Guide
Care Inspectorate registration fees: what Scotland actually charges
Updated
Unlike some regulators, the Care Inspectorate publishes a full fee scale. The fee must be paid before your application is considered, and it is not returnable if the application fails.
Two fees, not one
The Care Inspectorate charges an application fee for registering a new service and then an annual continuation fee for every year the registration exists. Its guidance describes the continuation fee as what licenses a care service to operate, and states that all application fees are non-returnable (careinspectorate.scot fees).
How the bands work
- By staff size, most support services
- A small service is one that does not employ more than three whole-time equivalent persons to provide and manage the service. For care at home, housing support, fostering, adoption and adult placement, a medium service employs more than three but no more than fifteen, and other is more than fifteen. For day care support services, child care agencies and daycare of children, there is no medium band: anything above three whole-time equivalent staff is other.
- By registered place, accommodation services
- Care homes, secure accommodation and offender accommodation pay a flat application fee plus a fee per registered place: £3,849 and £157 per place for a care home, £5,544 and £221 for secure accommodation, £4,510 and £180 for offender accommodation.
- By boarding place, schoolcare accommodation
- Small is up to 40 registered boarding places, medium is more than 40 and no more than 100, and other is more than 100.
- Flat, childminding and nurse agencies
- Childminding is £28 to register and £17 a year. A nurse agency is £1,399 to register and £699 a year.
The size band is about the staff who provide and manage the service, not your turnover or client numbers. Getting the band wrong is a common reason an application stalls on payment. The full table is in our fee table, read from the Care Inspectorate's own page.
The costs the fee table does not show
- PVG scheme record checks. The Care Inspectorate states you must pay an additional fee for Protection of Vulnerable Groups scheme record checks as appropriate, and that it must be a counter signatory, so the application is progressed through the Care Inspectorate rather than directly. Fees for PVG applications are set by Disclosure Scotland.
- Time before you can trade. The Care Inspectorate aims to assess applications within six months. Premises costs and staff commitments during that period are a real part of the cost of entering the market.
- Preparation. A poor application is rejected and you may be required to start the process again, which means paying attention up front is cheaper than paying twice.
- Fire safety and premises work. The Care Inspectorate assesses whether the premises are fit to be used for the purpose, which for accommodation services can mean building work before an application is granted.
Wrong country?
These fees apply in Scotland only. In England the regulator is the Care Quality Commission, which does not charge to process an application but levies an annual fee once registered. In Wales it is Care Inspectorate Wales, which publishes no registration fee scale at all. Northern Ireland is regulated by the RQIA. Do not budget a Scottish figure for a service in another nation. See which services must register in Scotland.