The Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland HM Inspectors would like to invite practitioners to attend engagement sessions on the new Quality Improvement Framework for the early learning and childcare sectors. These in-person sessions will take place in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness.

Sessions will provide you with the opportunity to:

• see a live demonstration and engage directly with the digital version of the framework

• hear about the pilot phase

• explore our current methodologies and share your views on what works well on inspection and what you would like to see changed

• connect directly with inspectors from the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland to explore aspects of the framework

• ask questions you might have about the framework, its application, or how it will support the sector's goals for improvement

We welcome your queries, whether they are about the framework's practical use, the inspection process, next steps or how it aligns with your setting’s needs.

We hope that practitioners will welcome these opportunities to engage with inspectors to become familiar with the new framework and support self-evaluation.

These upcoming face-to-face sessions were organised in response to requests from practitioners at our November online sessions, attended by more than 2,600 practitioners.

We are planning more online sessions on Wednesday 19 March in the morning and evening, and further details will be available shortly.

We are also looking at holding more evening and weekend in-person and online sessions. As soon as details are finalised, we will advertise these sessions across all our channels.

We will continue to use our existing frameworks and approaches for inspection while the new approaches are developed, ahead of implementation in September 2025. The 18-month gap between Education Scotland and Care Inspectorate inspections will also remain in place.

Thank you for your continued dedication to providing the best possible learning environments for children. We very much value your continued engagement with us as we develop the new framework.

Jackie Irvine, Chief Executive, Care Inspectorate 

Janie McManus, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education