Social care - Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation: recommendation report - easy read summary

Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny, & Regulation of Social Care in Scotland (IRISR) - Recommendations - Easy Read Summary

Between September 2022 and August 2023 there was a review of Social Care Services in Scotland.

It was to check how social care support services could be better for people who use them.

It was called an Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation of Social Care in Scotland (IRISR).

This is a follow up of that review. It says what it found and lists the recommendations made by the Chair.

These will help to work towards social care services being the best they can be.

We know from other reviews that there was a need to check how social care services can be better for people who use them.

We knew we needed to hear what people thought about social care support services.

The review heard from:

• people who use social care support services
• their families and unpaid carers
• people who work in social care support services
• organisations who provide social care support services
• organisations who check and inspect social care support services

Dame Sue Bruce was the Chair of the review.

Mr Stuart Currie was the Vice Chair.

They were supported by 2 advisory panels. People who were part of the panels were:

• people with lived experience
• organisations and staff who work in social care support

The Panels were called:

• the Independent Review Panel
• the Practitioner and Stakeholder Panel

Stakeholders include people with experience of getting or giving care.

The groups looked at 5 things. They are called themes. The themes were:

• a person-centred way of working
• what organisations need to be inspected and checked to see if they follow the rules?
• how should inspections be done?
• how will we know things are working well?
• how will inspection support the workforce?

This summary will tell you what has been recommended for each theme.

A summary is a short version of the main points of something.

Theme 1 – A person centred way of working

Recommendations

1. People must be at the centre of any checks on how their social care support service is working.

2. Checks on social care support services and their reports must always clearly show the following:

• trust
• respect
• relationships
• culture
• customs and habits (ethos)

3. The reports by organisations who do the inspections must show how they have thought about the things listed in recommendation 2.

This should also be shown in any annual reports.

4. People with lived experience must be involved in designing how checks on social care support are done.

This should include:

• the things used to do the checks (tools)
• the rules that say how checks should be done

5. People with lived experience should have a more formal role in checking how social care support services are working.

This should include young people with care experience.

People should be paid for this work.

6. People carrying out checks should make it as easy as possible.

This should include:

• making sure people have enough time to reply to things
• making arrangements to talk to people involved in supporting the person
• making sure good information is always available

7. Making sure advocacy services are available. This will help people to understand the process.

Theme 2 – What organisations need to be inspected and checked to see if they follow the rules?

Recommendations

8. Personal assistants (PA’s) to be registered giving them more chances to have training to develop their skills.

9. Staff joining the social care support workforce must be registered to work in social care.

10. Under the rules just now there are some staff and social care support services not checked that should be.

11. Have stronger links between organisations who check the rules in and out of Scotland.

This would help to make sure that all social care support services are following the rules.

12. Look at how checking social care support services is done in other countries.

13. Review The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011

Review means to look at something again.

Make sure this still fits for social care in Scotland.

14. Scottish Ministers should arrange an overview of organisations providing social care support services in Scotland.

15. Review Schedule 12 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

Make it work for Social Care services in Scotland.

Theme 3 – How should inspections be done?

Recommendations

16. Make sure the way of checking listens to the person’s experiences of social care support services and how that affects them.

17. Information about organisations who check social care support services should be clear and easy to read.

The information should be available to everyone who needs social care.

18. The Scottish Government and people who check services (regulators) work together to improve inspection work.

The Scottish Government should work with the regulators to make it clear:

• who does what in inspections
• what peoples’ and organisations’ responsibilities are

This will make inspections more efficient.

19. People responsible for checking social care support services should look for:

• good practice (things that are being done well)
• bad practice (things that are not being done well)

20. Those checking social care support services should make sure outcomes and continued improvement are a big part of checking services.

21. People who check social care support services should work more closely with care providers.

This should be for things like action plans and timing for continuous improvements.

22. The Scottish Government should update how it measures progress against outcomes, especially for social care support.

23. Scottish Ministers should look at the law to make sure people who do the checks have the authority to make changes happen.

24. Look at the rule about self-reporting.

Make sure it is linked to continuous improvement.

25. Make sure there is a complaints system that is:

• clear
• easy read
• easy to use

26. The Scottish Government should look at ways to check the rules of social care are being applied.

They should also think about whether there should be separate arrangements in place for Scotland.

Theme 4 – How will we know things are working well?

Recommendations

27. Co- design ways to measure quality of social care support services.

This should include:

• organisations who check services
• people with lived experience

28. People should be able to see information about them. It should be in a way that is easy for them to understand.

29. This information should be able to be used for social care planning. People and their advocates should have access to this information to help them make good choices.

30. Having to do something within the law is called a duty.

Service providers have a duty to share information very carefully.

31. Its important that information is collected for the right reasons.

It should support delivery of good service management and improvement.

32. Information kept about people must follow the law on how to keep it safe and private. It is usually known as GDPR.

The way this is done must be done better.

There should be a group to support and manage information.

This would be called the Information Governance (IG) Group.

33. There should be a review of the Health and Social Care Standards.

This would be to make sure they are based on human rights. They should be used to check how services are working.

Theme 5 – how will inspection support the workforce?

Recommendations

34. Scottish Ministers should look at the way things happen when a service is not working and following the rules.

They should look at who has the power to:

• step in to take over
• enforce the rules to make a service work better

35. Look at ways for people who check the rules and provide services to involve workers more.

36. Scottish Ministers should make sure the social care model is based on fair work.

37. Scottish Ministers should check the level of quality and availability of training for workers.

38. Nationally recognised qualifications should be developed for social care workers.

The qualifications should match the skills workers need to do their jobs well.