Established in Scotland to streamline public bodies and to offer better services to the general public, one of its primary innovations was the creation of Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS), now referred to informally as The Care Inspectorate.
All providers of adult social care must be registered with the SCSWIS in order to legally operate. The regulator, much like its counterparts in England and Wales, has a wide array of powers to ensure that the National Care Standards are always being met, including fines and the ability to close down care establishments.
Whilst there are fewer care operators to regulate in Scotland than in England, the challenges remain the same, and this Act sought to meet this challenge head on by centralising all regulatory power in the adult social care arena, within this one regulator.