Service Manager Adult Services

Salary: £77,676

Hours: 35 hours per week

Location: flexible (any Care Inspectorate office)

Contract: Permanent

Closing date: 08:00 on Monday 20 April 2026

About us

We are a scrutiny body that supports improvement. That means we look at the quality of care in Scotland to ensure it meets high standards. We are responsible for providing assurance and protection for people who experience care services, their families, carers and the wider public. Our vision is that people across Scotland experience high-quality care that meets their needs, rights and choices.

Our values:

• Person-centred: we put people, empathy, compassion, and kindness at the heart of everything we do
• Respect: we value everyone's dignity and are respectful in everything we do
• Equity: we embrace diversity and nurture an inclusive environment where everyone is supported to achieve equal outcomes
• Integrity: we act impartially, fairly, and consistently, upholding transparency and accountability in all our actions
• Impact: we focus on making a positive impact for everyone experiencing care in Scotland whilst ensuring our work delivers the best value to the public

Work-life balance

Our desire is to achieve an effective and balanced way of working, which enables us to meet organisational needs and achieve a work-life balance that promotes wellbeing and collaboration opportunities. Our hybrid working policy gives you the flexibility to mix working from home with attendance at your base office and other work locations, spending no more than 60% of your working time working from home, measured over a four-week period.

About the role

You will support the Scrutiny and Assurance Directorate and Strategy and Improvement Directorate to ensure that the Care Inspectorate meets its responsibilities as defined by the Public Services Reform Act 2010 and other relevant legislation. The role of Service Manager Adult Services supports or conducts regulatory or strategic scrutiny activity by exercising ‘authorised person’ functions in terms of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act or secondary legislation made thereunder are ancillary to the Care Inspectorate’s primary authorised officer role and are defined as secondary authorised officers. This role supports or conducts regulatory or strategic scrutiny activity; however, the role purpose is broader than simply exercising the organisation’s inspection powers defined in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and secondary legislation made thereunder. The Care Inspectorate is currently looking for a Service Manager (Adults) to support the Chief Inspector to lead on the regulation of care in adult services. The successful candidate will ensure excellence in scrutiny, assurance and improvement work in collaboration with scrutiny partners, providers, community planning partners, and integration authorities. You’ll support the Chief Inspector by having delegated responsibility for the leadership, development and delivery of the scrutiny and assurance plan for adults. You will make sure that the needs of people who use services and their carers are at the heart of what we do. You’ll support the Scrutiny and Assurance Directorate to ensure that the Care Inspectorate meets its responsibilities, in relation to adult services, as defined by the Public Services Reform Act 2010 and other relevant legislation. You’ll work with colleagues to support significant cultural change, consolidate excellence in the Care Inspectorate’s activities and continue to invest in our competent, confident workforce in a way that puts collaboration at the core of our work. You’ll be adept at challenging traditional thinking in a positive and constructive way. You will be an articulate and positive communicator, both verbally and in written form, with the ability to engage, influence and lead the development of a wide range of key stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally. You’ll also be politically astute and demonstrate a broad knowledge of trends and relevant issues within social work and social care services. The Care Inspectorate has its headquarters in Dundee, but with offices throughout Scotland, your work base is negotiable. You will find more information in the job profile and person specification.

About you

To apply you must be educated to SCQF level 10 (degree level or equivalent) and hold an appropriate post-graduate professional qualification in social work or other relevant professional qualification. We are looking for someone who has a proven track record of effective management and leadership of staff in the area of adult health and social work/social care. You should also have demonstrable experience in developing and/or applying quality assurance/improvement frameworks to support self-evaluation and continuous improvement. You should also have evidence of experience in strategic planning and delivery of services, as well as supporting and embedding sustainable business and transformational change. In addition, have extensive experience of collaborative and values-based leadership, including working with partners.

The application process

To apply: You will be educated to SCQF level 10 (e.g., degree, graduate diploma/certificate, etc.). You will have a secondary Authorised Officer qualification - either PDA (Professional Development Award), RoCA (Regulation of Care Award), EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) or PSIF (Public Sector Improvement Framework).

The registration process

The successful applicant must be registered with a professional body (this can be NMC, GTCS, NMC, HCPC, SSSC). For SSSC registration, there is a specific registration category for Care Inspectorate Authorised Officers (AO). There will be two levels of AO registration (Primary AO and Secondary AO), and identification of types of work undertaken (Social Care and Children & Young People). On appointment as a Service Manager Adult Services you will be required to register with SSSC as a secondary AO under both types of work (Social Care and Children & Young People) or be registered with another appropriate registration body (NMC, GTCS, HCPC). We would expect non-SSSC staff to hold or gain the appropriate AO qualification (in this case EFQM would be the minimum qualification).

Next steps

If you believe that your skills, experience and motivation make you a suitable candidate for this post, please complete our online application form by 08:00 on Monday 20 April 2026. We anticipate holding interviews during the week commencing 11 May 2026 in Glasgow.