 What we've been up to
- Planning for the return of the Scottish Parliament at the start of September
Care homes/Care at Home
Campaign calling for greater awareness around hearing loss in care homes (England)
Engage and Care England have launched a campaign, 'Small Changes, Big Difference', calling for greater awareness and practical support around hearing loss in care homes. The campaign reportedly follows concerns raised by frontline care staff, including commentst that many have never received practical guidance on supporting residents with hearing loss or managing hearing technology.
Covid-19
Publication dates for ‘Care Sector’ and ‘Test, Trace and Isolate’ reports
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry will publish its sixth report ‘Care Sector’ (Module 6), on Tuesday 20 October 2026 and its seventh report, ‘Test, Trace and Isolate’ (Module 7) on Thursday 19 November 2026. The Chair of the Inquiry, Baroness Heather Hallett, will present her findings and recommendations in video statements on the Inquiry’s YouTube channel immediately after each publication. The remaining three reports, Module 8 ‘ Children and Young People’, Module 9 ‘Economic Response’ and Module 10 ‘Impact on Society’ will be published in the first half of 2027.
Disability
Joint inspection of services for adults with learning disabilities in East Ayrshire
A joint inspection of East Ayrshire health and social care partnership has found clear strengths in services for adults with learning disabilities, with some areas for improvement. Overall, inspectors found that people experienced good, person-centred care and were treated with compassion, dignity and respect. However, inspectors also recommended that the partnership relaunch its programme of annual health checks, which provide effective routes to early intervention and prevention as well as addressing health inequalities, and that the partnership should also accelerate the delivery of future care and emergency plans, including adult carer support plans as they are a critical means of ensuring the continuity of care.
Support for people with a learning disability to safely self-administer insulin (England)
Nursing Times reports on an investigation by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) which finds that people with a learning disability, who have diabetes and administer insulin, have come to harm due to gaps in healthcare services and inequitable access to support to self-administer insulin safely. In addition, they were not always empowered or enabled to self-manage their diabetes where they may be able to do so, and limitations in the availability of learning disability specialist services affected the ability of non-specialist staff to seek advice to support safe diabetes care.
Justice
Mental Health
Mental Health Officers Report
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has published its Mental Health Officers Report for 2025, setting out information on the numbers of qualified social workers working as MHOs, time dedicated to mental health-related duties, breakdown of MHO positions by type of role across different local authorities, MHOs working within dedicated mental health teams versus those in non-mental health teams, and the number of MHOs employed by Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs). Key points from this year’s MHO report include that there were 788 active MHO posts in 2025, the number of individuals (headcount) working as an MHO rose from 729 in 2024 to 763 in 2025, and the overall hours estimated to be spent on MHO duties each week in 2025 was 14,702 the highest since 2016 when they started reporting this figure.
Other Health and Social Care
Updated guidance on how we inspect regulated care services
We have published updated guidance, 'How we inspect regulated services: guidance for providers of regulated care settings and the public'. The document explains our approach to inspecting regulated care services in Scotland, including how we plan inspections, gather and consider evidence, make evaluations, and share feedback with services. It is intended to support providers, people experiencing care, families, carers and the wider public to understand what to expect from inspection and how inspection supports improvement in the quality of care.
Rethinking health and care integration
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has published a blog by a former President discussing how to rethink the approach to health and care integration, starting with the life someone wants to lead and asking how health, care and communities can help. The blog discusses what the NHS and adult social care contribute, their differences, and how people may need both.
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