Bryan Livingstone, development manager for children's services at theCare Commission, gave a presentation outlining the changes.
The conference also heard that the Scottish Social Services Council willbe launching a new degree-level qualification on 31 October, which willbe required for managers and lead practitioners of early years andchildcare services by 2011 (News, 17 August 2006).
The new format for inspection is built around a Quality AssessmentFramework, and service providers will be asked to self-assess and gradetheir provision. Following the inspection, a Care Commission officer willadvise grades awarded on a six-point scale.
Mr Livingstone said that any dispute about the grade awarded by the CareCommissioner would be resolved wherever possible during an inspectionfeedback session.
He added, 'We're publicising the changes at the moment. We are takingevery opportunity to go to AGMs as we finalise all the details. We havealso published guidance leaflets and have updated our website.'
'We have just finished the second round of pilots and we had a positiveresponse from those involved. The framework should make things simplerfor inspectors and providers.'