Regarding the authorisation process of the Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO)

Here, we describe the steps we take in our administration when we receive an application for a new authorisation.

IVO often uses email to communicate with the contact person for the application. It is therefore important that IVO has the right contact details. This contact person may be contacted by different administrators at IVO, depending on which phase of the case they are in.

Authorisations

An application is received, and a fee must be paid

The first thing that happens when we receive an application is that it is registered. This means that the authority creates a case for the application, which is given a unique case number, known as a reference number.

You will receive an email confirmation that your application has been received. The confirmation contains the reference number and information on how to pay the application fee.

Once you have received this confirmation, you can also be certain that we have received your application. It normally takes approximately a week to receive confirmation of receipt of an application, but if we receive a lot of applications in a short time, it can take up to a month.

Once IVO has received your fee payment, we will begin our processing. This fee will not be returned to the company if it chooses to withdraw its application once IVO has started processing it.

The processing occurs in three steps:

Review of formalities
Assessment of suitability (of SoL and LSS services)
Assessment of the scope of the service

The various steps/phases may be performed by different administrators, and there can sometimes be a delay before the next phase is started after the previous phase is completed.

We will review the formalities of the application – a complete application shortens the processing time

IVO starts by assessing whether the application needs to be supplemented with company formalities or other basic information. If so, we will contact you by email and ask you to supplement the information. The contact person for the application may be contacted by different administrators at IVO, depending on which phase of processing the case is in.

An application must be complete so that we can continue to process it and assess whether or not authorisation should be granted. An application which is complete and contains accurate contact details from the start means that the total processing time by the authority will be shorter. You can read more here on how you should fill in your application in as much detail as possible.

If you do NOT complete the application with the information that we request, we will close your case without granting authorisation.

We carry out an assessment of suitability (applies to SoL and LSS services)

IVO carries out an assessment of the suitability of the company and its representatives. This means that IVO judges whether the company’s owner and management are sufficiently knowledgeable and suitable to provide the service, and whether the company is financially viable. Those who apply for authorisation may be called to an interview with IVO during the investigation.

On this page, you can read more about what we cover in the assessment of suitability.

We will assess the planned scope of the service

When we assess the planned service, we will weigh up the information that you have provided in the application regarding, inter alia, premises, target group, methods and staff. We will then make a balanced assessment of the whole application. For this reason, certain premises may be suitable for one service, but not for another.

During this period, you may also receive a request to supplement or clarify certain aspects of the information you have provided in the application. If you have already responded to all the questions in the application and sent all requested attachments, we may often make a decision immediately and will not need to contact you. If you do not complete the application with the information that we request, we will close your case without granting authorisation. Your application fee will not be returned to you.

We will make a decision

At this point, we may decide either to grant authorisation or not to grant authorisation.

If we approve an application, the company will be issued with authorisation for the service concerned

If we approve an application, we will reach a decision on it. We will also issue a permit which the applicant for authorisation receives along with the decision.

Note that authorisation from IVO is not the only requirement that the company must fulfil in order to provide the service. In addition to authorisation from IVO, the service may also need authorisation from other authorities and/or have to comply with other legislation which applies to the service. Examples of such regulations are available on the page 'For those who have been granted authorisation'.

It is important to be aware that a service that has been granted authorisation must give notice of or apply to implement certain types of changes to the service.

If we reject an application, the company will not be granted authorisation

We will reject an application if our overall assessment indicates that the company seeking authorisation does not meet the requirements of the suitability assessment, or that the planned service is not safe or cannot provide users with a high quality initiative.

If we conclude that an application should be rejected, the applicant company has the right to see the documentation that formed the basis for our conclusion. The company also has the right to submit comments on it, known as a statement, before IVO makes the decision.

Rejection decisions by IVO may be appealed. We will send out information on how to appeal when we send the letter giving notice of the rejection.