Disabled children and young people: Thematic review 2023-24
On this page you will find information about our national report Disabled children and young people’s experiences of social work services: a thematic review.
Formats
- Braille is available on request
If you require any other formats please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Review
Our aim in carrying out this review was 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 focused on social work’s contribution to getting it right for every disabled child and considered how well disabled children’s rights were being respected and upheld.
This report presents the key messages of our review of how well social work services contribute to ensuring disabled children have their rights respected and receive early care and support. It includes reflections and actions for social work services and Scottish Government to consider in order to improve outcomes for disabled children and young people.
Key messages
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.
- Too many disabled children and young people’s views, feelings and wishes were not being heard.
- When children and young people received the right support at the right time from social work services, this helped them to grow and develop
- Increasing complexity of need and high demand for services was outweighing the availability of supports.
- Children and young people were not always provided with meaningful choices about the support they received.
- Parents and carers routinely provide a significant level of care and support. Their wellbeing must be promoted and protected.
- The quality of social work assessments, plans and reviews were variable and were not always properly addressing all the child or young person’s needs.
- The experience of transitioning into life as a young adult continues to be characterised by unpredictability and uncertainty for too many disabled young people.
- Compassionate and dedicated social work staff were helping to improve the lives of children and young people. High workloads and recruitment and retention of staff significantly challenged staff teams.
- The social work role was not always easily understood by families and/or other professionals.
- Reliable data and a shared definition of disability are not available to inform future planning or to support the setting budgets.
Actions required
The responsibility for improvement sits with us all. The actions noted below will require a shared approach across Scottish Government, local authorities, national and local organisations and public bodies, including the Care inspectorate.
The actions required:
- The views of disabled children and their families must be considered as part of service mapping, understanding unmet need and service planning.
- A robust approach to gathering and analysing data on disabled children and young people must be implemented, both in social work services and wider. This must be used effectively to inform service planning and improvement.
- We must take action in response to the views of disabled children and their families to ensure gaps in service provision are addressed.
- The role of social work services in providing care and support to disabled children must be clearly defined and understood across agencies. Clear and accessible information should be available and communicated to children and their families. This should include eligibility criteria.
- Opportunities for effective early intervention should be strengthened.
- Opportunities for play and friendships, along with other areas that are important to children, should be maximised. This will need a collective and holistic response.
- Adequate resourcing must be made available to enable services to develop and improve.
You can read the full report here.
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Archived updates
Archived Updates
- Covid-19 FAQ's
- Covid-19 notifications
- Inspection during Covid-19
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Near Me video calls
- Registrations
- Operating your care service
- Information for people and their carers
You can find older updates by clicking the relevant year below:
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Week by week guide
Our joint inspections of services for children at risk of harm last for around 22 weeks in total from the notification letter being received by the partnership being inspected to the report being published. The actual timespan may be longer if the period of the inspection includes school or public holidays.
Each inspection begins with a preparation stage, is then conducted over three phases, and concludes with a reporting stage. More information about what happens during each of these is available here:
We will share information about the scope and process of the inspection and the rationale for this, during scheduled meetings with partnership representatives at the start of and during the inspection. We will discuss which scrutiny activities will best help us to clarify any areas of uncertainty.
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Secure care pathway review 2022-23
Our approach
We carried out a secure care pathway review between July 2022 and July 2023 to consider the impact of the Secure Care Pathway and Standards that were published in October 2020. The review focused on young people up to the age of 18 who have been placed – or are at risk of being placed – by Scottish local authorities, in secure care accommodation.
The review centred on listening to and understanding the experiences of 30 young people across Scotland before, during and after experiencing secure care accommodation. During the review period we tracked the journeys of these young people and this helped us to consider impact and outcomes over time. The annual inspections of registered secure care providers continue to be carried out. We worked jointly with the inspectors of these services to inform the review, particularly in relation to the ‘during’ stage of young people’s journeys through secure care.
Our review is now complete and you can read the report here.
More information
Information about the secure care pathway and standards can be found here.
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Registering school holiday, activity and food provision programmes
Does your school holiday, activity and food provision programme need to be registered?
Services offered to children and families as part of school holiday, activity and food provision programmes may need to be registered with the Care Inspectorate. The information below relates to children and young people from primary school age and above.
It is an offence to operate a care service in Scotland without being registered with the Care Inspectorate and the Care Inspectorate is happy to provide advice.
For advice on registration, you can email our registration team: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Childcare service or school holiday, activity and food provision programme
Is the provision advertised as school holiday childcare?
If the answer is yes, then generally the service needs to be registered.
Is the service provided to enable/support parents to work, study or attend training?
If the answer is yes, it would be a childcare service and needs to be registered.
If the service is providing a school holiday club/activity club/playscheme/youth club that is activity based, then it needs to be promoted as such. It should not be promoted as providing childcare.
If you are solely providing an activity-based programme, then this does not need to be registered.
Mealtimes
Depending on the level of support the individual child needs at mealtimes, this could be considered as care, then the service would require to be registered.
Personal care
Do children need help with personal care such as going to the toilet, taking off or putting on appropriate clothing?
If the answer is yes, then the service requires to be registered.
Children with additional support needs
Do the children attending the service have additional support needs (ASN)?
If the answer is yes, then generally the service needs to be registered and the Care Inspectorate would need more information about what type of support children are being given.
Legislative definitions of types of services
It is an offence to operate a care service in Scotland without being registered with the Care Inspectorate.
Section 47 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 defines the types of services that must be registered with the Care Inspectorate.
Day care of children service:
A “day care of children” service is described in paragraph 13 of Schedule 12 as “subject to paragraphs 14(b) to 17, a service which consists of any form of care (whether or not provided to any extent in the form of an educational activity), supervised by a responsible person and not excepted from this definition by regulations, provided for children, on premises other than domestic premises, during the day (whether or not it is provided on a regular basis or commences or ends during the hours of daylight).”
Regulations made under the Act, namely The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Excepted Services) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/44) (“the Excepted Services Regulations”), restrict the definition of a day care of children service to those services which have as a primary purpose the provision of care to children.
Regulation 4 of the Excepted Services Regulations states “There is excepted from the definition of “day care of children” in paragraph 13 of schedule 12 to the Act any service unless its primary purpose is the provision of care to children”.
Support service:
A support service is defined by the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 as
“a service provided, by reason of a person’s vulnerability or need (other than vulnerability or need arising by reason only of that person being of a young age), to that person or to someone who cares for that person by-
- a local authority;
- any person under arrangements made by a local authority;
- a health body; or
- any person if it includes personal care or personal support.
Consider whether the ‘vulnerability’ is solely through age. If it is and care is being provided and is provided for more than two hours, then consider if registration as a daycare of children service is more appropriate.
Consider if the ‘vulnerability’ is through some form of additional support need and ‘care’ is required. If it is, consider registering as a support service.
Already a registered provider with the Care Inspectorate
If you are already a registered childcare or support service provider, it might be possible to vary the conditions of your existing service. This is called a variation, as it is varying the existing conditions of your registration with the Care Inspectorate. You can ask for advice on this from our registration team or your inspector.
Get in touch
The Care Inspectorate is happy to provide guidance to support the development and registering of school holiday, activity and food provision programmes for children and families.
Please contact our contact centre on 0345 600 9527 or email Care Inspectorate enquiries at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For advice on registration, you can email our registration team: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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