How we inspect
Find out about the different types of inspection, what
to expect, and what happens after an inspection.
We use our inspections to encourage improvement in social care
services.
We have three types of inspection that involve a visit to your
service plus an annual review, which does not include a visit.
The different types of inspections are:
Following an inspection we will write an inspection report that
will set out what your care service does well and what needs to
improve.
Following a key inspection we give each service a quality
rating, ranging from zero stars (poor) to three stars
(excellent).
Some services may not receive a site visit for up to three
years. We will carry out an annual review of those services.
We will use our inspections and our Annual service review to help us decide how
often to inspect your service.
We will also ask you to judge your own performance as part of
your Annual quality assurance
assessment.
How often do we inspect?
How often we inspect your service depends on how we judge its
quality, but every new service gets a key inspection in its first
six months.
Key inspections are major assessments of the
quality of a service and any risk that it might present.
Frequency of inspections
| Quality rating |
Frequency |
|
3 star *** (Excellent)
|
One key inspection at
least once every three years
|
|
2 star **
(Good)
|
One key inspection at
least once every two years
|
|
1 star *
(Adequate)
|
One key inspection at
least once a year
|
|
0 star
(Poor)
|
Two key inspections a year
|
Where we are considering enforcement
action we may do more key inspections. In addition to key
inspections we may also carry out random or thematic inspection
visits.