POLICY: Social Care: Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation in Scotland

The Scottish Government called for views on Scotland’s current inspection, scrutiny and regulatory systems for social care support to inform the recommendations of the Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation (IRISR). 

RCN Scotland believes that National Care Service (NCS) services must be regulated and these services must be made subject to the Health and Care (Staffing) Scotland Act 2019 and that legislation involves specific roles for specific regulators.

The Care Inspectorate currently has responsibility for improvement in social care services. RCN Scotland members have asked that Scottish Government give careful consideration and assessment of available evidence before the decision is taken to de-link social care improvement from scrutiny and inspection, our members with experience in this area point out that scrutiny and assurance are improvement tools in themselves, and that varying in approaches to improvement will be appropriate in different circumstances and situations, of which Quality Improvement methodology is only one approach, with an evidence base in health, not social care services.