Guide · Health Care

Care Inspectorate mock inspection checklist, Scotland.

What to expect at a Care Inspectorate inspection, and how to run one on yourself first against the quality framework. A mock inspection surfaces the gaps an inspector would find, while there is still time to close them.

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The point

An inspection is not a surprise if you run it on yourself first.

In Scotland the Care Inspectorate inspects care services against the Health and Social Care Standards and its quality framework, and grades them on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent. A mock inspection is simply running that same evaluation on yourself, honestly, before the inspector does. Done well, the grades an inspector awards should rarely shock a service that already knows itself.

What an inspector looks at

The key questions, graded.

Care and support

How good is our care and support?

The most heavily weighted key question: are people's wellbeing, choices and outcomes genuinely at the centre of their care?

 Setting and staff

How good is our setting and staffing?

Is the environment safe and suitable, and is the staff team skilled, supported and deployed to meet people's needs?

 Leadership

How good is our leadership?

Is self-evaluation honest and matched by action? An inspector checks whether a service truly understands itself, not just whether it grades itself well.

The checklist, in one line

Grade yourself candidly, then show the work.

A mock inspection walks each key question and quality indicator, grades the service honestly on the six-point scale, and gathers the evidence behind each grade: photos of the setting, observations, the state of policies and records at the point of check. The test an inspector applies is not whether your grade is flattering, but whether your self-evaluation is honest and whether a live improvement plan is closing the gaps it finds.

Run the mock inspection on WhatsApp

No app install. No training.

The manager or quality lead walks the service and answers each prompt in WhatsApp, tied to the quality indicator it evidences. The report and improvement plan generate themselves. Quickler is not a care record and holds no resident care data.

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A Care Inspectorate inspection is far less daunting when you have already run it on yourself. In Scotland the Care Inspectorate inspects care services against the Health and Social Care Standards and its quality framework, grading each key question on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent. A care inspectorate mock inspection checklist is simply that same evaluation, run honestly, before the inspector arrives.

This is what to expect at an inspection, and how to run a mock inspection on yourself against the framework, so the grades an inspector awards confirm what you already know.

The short version

  • In Scotland care services are inspected by the Care Inspectorate, not CQC, which applies in England only.
  • An inspector evaluates the service against the Health and Social Care Standards and the quality framework, on key questions about care and support, setting, staffing and leadership, graded on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.
  • A mock inspection runs that same framework on yourself first, honestly, to find the gaps an inspector would find while there is still time to close them.
  • An inspector checks whether your self-evaluation is honest and matched by action, not just whether your grade looks good.
  • Grade candidly, evidence each grade, and run a live improvement plan. A candid weakness with a fix in progress beats a flattering grade with nothing behind it.
  • Quickler runs the mock inspection walk over WhatsApp and captures the evidence. It is not a care record and holds no resident care data.

What to expect

A Care Inspectorate inspection, briefly

The Care Inspectorate inspects registered care services against the Health and Social Care Standards, which set out what people should expect from their care, and its quality framework, which organises the inspection into key questions: how good is the care and support, the setting, the staffing and the leadership. Each key question breaks into quality indicators, and the inspector grades the service on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.

An inspector observes practice, speaks to people using the service and to staff, looks at records, and weighs the service's own self-evaluation against what they see. Inspections can be announced or unannounced. Always work from the current published framework and standards, as the Care Inspectorate updates its guidance, and treat this page as general information, not regulatory advice.

How to run one on yourself

The mock inspection checklist

Running a mock inspection means walking your service exactly as an inspector would. Take each key question and each quality indicator in turn. Grade the service honestly on the six-point scale. For each grade, gather the evidence: observations of practice, photos of the setting where appropriate, the words people using the service use, the state of policies and records at the point of check, and proof that personal plans are current and person-centred.

Then apply the test an inspector applies. Is the self-evaluation honest? Is it matched by action? A service that grades itself generously and cannot show the improvement work behind the grade fares worse than one that is candid about a weakness and can show what it is doing about it. Turn every gap the mock inspection finds into an action with an owner and a date, so the checklist becomes a live improvement plan rather than a filed judgement.

