Covid Winter Support Webinars

The Care Inspectorate are inviting you to participate in a series of Covid Winter Support Webinars.

This three level approach will support both care homes for older people and care at home services to prepare for the challenges of winter in a Covid-19 context.

Individual service specific webinars will be delivered initially by region and will begin in mid-November 2020.

All care home and care at home services will receive an invite to the webinars in due course.

Level 1 content: 1-hour webinars

• Sign posting to Covid-19 and infection control specific resources taken from national guidance and simplified by the Care Inspectorate into a one stop shop for adult social care.
• Share the learning from frequently asked questions (FAQs) from services.

Level 2 content: 1.5-hour webinars

• Review key question 7 from the quality framework for care homes – How good is our care and support during the Covid-19 pandemic?
• Introduce key question 7 from the quality framework for care at home – How good is our care and support during the Covid-19 pandemic?
• Share the new Care Inspectorate Covid-19 self-evaluation and improvement planning tool for care homes for older people and care at home

Level 3 content:

• Looking at specific topics, resources and guidance based on the themes identified by the sector and Care Inspectorate intelligence, as highlighted in the recent letter to services from our Chief Executive Peter Macleod.

Covid-19 Notifications

Covid-19 notifications  

Notifications should be submitted using eForms.

If you are unable to access eForms please get in touch with our Contact Centre during its normal opening hours (09:00 – 16:00).

We have updated the Covid-19 notifications to make them clearer and easier to use. The purpose of these notifications is to enable us and our partners to direct help and support where it is needed. We share the general data from these notifications with Scottish Government.

We introduced specific notifications for you to tell us when there are suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19, and when an outbreak ends. We have amended the notification for suspected cases of Covid-19 to make it clear that only one notification is required for your service when the first suspected case is identified. We do not require you to tell us about suspected cases on an individual basis.

In all Covid-19 notifications for adult and children and young people services, the health and social care partnership (HSCP) must also be notified.

Early learning and childcare services do not need to notify HSCPs but should notify their local authority where their service is providing funded early learning and childcare.

We have 4 notifications specifically for Covid-19:

1. Suspected cases of Covid-19 – please use this when the first member of staff, including agency workers, or someone who uses your service shows symptoms of coronavirus. The aim of this notification is to inform us when anyone shows symptoms of Covid-19. You only need to complete one notification that can include people experiencing care, staff and/or agency staff. If a staff member who is on leave presents with symptoms, you should include this as a suspected case if they were working during the 14 days prior to the start of their symptoms.

You do not need to do an update to this notification, no matter how many suspected cases you have, and it will remain active until either the suspected outbreak ends or there is a confirmed case. When you submit an end of a suspected outbreak notification or a confirmed case notification, the suspected cases notification will automatically be superseded.

2. End of suspected outbreak of Covid-19 – Use this notification if all the suspected cases result in negative tests, or after there have been no symptoms shown for a period of 14 days.

3. Confirmed cases of Covid-19 notification – Use this notification whenever someone using the service, or a member of staff including agency staff tests positive for Covid-19. Please also use this notification if a test has not been possible but coronavirus is confirmed by a medical professional. You need to complete a new confirmed case notification for each new person who has been confirmed as having Covid-19.

4. End of confirmed Covid-19 outbreak notification – Please use this notification when the outbreak of Covid-19 has come to an end, based on when people who have been confirmed as having Covid-19 have shown no symptoms for 14 days.

For early learning and childcare services, including childminders and out of school care services, this does not mean that services will be closed for this period. Any closures and periods of self-isolation will be directed by Public Health or Test and Protect.

When you complete these notifications, please do not share with us the names of people who are using your service or staff. For confirmed cases of Covid-19 notification please just use people’s initials.

Please continue to tell us about staff absences due to Covid-19 using the ‘Staff absence’ notification.                                                   

• Records that all registered care services (except childminding) must keep and guidance on notification reporting

• Records childminding services must keep and notification reporting guidance

• Death of person using a care service – for any death of a service user, including from confirmed or suspected covid19.  We should be notified immediately. 

• Changes of circumstances due to Coronavirus (Covid-19) - Within the notification the provider should note the change to the service provision and confirm the service can meet the care and welfare needs of the individuals that they are providing care for. This form should be used to change operating status (open/closed). It can also be used to request changes to the service delivery, for example opening or moving a Hub.  

• Removal of notification requirement - Early in the pandemic, we introduced a notification for providers to notify us if a service was closed due to the impact of Covid-19. While services are still dealing with the effects of the pandemic including a low level of infections, there are far fewer restrictions on how we live and impacts on the operation of care services.  In recognition of this, we have decided to remove the notification ‘Change of service delivery due to Covid-19’. Therefore, there is no requirement to notify us if a service is closed for a short time due to Covid-19.

