31 March 2024


About us

We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices. We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.

About the role

The Health & Care (Staffing) (Scotland) 2019 legislation will impact on social care services that support children and adults when it is enacted in April 2024.

We are commissioned by Scottish Government to promote safe, high-quality services and appropriate staffing across all social care settings. We are looking to recruit Safe Staffing Advisers to join our Safe Staffing Programme.

The programme team works with key partners to provide support to care services, and the Care Inspectorate, in preparation for changes to the statutory basis for the provision of appropriate staffing in all care settings.

We are looking for experienced, enthusiastic and highly motivated social care professionals to support this national programme. If you are passionate about supporting quality improvement for people experiencing or working in care services, we want to hear from you.

About you

You will bring an improvement perspective, be confident and have the ability to build relationships and influence others.

Educated to degree level, you will have experience of working within children or adult care services. The diversity of our work requires an adaptable approach that can be applied to any setting including early learning and childcare, children and young people and adult services.  

You will also have experience in successfully using improvement tools and methods and have excellent communication skills.

You will be experienced in developing, supporting and delivering learning to a variety of groups and individuals is preferable.

You understand the importance of involving people experiencing care in quality improvement initiatives.

To apply

You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.

If you would like any further information, or an informal chat, please contact Stephanie Thom, Programme Team Lead via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please download and complete an application form and an equalities monitoring form and return by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by no later than 8am on Monday 5 June 2023.

 It is anticipated that interviews will take place on Wednesday 21 June 2023.

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Information for care home residents and their carers

People’s rights to have meaningful connection

Every adult and older person living in a care home has the right to connect with family, friends and community. They have the right to have visits and go out if they wish. Care homes should support this and not put barriers or restrictions in place.

Scotland’s Health and Social Care Standards set out what people should expect when using health, care or social work services. In 2022, two new Standards were introduced that cover the right to visit even when there is an outbreak of infectious disease such as covid, norovirus or flu.

We have published guidance for care homes on how they must implement visiting in line with the two new Standards.

Legislation is being developed by Scottish Government that will enshrine visiting rights in law. For now, this is known as Anne’s Law.

What we expect care homes to do

The Care Inspectorate’s job is to make sure services are delivering good-quality care and support that respects people’s rights, needs and wishes. That includes making sure care homes for adults and older people fully support visiting and connection by following the appropriate guidance and processes.

People living in care homes must be supported to stay connected to loved ones and take part in their community if they wish. We advise care homes on good practice that supports people to stay connected with their loved ones, have visits and take part in their community. Where this support is not happening, we can use our powers to ensure it does.

We expect care homes to support visiting by following the Scottish Government’s Open with Care guidance.

If you are interested more generally in what we expect care homes to deliver, our quality framework for care homes for adults and older people guides care home providers on what we look at when we inspect and the quality we expect from them.

How visiting and going out should routinely work

We expect people who live in care homes to be able to see their visitors at any time and without restriction. This includes outings from the home.

Care homes should not operate booking systems or restrict when people can visit or go out. You should not have to give notice, and visits and outings should not have a time limit. 

People living in the care home and their visitors do not normally need to wear face masks unless it is a personal choice.

Good hand hygiene should always be followed, and you should never visit a care home if you are potentially infectious with covid, flu, a cold, or other illness that can be passed on to others.

What if there is an outbreak of infectious disease such as covid, norovirus or flu?

People living in care homes can still have visitors in an outbreak, but certain things will work differently.

It may be that only visitors nominated by the person living in the care home can visit during an outbreak. This would be to limit the numbers of people coming and going and reduce the risks of infection.

During an outbreak, arrangements for visiting should be made by the care home in consultation with the local health protection team and in line with current guidance. You should contact the care home before you visit to find out what these are.

Face masks or other PPE may have to be worn following advice from staff or the local health protection team.

Technology and meaningful contact

People in Scotland who experience care are increasingly relying on digital connectivity and technology to support their wellbeing and daily activities, however, we recognise this may not meet the needs for everyone.  We have published a practice guide for care services on how technology and digital devices can be used to make a positive impact on health and wellbeing for people experiencing care.  

What to do if you are unhappy

If you feel your care home is not supporting visiting and connections in the right way or have other concerns about standards of care, you can raise it in the first instance with the care home manager. This is often the quickest way to resolve a problem.

However, if you remain concerned, you can tell us, and we will ensure concerns are addressed properly and in good time. Visit our complaints page to find out more.

Where else can I get information, advice and support?

Scottish Government family leaflet on visiting care homes

Scottish Government Easy Read leaflet about visiting for adults living in care homes

NHS Inform

Public Health Scotland

Scotland’s health and social care partnerships (responsible for social care services delivered across local areas)

Age UK (Scotland)

Enable

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Information for care home providers, managers and staff

People’s rights to have meaningful connections

Every adult and older person living in a care home has the right to connect with family, friends and community. They have the right to have visits and go out if they wish. Care homes should support this and not put unreasonable barriers or restrictions in place.

