Planning Manager

Job title: Planning Manager

Salary: £38,553 - £42,597

Hours: 35 hours per week

Location: Flexible (Any Care Inspectorate office)

Contract: Temporary for up to 12 months

About us

We are the national regulator and scrutiny body responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public, as well as supporting delivery partners to improve the quality of care for people in Scotland. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.

We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. We inspect individual care services and we also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in their local areas.

Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, that enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. We are moving towards an expectation that all staff will work collaboratively, within and across teams, in person, for approximately 40% of their working week.

About the role

Due to a period of absence a temporary vacancy has arisen within our planning team. In this demanding and challenging role, reporting to the head of business change, you will manage and co-ordinate the delivery of national inspection planning across a wide range of social care services and services for children and adults to ensure that the Care Inspectorate makes the best use of its resources and performs effectively and efficiently as an independent scrutiny and improvement body. This will include the management, co-ordination of inspection activities and national and team plans for the current year and draft plans for subsequent years, ensuring inspection planning activities are consistent with the Care Inspectorate’s objectives and targets.

About you

The successful applicant will have an operational background in planning activities, and system and processes, together with workload planning and prioritisation.

You will be educated to standard grade level and hold a relevant HNC qualification. You will have excellent communication skills and be able to demonstrate a broad level of knowledge of working within inspection/regulation of care and associated IT systems alongside the ability to translate plans into action.

Next steps

You’ll find more information in the job profile and person specification.

If you would like more information or an informal chat about the role please contact Deborah Holyroyd at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - please include a contact telephone number and times that would be best to reach you in your email.

If you believe that you are a suitable candidate for this post, please download and complete an application form and equal opportunities form and submit it by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 08:00 on Monday 22 April 2024.

It is anticipated that interviews will be held no sooner than Wednesday 24 April at our Stirling office.

Team Manager – Adults

Location: East of Scotland                    

Salary: £48,453 - £53,502 (140 hours over 4 weeks)

Contract: Permanent or secondment

About the role

We are looking for a full-time team manager to manage a team of inspectors in our adult’s specialism in the Edinburgh area.

Our team managers support their team of inspectors to manage the inspection workload, consider risk factors and maximise performance. They also manage enforcement activity and support service development and improvement. Team managers work closely with our registration and complaints teams to ensure effective regulation of care services.

Team managers have a relationship manager role with a number of local authorities and national providers. They are expected to take part in and keep up to date with national initiatives and development to support the work of the team. Team managers also provide professional development to the team of inspectors that they manage.

About us

As a national regulator and scrutiny body, we inspect care across communities, report on the quality of care people experience, and ensure it is as good as it can be. We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement.

We inspect care services individually. We also work with other scrutiny bodies to inspect the social care and social work services people are experiencing in local areas.

We champion high-quality care whenever we encounter it across the thousands of inspections we carry out each year, and we work closely with all care providers to support them to improve all the time. We collaborate with other organisations too, supporting improvement across public services. Our work plays a big role in reducing health and social inequalities between people and communities.

About you

You will be educated to degree level or equivalent and hold an appropriate professional qualification and be committed to your own continuous professional development.

You should have significant experience of operational scrutiny activity and professional regulatory practice within health, social care, or other relevant sectors. You will have experience of implementing improvements and managing change.

You will need to be able to provide leadership and direction to a diverse team of professional staff. You will need to demonstrate a significant knowledge of working with inspection and regulation of care as well as a commitment to the principles of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and the principles of better regulation.

Why join us?

This is an exciting time to join the Care Inspectorate, with an opportunity to be at the heart of change as we consider the recommendations of the Independent Care Review.

We strive to be a great employer, knowing that competitive salary, leave and pension schemes are only part of that. We pride ourselves on the values we hold, person-centred; fairness; respect; efficiency and integrity - all supported with a culture of care and kindness. We’re proud to be a progressive, supportive employer, and equality, diversity and inclusion are important to us. 

All new entrants will start on the grade minimum for the role however we have a generous benefits package which is highlighted below.

Flexibility and agility are important to us. That’s why we have a number of policies in place that support flexible working and time off when you need it, such as flexi-time, flexible hours, home working, carers leave and special leave. The inspector role is flexible with 140 hours over a four week period.

Our annual leave allowances are generous, starting at 32 days (in less than 1 years’ service by 1 April) and climbing to 42 days after 5 years of service.

All our employees are eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme, which is a defined benefit career average scheme. Employee contributions range between 5.5% and 10% depending on earnings and are matched by employer contributions of 17%.

To apply

You’ll find more information in the:

• job profile
• person specification
• job advert

Those who have applied in the last 6 months need not apply however this does not preclude current team managers from using the internal transfer process

For an informal chat about the job role, please contact the HR team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and a member of the team will arrange for you to receive a call back from one of our Service Managers.

If you believe that your expertise, skills and motivation make you suitable for this post, please complete an application form (and an Equalities Monitoring Form where you are an external applicant) and return by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than 8am on Monday 29 November 2021.

It is anticipated that interviews and selection will take place no earlier than 16 December 2021 . 

