Care Inspectorate registration for care at home and supported living in Scotland
Any organisation that gives personal care in people’s own homes in Scotland, or housing support that helps people live in their own home, must be registered with the Care Inspectorate before it starts, and registration is not granted until a suitable manager is in post. For Care Inspectorate registration of your care at home or supported living service, we prepare your aims and objectives, policies, business plan support and interview preparation from £1,495, then stay with you until the Care Inspectorate makes its decision.
Who needs Care Inspectorate registration for care at home
In Scotland you register a type of care service. Under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, a support service includes any service given to a person because of their vulnerability or need that includes personal care or personal support, and the Care Inspectorate registers care in people’s homes as a support service: care at home. Personal care means help with day to day physical tasks, such as eating and washing, and with the mental processes linked to them, such as remembering to eat or wash. Providing a care service while not registered is an offence under section 80 of the Act.
A housing support service is a separate type: support, assistance, advice or counselling that helps a person with particular needs live in their own home. Supported living often involves both, and the Care Inspectorate needs a separate application for each service type, even when you will run them together as one combined service.
Read the legal definitions (Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, schedule 12)One combined service, two applications
If the same team gives housing support and care at home, you still make one application for each service type. For a combined application the Care Inspectorate invoices the fee, working it out from your total staffing. Once registered, it may take 15% off the smaller of the two annual continuation fees.
Accommodation and care together
The Act defines a care home service as accommodation provided together with nursing, personal care or personal support. So if you would provide the home as well as the care, the service type may be different. We check your model against the definitions on the free scoping call.
Needs Care Inspectorate registration
- Help at home with eating, washing, dressing or toileting
- Prompting with day to day tasks, such as reminders to eat or wash
- Counselling or other help given as part of a planned programme of care
- Support that helps someone with particular needs keep their own tenancy
- Supported living in shared or individual tenancies, often as two registrations
- Support for vulnerable adults that you provide under arrangements made by a council
Not a care at home or housing support registration
- A self-employed carer who gives all the personal care personally and alone, unless a council arranges it
- Services that only help people prepare for, find or keep work
- Private clinics and other independent health care, registered with Healthcare Improvement Scotland
- Care homes, where the accommodation is provided with the care: a different service type
Everything you need for Care Inspectorate registration of a care at home service
Written for your service and for Scottish law, not an English pack with the regulator’s name changed. Stage 1 gets your application in, then Stage 2 carries you through the inspector’s assessment and your registration interview.
Your application pack
Documents that go in with your application
- Aims and objectives statement
- Full care at home and housing support policy pack aligned to the Health and Social Care Standards: adult support and protection, medication, moving and assisting, safer recruitment, complaints, infection prevention and control, records and confidentiality, and more
- Service user guide
- Staff training and induction plan
Finance and application
- Business plan and financial forecast support
- Care Inspectorate online application for each service type, completed with you
Assessment, interview and follow-up
- Additional documents the Care Inspectorate may request while assessing your application
- Registration interview question and answer preparation pack
- Two-hour mock interview with written feedback
- Follow-up with the Care Inspectorate on your behalf until a decision is made
- Appeal support if your application is challenged
Where Care Inspectorate registration goes wrong
The points the Care Inspectorate checks closely when it assesses a care at home or housing support application, so we make sure each one is in place before you apply.
Aims and objectives that fit the service type
Your statement of aims and objectives sits at the centre of the application. The Care Inspectorate uses it to decide your service type and to judge what, where and how you will provide care, and later checks at inspection that you deliver what it says.
A suitable manager in post
Registration is not granted until a suitable manager is in post. The Care Inspectorate expects them to hold at least a level 7 practitioner qualification that meets SSSC criteria, to be a PVG scheme member and to be registered with the SSSC.
A business plan and three-year forecast
The Care Inspectorate checks your financial standing and asks for a business plan and three-year financial forecasts, which its financial adviser may review. The staffing and hours in your forecast also need to match your aims and objectives.
Policies written for Scottish law
You send policies on complaints, adult protection, medication, infection control, and food and nutrition when you apply, plus promoting positive behaviour where it applies. An inspector then assesses them, so they must reflect Scottish law and the Health and Social Care Standards.
PVG checks through the Care Inspectorate
The Care Inspectorate countersigns the PVG check on you as the applicant, so it goes through the Care Inspectorate and carries its own fee. For your staff, you register with Disclosure Scotland or use an umbrella body to countersign their checks.
Staffing and personal plans
The Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 requires suitably qualified and competent staff working at all times, in the numbers your service needs. Each person you support also needs a written personal plan within 28 days of starting, reviewed at least every six months.
Five steps from first call to certificate
Our part is fast. The Care Inspectorate’s assessment sets the overall timescale, and we stay with you through it.
Scoping and onboarding
We confirm your service type or types and collect your provider, manager, service model and office details. Then we give you a checklist of what only you can get: PVG scheme membership, SSSC registration for your manager, office lease and landlord’s consent, insurance, ICO registration and financial evidence.
Stage 1 pack
Your aims and objectives, policies for Scottish law, service user guide, training plan and business plan support, as soon as your requirements are met.
Submission
We check everything first, then support your application for each service type through the Care Inspectorate’s digital portal, where you also pay the fee.
Stage 2 support
An inspector assesses your application and arranges to meet you. We prepare requested documents, the interview pack and a two-hour mock interview, and follow up with the Care Inspectorate for you.
Decision
You receive your certificate of registration with any conditions, plus the records you must keep and the events you must notify, and can then start delivering care.
One package, paid in two halves
Our fee covers both stages. The regulator’s fee and your set-up costs are separate, so budget for them too.
Care Inspectorate registration package
Or pay in full and take 10% off.
Also budget for
Paid to others, not to us. The Care Inspectorate’s application fee is £1,261 for each service type with up to 3 whole-time equivalent staff, £2,050 with up to 15, or £2,798 with more, paid when you apply and non-returnable.
- Annual continuation fee for each registered service: £676, £1,476 or £2,255 by the same staffing bands
- PVG scheme fees for you, your manager and your staff
- SSSC registration fees for your manager and staff
- Public and employer’s liability insurance
- ICO data protection fee
- Office rent and set-up
If the Care Inspectorate rejects or returns your application before it reaches an inspector, we fix it and resubmit at no extra cost, as many times as it takes. Subject to our terms and conditions.
Keep your policies current
Care Inspectorate registration for care at home: your questions
Do I need Care Inspectorate registration to provide care at home in Scotland?
Do I need two registrations for supported living?
Does my manager need to be in post before I apply?
Do my staff need PVG and SSSC registration?
How long does Care Inspectorate registration take, and what does it cost?
What happens if the Care Inspectorate sends my application back or proposes to refuse it?
Guides for care at home and supported living providers
Free Care Inspectorate registration guide and checklist
A 9-page PDF covering care at home, housing support, care homes and day care of children in Scotland. It lists the documents each service type needs, with tick-box checklists written for Scottish law.
Get the free guideReady to register your care at home service in Scotland?
No obligation. We confirm which care service types you need to register and what you still have to get, as well as a realistic timeline for your Care Inspectorate application.