Scotland’s Health and Social Care Standards set out what people should expect when using health, care or social work services. In 2022, two new Standards were introduced that cover the right to visit even when there is an outbreak of infectious disease such as covid, norovirus or flu.

Legislation is being developed by Scottish Government that will enshrine visiting rights in law. For now, this is known as Anne’s Law.

Guidance on what we expect from care homes

People living in care homes must be supported to stay connected to loved ones and take part in their community if they wish. We advise care homes on good practice that supports people to stay connected with their loved ones, have visits and take part in their community. Where this support is not happening, we can use our powers to ensure it does.

We expect care homes to support visiting by following the Scottish Government’s Open with Care guidance.

We have published guidance for care homes on how they must implement visiting.

More generally, our quality framework for care homes for adults and older people can be used by care home providers in conjunction with the self-evaluation guide and self-assessment tools to review and assess the quality of service they are delivering.

We are on hand to advise and support any care home looking to improve visiting and connection. If you are a provider or manager, please contact your inspector.

How visiting and going out should routinely work

We expect people who live in care homes to be able see their visitors at any time and without restriction. This includes outings from the home.

Care homes should not operate booking systems or restrict when people can visit or go out. Visitors should not have to give notice, and visits and outings should not have a time limit. 

People living in the care home and their visitors do not normally need to wear face masks unless it is a personal choice.

Good hand hygiene should always be followed, and visitors should never enter a care home if they are potentially infectious with covid, flu, the cold, or other illness that can be passed on to others.

What if there is an outbreak of infectious disease such as covid, norovirus or flu?

People living in care homes can still have visitors in an outbreak, but certain things will work differently.

It may be that only visitors nominated by the person living in the care home can visit during an outbreak. This would be to limit the numbers of people coming and going and reduce the risks of infection. This would be operated in line with Open with Care, our guidance on implementing the two new Standards, Public Health Scotland’s guidance on visiting during an outbreak and any other national guidance on restrictions.

Visitors may have to wear face masks or other PPE following advice from staff or the local health protection team.

Technology and meaningful contact

People in Scotland who experience care are increasingly relying on digital connectivity and technology to support their wellbeing and daily activities. We have published a practice guide for care services on how technology and digital devices can be used to make a positive impact on health and wellbeing for people experiencing care.  

Support and advice

The Care Inspectorate is here to support all care services to improve. For support and advice, contact your inspector who will be happy to explore issues and solutions with you.

Local NHS health protection teams provide advice and support on infection prevention and control and managing outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Health and social care partnerships are responsible for social care provision across local areas and may be able to provide practical advice and guidance to help services support better outcomes for people experiencing care. Each health and social care partnership is unique, so we advise contacting the partnership that covers your service location to understand what support you can access.  

Whistleblowing

If you work in social care and want information about how to raise a concern about your workplace, visit our webpage on whistleblowing.

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Registrations

Time limited conditions expiration (Added 25 September 2020)

We are aware that many of you will have time limited conditions that were applied to your existing registration, to allow you to provide care services in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of these time limited conditions will be due to expire soon. We would like to remind you that if you wish to extend or amend the previous agreement (as detailed in the time limited condition), you are required to submit a variation for assessment.

This can be done through eForms.

If you no longer require the time limited condition, and wish for this to be removed from your registration certificate, please submit a variation for its removal.

Deferment of continuation of Registration Fees (added 8 April 2020)

The Care Inspectorate and Scottish Government recognise the financial and other pressures that providers of care services are currently under.  To support service providers and assist with alleviating cash flow problems service providers are encountering at this difficult time the Care Inspectorate will delay the collection of continuation of registration fees due by care services until July 2020. We will review this position again in June 2020 before any fee collections are made.

This will mean care service providers need not pay any balance of the fees due for the 2019/20 financial year until July 2020.

Service providers normally due to receive fee invoices in April 2020 will not receive an invoice for the 2020/21 financial year until July 2020 (position subject to review in June 2020).

We are happy to make arrangements with service providers that would prefer not to defer the balance of 2019/20 fees.  We are issuing more detailed guidance directly to care service providers.   

Staffing in services during coronavirus outbreak (updated 20 March 2020)

Child to adult ratios feature in our registration and inspection of early learning and childcare (ELC). However, for other service types, including care homes, the Care Inspectorate stopped issuing staffing schedules at the point of registering a service in 2018. Instead, we expect the staffing numbers, and skills and experience of staff to reflect the needs of people who use services. 

At this extremely challenging time, we will support all services in their need to apply flexibility and judgement around staffing to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people using the service. We recognise that services will need to be creative and make use of a wider range of resources. This could potentially include staff from other public services and volunteers. We recognise that this will mean services may not be able to undertake all normal recruitment checks as quickly and easily as they did before. 

However, during this period it is important that providers put in place structures to support and oversee staff in their role, including any volunteers and unregistered staff. The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is responsible for registering the social care workforce. People can work in registrable roles for a period of 12 months without being registered, which enables services to adopt a flexible approach.

This highlights the six-month period after starting work to obtain registration. This applies to:

  • new staff you might recruit
  • workers covering other roles due to staff shortages
  • students who seek work to help with shortages.
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