Professional

New notifications about visiting restrictions

From 31 March 2026, we are introducing new notifications for providers of adult/older people’s care home services. This is in order to comply with the Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 and associated regulations, and to ensure people’s rights and wellbeing – including their right to maintain meaningful connection with those important to them - are supported.

In normal circumstances, there should be no restrictions on visits into or out of a care home. Homes should not operate booking systems and should not normally impose any limitations on the number of visitors or on the frequency, timing, or duration of visits or trips out of the care home.

You must notify us within 24 hours of any situation where restrictions have been placed upon visits.

If the restriction is related to an outbreak of an infectious disease, you should complete the questions within the existing outbreak notification.
If the restriction is for any other reason, you should complete the new notification titled “Non-outbreak related visiting restrictions (care homes )”.

Your notification should include:

details of the reason(s) for the restrictions
date restriction(s) started and expected end date
if outbreak related, which Health Protection Team has been contacted for advice.
confirmation that visits are being supported where it is likely that the resident will have died or undergone serious deterioration before restrictions are lifted, and/or to avoid serious harm to health and wellbeing.
confirmation that visits by Essential Care Supporters are being supported.
how details of the restrictions, their reasons, and the expected end date have been communicated to people experiencing care and their family carers.
who else you have notified.

If you have any questions, please contact your caseholding inspector or the Meaningful Connection, Visiting and Anne’s Law Team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Digital Transformation

Since 2024, we have been working on our Stage 2 Digital Transformation project to modernise the Care Inspectorate's systems. This is a people-centred initiative, and we have listened to feedback from voices across the sector.

The new system is designed to simplify and streamline our interactions, giving you a single, unified provider portal that is easy to use. By making our processes more efficient, we free up time for both the Care Inspectorate and your service to focus on improving the quality of care for people who experience care. This transformation is about more than just technology. It is about building a better, more supportive way of working together.

New provider portal

We are delighted to announce that the new provider portal is scheduled to go-live in summer 2026.

We know that moving to a new system requires preparation, and we are fully committed to supporting you every step of the way over the next three to four months. We will be in regular communication with all care providers and services, detailing the steps you need to take.

We will also work closely with sector bodies, umbrella organisations, and charities to ensure the message reaches everyone. Please be assured that your Internal Relationship Managers and Link Inspectors will be ready to liaise with you directly.

Resources

To ensure a smooth transition, we will launch a comprehensive programme of support, which includes a suite of on-boarding resources - bitesize videos, frequently asked questions, and guides - as well as a schedule of online events. These resources will give you and your team the knowledge and confidence to begin using the provider portal immediately.

We look forward to working with you to deliver this important modernisation for the care sector. Your support in preparing for the launch will be invaluable as we work towards a more efficient and effective regulatory system.

As a first step, we will be asking you to provide us with details of the people in your services who will need to access the new provider portal. This is an important step to ensure you can continue to meet your statutory obligations when we go-live with the new portal. Further instructions will be issued to all providers.

National review of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation

Joint logos CSAE

The Care Inspectorate (CI) and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) have been asked by Scottish Government Ministers to lead a joint inspection working with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland (HMIE) into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Information for members of the public 

The national review of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation is considering how well local services in Scotland are working together to prevent, identify and act appropriately on instances of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation.  The focus of the review is on current practice.  You can find out more about the review below.  
Separately, plans for a Statutory Public Inquiry and Scottish Truth Project have been announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills. This work is being progressed by the Scottish Government.  As part of this, arrangements are being made to enable survivors of group-based sexual abuse or exploitation to share their experiences.  We will provide links to the website(s) for the public inquiry and truth project when developed.
All children and young people have a right to be protected from harm.  If you are worried about the safety of a child or young person, contact Police Scotland or your local social work service.
If you have experienced or witnessed abuse or exploitation, we encourage you to report this to Police Scotland.  You do not need to deal with this alone. Many organisations can offer help and support. More information can be found on the Parent Club website.

Related links

Statement: 9 February 2026

Scoping document

Statement: 17 December 2025

Letter from Scottish Government requesting National Review (pdf)

Care Inspectorate response to request for National Review (pdf)

Partnership guide documents

01	Partnership guide
02	JIAS Integration and Outcomes QI Framework
03	Overview
04	Inspection co-ordinator profile
05	Provider and services template
06	Engagement Framework
07	Provider Engagement Guidance
08	Position Statement
09	Evidence log
10	Review of records sampling guidance
11	Record review guidance
12	Record review template
13	PIR
14	Guidance for remote access to records
15	Guidance for onsite review of records
16	Initial Case Tracker
17	Final Case Tracker
18	TATP Scrutiny timetable
19	TATP Co-ordinator Guidance
20	Scrutiny focus groups
21	Evaluation criteria
22	Partnership meetings

This year’s annual returns have now closed. We would like to thank everyone who submitted their annual return to us by the deadline, Tuesday, 17 February 2026. The information you have provided will help us plan, inform and carry out our inspections and improvement work.

Why your annual returns are so important

Every year in January and February, we ask care service providers to complete an annual return. It asks for a great deal of information about your service and the people who use it. It is important to know why you are asked for this information, and what we do with it.

First and foremost, the information you provide in the annual return helps us understand your service. This means inspectors are able to plan and prepare for effective inspections that are focused appropriately.

Not only is the annual return important for planning and focusing inspections, but the information you also give provides a national picture, which can help the us and other partner organisations in a number of ways.

Even inactive services must submit an annual return.

If a service was registered on or after 1 October 2025, it should try to complete an annual return this year. Although it is not mandatory for these services, any information supplied will be used by the Care Inspectorate and Scottish Government.

Benchmarks and comparisons for inspectors

Inspectors can compare a service they are looking at with national averages to identify potential issues. For example, if the inspector is preparing to inspect a service with higher staff turnover than average, when they inspect, the inspector might look at the impact this could have had on the quality of care and outcomes for people using that service.

Publishing statistics

We also publish statistical reports of some of the annual returns data. We also use the annual return data to inform many of our other publications such as:

National policy makers (the Scottish Government) can use these summaries and publications to shape and evaluate national policies and providers can see how their service compares with other services.

Supporting improvement

The intelligence we gather through annual returns helps us target our improvement activity and support within social care. It is a great source of baseline data across a variety of health and wellbeing indicators which we use to identify, drive and track improvement, for example infection control, nutrition and the recruitment and retention of staff. The data also helps us to identify trends and topics by both geographical area or service type, so that we can see where best to focus our improvement support work, for example, improvement workshops or new resources and guidance for care services across the sector.

Reducing duplication and sharing information

We also share information with other public bodies to reduce duplication and the costs of data collection for both the taxpayer and the people providing data. For example, anonymised staffing information is shared with the Scottish Social Services Council, so they can develop intelligence about the workforce without having to collect additional data from care services.

If you need help accessing the annual return, you can call our contact centre on 0345 600 9527 or read our frequently asked questions.