  We understand there are certain circumstances when services close for a period of time and can apply to be inactive for a period of up to 12 months. You can find the details of when this can be considered and how to apply here.

These additional notifications are helping us to better understand and inform others of the pressures services across Scotland are facing during Covid-19, so that support measures can be considered and offered. 

Find out more about how the SSSC is supporting staffing at this time. 

Covid-19 staffing notifications  

• Staffing absences- a new weekly staff absence notification to be completed every Tuesday. This notification will ask about staff who are self-isolating, shielding and those who are not working due to stress related to Covid-19. We will also ask if there are staff in hospital. 

• Death of a staff member- this notification to be completed as soon as the service is made aware. 

Tell Us Once – what to do after someone dies 

Tell Us Once is a free service that allows you to share details of the deceased with relevant government departments, removing the need to engage with each one separately and supply numerous copies of the death certificate.

The service is available in all councils across England, Scotland and Wales and In 2019/2020, 78% of all citizens who registered a death went on to use the Tell Us Once service.

Tell Us Once can notify organisations including:

• DWP State Pension, Universal Credit, Attendance Allowance and so on
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• HM Passport Office
• Council services such as adult social services, libraries, Blue Badge, concessionary travel, electoral services
• Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA)
• Public Sector Pensions: NHS, Teachers, Armed forces and so on.

If you are registering a death with a registrar in your capacity as a care home manager, official informant, next of kin or relative:

• The registrar will issue you with a unique Tell Us Once service reference number.
• You can use this reference number to access Tell Us Once on line at gov.uk/tell-us-once or through a dedicated telephony team.
• A list of What you will need to complete the service to notify Central and Local government departments to stop services, notify Pensions and Benefits, cancel passports and so on is available on gov.uk/tell-us-once.

The system is easy to use and once completed departments are notified instantly, no need for you to contact them separately via telephone or in writing.

The Tell Us Once service is the result of partnership working between Central and Local government and aims to help citizens at a time when they need it the most.

If you have any questions about the service or would like to find out more, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Previous notification updates  

Adult to child ratios and new notification during Omicron (Added 11 January 2022)

Like all services, early learning and childcare settings are operating under unprecedented circumstances due to the pandemic. The Omicron variant will be extremely challenging, particularly in terms of staffing.

To support continued delivery of safe, high-quality childcare for children and families as we move through this stage of the pandemic, we have temporarily adjusted our policy position on adult to child ratios and introduced a new notification.

High-quality experiences for children should be paramount. Adjusting adult to child ratios must only be used when all other options for additional staffing have been exhausted and a risk assessment has been undertaken. Our guidance gives information on the approach to risk assessment and the required notification.

LFD staff testing notifications guidance (Added 15 April 2021)

Following the introduction of regular LFD (Lateral Flow Device) testing for staff in a range of settings and services, we wanted to provide some clarification on which notifications to use following the outcome of tests:

LFD positive test for one or more staff – Please complete Covid-19: outbreak – notification of suspected case. Only one ‘notification of suspected case’ is needed even if several people have a positive LFD test.  Staff who have a positive LFD test must then arrange to have a confirmatory PCR test.

If the outcome of the subsequent PCR test(s) is positive – Please complete Covid-19: outbreak – notification of confirmed case for each individual who has a positive PCR test.

If the outcome of the PCR test(s) is negative – Please complete Covid-19: outbreak – end of suspected case(s).

Covid-19 Scrutiny Assessment Tool (SAT) (Added 30 July 2020)

The Covid-19 Scrutiny Assessment Tool (SAT) is a trigger tool developed by the Care Inspectorate to identify indicators of potential concerns in care homes.

From 14 August this will replace the current Risk Assessment Rating (RAD) for all Care Homes (Adults, Older People, Children and Young People). Inspectors will begin this process from 30 July.

A list of questions that the inspectors will answer when completing the SAT in the RMS system can be found here. This is for service provider’s information only.

The SAT is not a risk assessment in the same way that the RAD was but will support us to identify what level of support and scrutiny is appropriate for a service taking account their current circumstances.

In developing the Covid-19 SAT we considered specific information relevant to the current Covid-19 pandemic. It is based on what our intelligence has so far identified as being key indicators or concerns within services to allow us to consider where additional support and/or scrutiny may be required. 

The Covid-19 SAT is based on a Scrutiny Assessment Tool we have developed and tested that included information from our enforcement review.  The release of the new tool was delayed due to the pandemic, we are planning to release the full SAT for all service types later in the year. 