Job profile

Job title: Human Resources Adviser

Responsible to: Senior HR Business Partner

Principal working contacts:

• HR business partnering team
• Shared service recruitment and transactions teams
• Care Inspectorate colleagues and management
• Trade Union officials and representatives

Job purpose

The HR adviser will work closely with stakeholders across the organisation to provide expert advice and guidance on a wide range of HR related matters. This includes all employment related matters, employee relations, people management policies and employment regulations.

The HR adviser will play a crucial role in fostering a positive work environment, promoting employee engagement and contributing to the overall success of the Care Inspectorate through the delivery of a cohesive HR service across the organisation.

Key responsibilities

• To provide advice and guidance to managers and staff members on complex case management issues including absence management, wellbeing, disciplinary, dignity at work, capability and grievance matters, during both informal and formal processes.
• Support the Senior HR Business Partner in developing, implementing and evaluating HR policies, practice and procedures in line with best practice and to ensure that statutory obligations and organisational objectives are met.
• Provide advice, guidance and coaching to managers on HR policies and procedures, ensuring that managers are equipped with the knowledge and understanding to effectively operate within the parameters of the policy.
• Design, deliver and evaluate people management training on HR related policies, projects and practice.
• Facilitate and support organisational change initiatives by providing expert advice and guidance. Collaborate with stakeholders to develop change strategies and monitor the effectiveness of these initiatives.
• Promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion as part of the culture of the organisation and contribute to working groups as required.
• Keep abreast of employment law and best practice issues and be able to advise management on these. Keep abreast of key issues and changes in the social care sector.
• Support the Senior HR Business Partner with HR input into relevant projects, working groups or focus groups, including providing specialist advice and support to managers in a range of complex organisational change and redesign issues.
• Foster productive working relationships and collaborative working throughout the organisation and in all working practices in accordance with the Partnership Agreement with the trade unions.
• Assist in maintaining management information systems to ensure that information for statutory reporting purposes and that additional information for organisational reporting purposes, is collated.
• Assist in preparing written reports to the Board/Committees, and advisory and guidance notes for Line Managers.
• Actively support and develop junior members of the HR team, providing advice and guidance on work related matters.
• Process the necessary administrative tasks associated with the day-to-day HR queries and issues.
• Undertake any other ad-hoc duties as defined by the Senior HR Business Partner or Head of Human Resources.

Other duties

This job may require travel to Care Inspectorate offices throughout Scotland and may involve some occasional overnight stays and unsocial hours.

This job profile is a broad picture of the post at the date of preparation. It is not an exhaustive list of all possible duties, and it is recognised that jobs change and evolve over time. Consequently, the post holder will be required to carry out any other duties to the equivalent level that are necessary to fulfil the purpose of the job, and to respond positively to changing business needs.

Person specification

Job title: Communications Coordinator

Attributes

Experience 

Essential: 

• Demonstrates a successful record of accomplishment within a relevant role.

Education, qualifications and training

Essential:

• Holds a relevant qualification at degree level or equivalent (SCQF Level 9).

Desireable: 

• Membership of a relevant professional bodySkils and knowledge

Skills and knowledge

Essential:

• Excellent communication skills.
• Excellent literacy skills.
• Consistently delivers creative solutions.
• Manages conflicting priorities and works to tight deadlines.
• Flexible and responsive, reacting positively to rapidly changing priorities and demands.
• Works on own initiative and prioritises workload.
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Office software.
• Excellent understanding of social media in an organisational setting.
• Up-to-date knowledge, understanding and experience of the range of today’s communications disciplines and channels.
• Understands how to monitor, measure and demonstrate success through analytics and appropriate performance measures.

Desireable: 

• Experience using Joomla, Wordpress, Umbraco and other content management software.
• Knowledge of the social care sector.
• Experience responding to journalists.

Key performance outcomes

Effective communication

Essential:

• Expresses ideas clearly and concisely and to adapt communication to suit different audiences
• Produces written and verbal communication which is clear and concise
• Listens actively to people, questions and checks understanding
• Develops and maintains positive working relationships at all levels.

Desireable:

• Plain English training or qualification.
• Copywriting or proofing training or qualification.

Objective decision making

Essential:

• Understands the limits of their knowledge and experience and when to refer decisions to others
• Acts consistently with the Care Inspectorate values to achieve the desired outcomes
• Keeps aims and objectives consistently at the heart of decision making.

Planning and organising

Essential:

• Plans workload effectively in the short, medium and long term in conjunction with their line manager and work to strict deadlines
• Demonstrates attention to detail in all areas
• Shows initiative and proactively works without close supervision.

Team working

Essential:

• Tolerant and fair towards others, values diversity and is non-discriminatory in their actions
• Values and makes use of the skills, knowledge and experience of others
• Cooperates with and supports others.

Personal accountability and responsibility

Essential:

• Takes responsibility for actions
• Maintains a high standard of work and actively looks for opportunities to improve their work
• Demonstrates initiative within own areas of expertise
• Ambitious and positive in quality assuring their work.

Please note – these are key performance outcomes to be used to recruit into the role. Successful applicants will be assessed against all the performance indicators used in the Performance Development Review System once established in the role.