A quality framework for childcare agencies – information and survey for managers and providers


We are making changes to the way we inspect childcare agencies and we are engaging with services about our new draft quality framework for childcare agencies.

Our new childcare agencies framework sets out the elements that will help us answer the key questions about how agencies provide high quality care to children and their families and how they support their staff to achieve this.

The core of this methodology is for the framework to be used primarily a self-evaluation tool, but we will also use this on inspection.

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Children's rights report


The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 requires the Care Inspectorate to publish a report every three years to show what steps have been taken to put the UNCRC into practice. This report covers progress during the period 1 April 2020 - 31 March 2023 and highlights a range of activities undertaken to protect, promote and defend children’s rights.

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Annual returns


This year's annual returns will be available to service providers for completion between 8 January and 18 February 2024

Each year, we ask you to complete an annual return. This gives us important information that helps us plan, inform and carry out our inspections and improvement work. We share some of the information with other organisations, such as the Scottish Social Services Council and the Scottish Government, and we use it to produce several statistical publications that you can view on our website.

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Care experienced guarantee interview scheme


We want to mark the start of Care Experienced Week 2023 by launching our 'Care Experienced Guarantee Interview Scheme'.  The scheme will offer an automatic interview where care experienced applicants meet the essential criteria for a job.

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Report of a joint inspection of services for children and young people at risk of harm in North Lanarkshire community planning partnership


The Care Inspectorate has evaluated the impact of services for children and young people at risk of harm in North Lanarkshire as very good.

The work of partners was making a positive difference to the lives of children and young people at risk of harm. Inspectors identified a few areas for improvement that partners were already aware of through their own self-evaluation and were taking steps to address through improvement plans.

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