Scope, honestly

Evidence and process, not the care record

Quickler captures the mock inspection walk and the evidence around it: photos of the setting, the manager's observations against each quality indicator, the state of policies and records at the point of check. It is not a care management system and it is not a clinical record. It does not hold personal plans, medication administration records or personal care logs, and it is not an eMAR.

When the mock inspection needs to check that personal plans are in order, the manager records the finding, that plans were reviewed and were current and person-centred or not, without copying anyone's care data into quickler. The personal plan stays in your care planning system as the single source of truth. Quickler is the evaluation and evidence layer around it.

Quickler is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Care Inspectorate, and whether your evidence satisfies an inspection is a judgement for you and your inspector.

Pricing

You only pay for who works

Quickler is £20 per active user per month with a £20 monthly minimum, plus a free tier of 20 reports a month, extra dormant users always free. An active user is someone who completed at least two workflows that month, so you add your manager, quality lead and any staff who run mock inspections, and only pay for who actually files. Dormant users are free. The free tier gives you 20 reports a month and up to 10 photos per report, with no card and no trial clock, so you can run a first mock inspection before paying anything.

The checklist

The mock inspection checklist, area by area

Run this as an inspector would, before the inspector does. For each area, decide honestly whether the service is ready or has a gap, and turn every gap into an action with an owner and a date. Work from the current published quality framework for the exact wording of the key questions and quality indicators.

Area an inspector checksWhat good looks likeReady or gap
How good is our care and support?People's wellbeing, choices and outcomes are clearly at the centre of their care, and staff can show it in practice.Mark ready or gap.
How good is our setting?The environment is safe, clean and suitable, with maintenance and safety records current at the point of check.Mark ready or gap.
How good is our staffing?The team is skilled, supported, safely recruited and deployed to meet people's needs, with training and supervision up to date.Mark ready or gap.
How good is our leadership?Leadership is accountable, and self-evaluation, quality assurance and improvement genuinely work.Mark ready or gap.
Records and policiesPersonal plans are current and person-centred, and policies are reviewed, dated and followed in practice.Mark ready or gap.
Self-evaluation honestyThe service's own grades match what an inspector would find, and every known weakness has a live action behind it.Mark ready or gap.

Quickler runs each row as a WhatsApp prompt and files the evidence against it. It is not a care record and holds no resident care data; personal plans stay in your care planning system.

Questions, answered

What happens at a Care Inspectorate inspection?

The Care Inspectorate evaluates your service against the Health and Social Care Standards and its quality framework, on key questions about care and support, setting, staffing and leadership, graded on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent. An inspector observes practice, speaks to people using the service and to staff, looks at records, and weighs your own self-evaluation against what they see. Inspections can be announced or unannounced. Always work from the current published framework, as it is updated.

What is a Care Inspectorate mock inspection?

It is running the Care Inspectorate's own framework on yourself before the inspector does. You walk each key question and quality indicator, grade the service honestly on the six-point scale, gather the evidence behind each grade, and turn every gap into an action with an owner and a date. Done well, an actual inspection confirms what you already know rather than surprising you. Treat this as general information, not regulatory advice.

What does an inspector actually look at?

The quality indicators under each key question, the evidence behind your grades, and crucially whether your self-evaluation is honest and matched by action. An inspector checks how well a service understands itself. A candid weakness with a live improvement plan behind it reads better than a flattering grade with nothing to show for it.

Can I run a mock inspection over WhatsApp?

Yes. Quickler's workflow runs over the WhatsApp Business API. The manager or quality lead receives each prompt in their existing WhatsApp chat and replies with text, a voice note or a photo against each quality indicator. The report and improvement plan generate automatically. No separate app or login is required, and no resident care data is entered, because quickler is not a care record.

How much does quickler cost?

Quickler is £20 per active user a month, with a £20 minimum. An active user is someone who completed at least two workflows that month, so dormant users cost nothing. The free tier is 20 reports a month and up to 10 photos per report, with no card and no trial clock. Quickler is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Care Inspectorate, and whether your evidence satisfies an inspection is a judgement for you and your inspector.

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