Help and FAQ

Jump to: Questions from families · Questions from care providers

Questions from families

Is it free to use?

Yes. You do not need an account, and sending an enquiry to a service costs nothing.

Where do the grades come from?

From the Care Inspectorate, Scotland's regulator for care services. We do not inspect services or change grades. See About the data and how to read the grades.

Why does a service have no grades?

Usually because it is newly registered or has not yet been inspected under the current framework. The service page links to the official Care Inspectorate record, which may have more.

How recent are the grades?

The date of the inspection appears beside the grades, and the "data as at" date shows which monthly release we are showing. A grade can be months or years old, so it is worth checking the date and the official record.

Why is one service shown above another?

Listings from providers that pay for a plan appear first by default, and they are always labelled Featured or Premium. Payment never changes a grade. You can change the order with the sort menu, for example to see the most recently inspected or the highest average grade first.

What happens to my enquiry?

It is emailed to the service, who can reply to you directly. Every enquiry is passed on, whatever plan the service is on. We keep a record of it for up to 12 months and then delete it. Please do not put medical details in a first message. See our privacy policy.

Do you recommend any service?

No. This is a way to read the public record more easily. It is not a recommendation, a referral or care advice. If you want to talk to someone about choosing care, your local council's social work department or health and social care partnership can help.

Something is wrong, or I want details about me removed or corrected

Please contact us. Where the mistake is in the Care Inspectorate's own record, it has to be corrected there and we will help you take it up with them. You can also ask us to see, correct or delete personal data we hold, as set out in the privacy policy.

Questions from care providers

How do I claim my listing?

Go to Claim your listing, search for your service by name or CS number, and create an account with your work email. Claiming is free. If your organisation runs several services, you can claim all of them in one go instead of one at a time, or add the rest later from your dashboard. Confirm your email using the link we send. If your email address is at the same organisation as the contact address the Care Inspectorate holds for the service, the claim is approved straight away. Otherwise we check it against the Care Inspectorate record, usually within one working day.

I did not receive the verification email

Check your Junk or Spam folder first, and mark the message as not junk if you find it. You can ask for it to be sent again from your dashboard. If it still does not arrive, contact us.

Does claiming or paying change my grades?

No. Grades come directly from the Care Inspectorate and cannot be edited or bought. Plans change what you can show and where your listing appears, and promoted placements are labelled.

Are enquiries held back on the free plan?

No. Every enquiry about a claimed listing is delivered to you in full on every plan.

What do I get when I claim?

You can answer families and manage your enquiries, see how many times your page was viewed over the last 30 days, and see how your grades compare with similar services in your council area and across Scotland, on every plan. There is also a guide to the annual duties of a registered care service, a compliance calendar for claimed listings, and on the Insight page, the wider picture for your council area (care home occupancy, hospital delays, the older population and staff vacancies). Paid plans add things such as a description, vacancies, fees and a link to your website, and a higher position in search.

Where do the care tenders come from?

From Public Contracts Scotland, where councils, health boards and other public bodies advertise their regulated contracts (it is not every small purchase). We check it every day and list the open ones that are about care and support on the tenders page, with a link to the official notice. We do not run any tender, cannot advise on bids, and a few borderline notices can appear, so always read the notice itself.

Where do the staff vacancy figures come from?

From the annual Staff vacancies in care services report by the Scottish Social Services Council and the Care Inspectorate, which counts services that reported vacancies at 31 December. We show it by council area on Insights. It is published once a year, so it can be many months old, and it covers all kinds of care service, not only care homes.

How are page views counted?

As one total per service per day. We store no cookies, no IP addresses and nothing else about the visitor. Search-engine robots, link previews and signed-in providers are not counted.

Can my colleagues have their own logins?

Yes. Under Team in your account, invite people by email. An administrator can do everything the main login can. A service manager only sees and edits the services you choose, and cannot see other services, plans or billing. Each person has their own password, and you can remove anyone at any time. This suits an organisation with several services, where each service has its own manager.

How do I cancel a paid plan?

From your dashboard, open Billing & invoices. You keep the plan until the end of the period you have paid for.

The details the Care Inspectorate holds about us are out of date

We show what the Care Inspectorate publishes, so details such as the registered address or the provider's contact email must be updated with them, and our data follows in the next monthly release.

Will you email me?

Only for your account (such as verifying your email and replies to enquiries). You can also opt in to reminders about the year's annual duties, at most two emails a year, with a link to stop them in every message.

Still stuck? Send us a message. We aim to reply within five working days.

---

Also: About us · How to use this site · About the data · Help and FAQ · Contact us