Remember to inform us if you change your operating status (Added 28 July 2020)

A number of services closed due to Covid-19 have now reopened and others are likely to open soon, as lockdown restrictions are eased. If your service has been closed, it’s important that you contact us, so that we can change your status to ‘open’ on our system.

You should complete the ‘Changes to service delivery due to coronavirus (Covid-19)’ eform.

This eform includes when you open or close your service as well as any changes to how you operate, as detailed in the notification guidance. If you do not update your status, your service will be considered to remain closed.

Inactive care services (Added 28 July 2020)

Please note our inactive process is different from the procedures for open and closed services due to Covid-19.  It may be that your service is inactive, if this is the case and you wish to resume your service, you must follow the procedures noted in the letter sent to you when your service became inactive, which includes submitting a notification ‘Service becoming active’ in order to change your status to active and open.  

If you would like to become inactive you must submit a notification ‘Service becoming inactive’.  Any applications to extend  the timescales for inactivity agreed will be considered in line with our inactive guidance. Further information on our inactive process can be found here Inactive Care Services.

Application to vary registration due to quarantine (Added 25 June 2020)

In line with government advice that people travelling from other countries to the UK must quarantine for 14 days, we are aware that some school care accommodation services may need to vary the dates during which they are registered to operate. This will be in order to allow young people to quarantine before the start of the school term. 

If you require to vary your registration for this purpose, please complete an application to vary registration so that the Care Inspectorate can ensure this is processed in good time.

This can be done through your eForms account. 

End to staffing shortage notification (Added 22 June 2020)

The Care Inspectorate no longer requires care services to submit notifications around staffing issues under the Red Amber Green (RAG) system. 

This notification was brought in April to assist care services to flag up where there were particular staffing shortages and allowed the Care Inspectorate, SSSC, Health and Social Care Partnerships, the NHS and Scottish Government to provide a rapid response. 

Our intelligence and data gathered in the past month indicates that care services now have good access to staffing resources directly as required, and as such we are now removing the obligation on care services to report staffing issues to us.

Any services that do experience staffing issues going forward can still access the SSSC NES portal here.

Your notifications and the new Coronavirus (Scotland) (No. 2) Act (Added 2 June 2020) 

Last week we let you know that the new Coronavirus (Scotland) (No. 2) Act is now in force. Although this does not mean any changes to the notifications you must make to us, it does mean that you are now legally bound to make these. Our legal services team have produced a helpful summary of what the new Act means for care homes, which you can read here. 

You can read the Act in full here. 

Revised notification guidance (updated 30 April 2020) 

We have updated our guidance on notifications for all services except childminders. The updated guidance includes new and updated categories of notifications related to Covid-19 that care services must make. These include notifying us of the end of an outbreak and notifications about staff. 

You can view the guidance here. 

We are very aware that we have introduced several new notifications and that there are many other people looking for data at this time. We appreciate the time and effort you are taking to complete these notifications, we will use this information to support you and to share with Scottish Government colleagues with responsibility for planning the Covid-19 response.  

Reporting of Covid-19 to the Health and Safety Executive (Added 27 April 2020) 

The Health and Safety Executive has issued guidance on RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) responsibilities for employers. You can read the guidance here. 

Strategic inspection teams – quality assurance of notifications related to joint inspection work (Added 23 April 2020) 

During this pandemic, while we continue our quality assurance work in relation to deaths of looked after children, initial and significant case reviews, and serious incident reviews, we are committed to minimising demands on partners’ time and resources during this period. Read more here. 

Deaths of Looked After Children

Deaths of Looked After Children

Local authorities are required to submit written notification within 24 hours of any death of a looked after child to the Care Inspectorate.  

Please complete attached form – DLC1

Please note this is separate from the duty of a registered care service to notify us of the death of a service user. These are submitted separately via the registered services eForms. 

More information about notification and reporting arrangements can be found here.

Please submit all relevant forms/reports through secure email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The main contact for this work is: 

Karen McCormack, Strategic Inspector 

Mobile: 07833 057105 

Deaths of young people receiving aftercare provision

Deaths of young people receiving aftercare provision

Local authorities are required to submit written notification to the Care Inspectorate of any death of a young person in receipt of aftercare provision as soon as is reasonably practicable.

Please complete attached form - DAC1

Please note this is separate from the duty of a registered care service to notify us of the death of a service user. These are submitted separately via the registered services eforms.

More information about notification and reporting arrangements can be found here.

Please submit all relevant forms/reports through secure email to 
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The main contact for this work is: 

Karen McCormack, Strategic Inspector