Social care - Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation: call for evidence analysis

Introduction

Background

In September 2022 the Scottish Government announced an Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny, and Regulation (IRISR). Dame Sue Bruce was appointed as the Chair of the IRISR with Mr Stuart Currie as the Vice Chair.

The Chair of the IRISR stated her commitment to stakeholder engagement as part of the review, which included a wide range of stakeholders including those with lived and living experience.

The Programme for Stakeholder Engagement

The programme for stakeholder engagement took place between October 2022 and January 2023 and involved two key elements: a call for evidence and a series of stakeholder engagement events (referred to as 'events' throughout this report). Both elements of the programme focused on five key themes:

• Theme 1: A person-centred approach.
• Theme 2: What needs to be inspected, scrutinised, and regulated?
• Theme 3: How should inspection, scrutiny, and regulation be carried out?
• Theme 4: How will we know systems are working?
• Theme 5: How will systems of inspection, scrutiny, and regulation support the workforce?

Call for evidence

The open call for evidence took place between 24 October 2022 and 13 January 2023.

Respondent profile

In total, there were 100 responses to the call for evidence, 60 were from organisations and 40 from individuals. A list of all those organisations that submitted a response to the call for evidence is included in Appendix 1. Respondents were assigned to respondent groupings to allow analysis of any differences or commonalities across or within the various types of organisations and individuals that responded. The following table provides the profile of those who responded to the call for evidence.

Stakeholder engagement events

A total of 20 events were led by the Vice Chair, with support from the Secretariat. Seven of these events were held in-person and the locations of these were Orkney, Inverness, Borders, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kirriemuir and Ballater. The remaining 13 events were held online. Individuals attending the online events came from geographic locations across Scotland.

Across all the events, there were a total of 149 individuals and representatives of organisations who attended. As the following table shows, this included a range of providers of social care support, representative bodies, regulators, local authorities, advocacy organisations, individuals and others.

Methodology

The call for evidence

Responses to the call for evidence were submitted using the Scottish Government consultation platform Citizen Space or by email. A small number of respondents submitted a response which did not answer the specific questions. These responses were analysed and incorporated into the report at the relevant sections.

All responses were downloaded into an excel database which formed the basis for analysis of responses.

Events

The questions posed at these events followed the structure of the five call for evidence themes. Notes from each event were provided to the researchers and the findings were included in analysis at the relevant questions. By and large, the same issues were raised in responses to the call for evidence and at events. Where different issues were raised at events, these are highlighted in this report.

In addition, there were a few 'bespoke' stakeholder events.

A few organisations conducted discussions and / or surveys among their members and reported the results of these as part of their submission.

The analysis

The number responding at each question is not always the same as the number shown in the respondent group table. This is because not all respondents answered all questions. This report shows the number of respondents who commented at each question. When referring to respondents who made particular comments, the terms 'a small number,' 'a few' and so on have been used. While the analysis was qualitative in nature, with the consultation containing only a limited number of quantifiable questions, as a very general rule it can be assumed that:

• 'a small number' indicates up to 5 respondents
• 'a few indicates around 6-9
• 'a small minority' indicates around more than 9 but less than 10%
• 'a significant minority' indicates between around 10%-24% of respondents
• 'a large minority' indicates more than a quarter of respondents but less than half
• 'a majority' indicates more than 50% of those who commented at any question

Some of the consultation questions were composed of closed tick-boxes with specific options to choose from. Where respondents did not follow the questions but mentioned clearly within their text that they supported one of the options, these have been included in the relevant counts.

The researchers examined all comments made by respondents and noted the range of issues mentioned in responses, including reasons for opinions, specific examples or explanations, alternative suggestions or other comments. Grouping these issues together into similar themes allowed the researchers to identify whether any particular theme was specific to any particular respondent group or groups. Where any specific sub-group(s) held a particular viewpoint, this is commented on at each relevant question.

When considering group differences however, it must also be recognised that where a specific opinion has been identified in relation to a particular group or groups, this does not indicate that other groups did not share this opinion, but rather that they simply did not comment on that particular point.

While the consultation gave anyone who wanted to comment an opportunity to do so, given the self-selecting nature of the exercise, any statistics quoted here cannot be applied to a wider population out with the respondent sample.