Inspectors of Health and Social Care

TOPSS England and Healthwork UK (HWUK) have developed these National Occupational Standards, with the involvement of a significant percentage of the health and social care regulatory workforce in England, and in consultation with key interests in the other countries of the UK.

National Occupational Standards describe the complex and demanding functions of carrying out the regulation of health and social care as provided for in the Care Standards Act 2000 and its associated regulations and codes of practice.

This group of standards will be used as a statement of competence requirements for registration and inspection officers carrying out the full range of regulatory functions. As such they:

• Describe good practice in particular areas of work.
• Bring together the skills, knowledge and values necessary to do the work, as statements of competence.
• Provide a benchmark against which to measure individual performance through self-assessment.
• Provide managers and practitioners with a tool for a wide variety of workforce management, continuous professional development and quality assurance activities.
• Are the basis of training and qualifications.
  

National Occupational Standards are intended for UK-wide use. This group of standards reflect the fact that many registration and inspection officers will have a professional qualification, most usually in a social care or health related profession, often incorporating a registration requirement with a statutory professional regulating body.

This group of National Occupational Standards is not intended to cover these professional competences and requirements, but it is expected that professional knowledge will be updated to enable registration and inspection officers to promote recent good practice.

• National Occupational Standards Inspectors of Health and Social care for Adults and Children (pdf 666kb)