Update - January 2024

What we have done since our last briefing in September 2023

We have been working alongside the four areas that came forward to be part of more detailed work.

• Aberdeen city
• Dundee city
• Dumfries and Galloway
• Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)

We now have staff survey responses from these four areas.  We have reviewed these alongside all the evidence we gathered earlier this year from the national survey and our review of existing literature.

This has helped us develop our understanding of social work’s contribution to upholding the rights of disabled children and young people in Scotland. 

We have used our findings so far to help us plan our next steps and inform the key questions we will ask children, families and staff.

Our stakeholder community has continued to be involved, helping to shape our approach to engagement activities.   

Planning for our next steps is well underway in the four areas and we are grateful for all the time and effort they have already given to this review. 

Next steps

We are now entering the busiest stage of our review and will be working with our four areas on the following.

In January we will be reviewing 30 children’s social work’s records in each of the areas.  This will help us build our understanding of the effectiveness of assessments, plans and reviews in ensuring children benefit from the right help and the right time.  These records have been sampled randomly.

In January we will ask each of the four areas to share a video and information leaflet with children and their parents or carers to inform them of our review and invite them to become involved.

Between 22 January and 29 February we will open an electronic questionnaire for children and young people to complete online.  This will be one of a range of ways we will gather views directly from children and young people.  The arrangements for completing the questionnaire will be shared by each of the four local authorities.

In February we will be on-site in each of the four areas.  We want to gather the views of children and their parents or carers and the staff who work with them.  We will meet with children wherever they are most comfortable.  For some children this might be with friends or family.  For others it might be alongside workers who are important to them.  We hope the important people in children’s lives will help us to do this.  We will work alongside staff in each of the four areas to ensure we are inclusive and respect children’s rights in our approach.

If you have any questions for the review team, they can be contacted via email on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We’d like to thank everyone who has been involved in this review.

Update - September 2023

What we have done so far

Following the notification of the thematic review, we issued a survey to social work teams across Scotland.  By mid- august we had received responses from all 32 local authority areas.  We are now looking at the information from the survey.  This is helping us to build a picture about social work’s contribution to how well disabled children and young people’s needs are assessed, planned for, and met.

We have been reading national reports and research to find out what disabled children and young people have already said what is important to them, and about their experiences of support.

Conversations with our key stakeholders, are helping us to develop our ideas about our engagement approaches with children and young people.  We are keen that we explore opportunities to ensure that our approach is rights based, accessible and is inclusive.

We will use all the information we have gathered so far to help us identify our focus during the next stage.

Next steps

Four areas have volunteered to help us better understand children and young people’s experiences and the difference social work services are making to their lives.  We are pleased to welcome them to this next stage of the review.  The areas are:

• Aberdeen city
• Dundee city
• Dumfries and Galloway
• Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)

We will be working with these social work teams from September 2023 to March 2024.

More information can be found on our website here.

If you have any questions for the review team, they can be contacted via email on:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We’d like to thank everyone who has been involved in this review.

Disabled children and young people: Thematic review 2023-24

On this page you will find information about our national thematic review.  We will keep this page updated as we move through the different stages.

Our approach

In April 2023 we notified all local authorities of our intention to undertake a national thematic review with a focus on disabled children and young people up to the age of 18 years.  Within the scope of our review, we will focus on the experiences of children who are considered disabled under article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities:

“Persons with disabilities include those who have long term physical, mental intellectual or sensory impairments which any interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”      

We will provide a national overview of social work’s contribution to how well disabled children and young people’s needs are assessed, planned for, and met.  This will include hearing from children about the things that are important to them, their experiences of participation and of receiving care and support.  To do this we will structure our review under the following two statements:

• Children and young people are actively heard, informed, and meaningfully involved in decisions about their lives.
• Children’s and young people’s wellbeing has been promoted through high quality child centred planning and bespoke support.

We will carry out the review between May 2023 and May 2024.  We will publish a national report in Spring 2024.

More information about the thematic review can be found in the following links:

Update January 2024

Update September 2023

Thematic review timeline

Working with four local authority areas – a deeper dive

Briefing paper - May 2023

Privacy statement

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.

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.