Consultation on proposed changes to the regulation of social care services

This consultation relates to the regulation of social care services under the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016, as amended by part 1 chapter 2 of the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025. 

It seeks your views on proposals for making regulations to:

• prescribe the time limit within which a service provider must publish an annual return on its website
• enable the offence of failure to publish an annual return to be dealt with via a penalty notice
• specify the information to be required when a service provider applies to cancel their registration 

The Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 (“the 2016 act”) received Royal Assent on 18 January 2016. It reformed the regulation and inspection regime for social care in Wales.

The 2016 act aims to provide greater transparency and comparability across social care services in Wales, to rebalance the accountability within the system so the appropriate agencies or individuals are held responsible in law and to move beyond an approach based on compliance towards one that reflects the quality of provision. 

This system of service regulation, established under the 2016 act, has been operating since relevant providers began re-registering their services with Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) in 2018.

The Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025 (“the 2025 act”) which received Royal Assent on 24 March 2025, makes a small number of amendments to the 2016 Act in relation to social care services, to help the regulatory framework operate more effectively (see part 1, chapter 2). 

The Law Wales website provides an overview of the 2025 Act and its development. This includes links to the consultation on proposed changes to primary legislation, undertaken by the Welsh Government in 2022, and an explanatory memorandum that offers a detailed explanation of the legislative changes made by the 2025 Act, along with an assessment of the regulatory and other impacts identified.

To support implementation of amendments made to the 2016 act through the 2025 act, this consultation seeks your views on the proposed exercise of regulation-making powers to:

• prescribe the time limit within which a service provider must publish an annual return on its website
• enable the offence of failure to publish an annual return to be dealt with via a penalty notice
• specify the information to be required when a service provider applies to cancel their registration under the 2016 act

Time limit within which a service provider must publish an annual return on its website

Section 10 of the 2016 act requires a service provider to submit an annual return to the Welsh Ministers (in practice, to CIW) following the end of each financial year during which they are registered. It also sets out the information that an annual return must contain, including key details about the operation of a provider’s service(s) and a statement of compliance with requirements as to the standard of care and support to be provided. Furthermore, it allows the Welsh Ministers to prescribe the form of an annual return and the time limit within which an annual return must be submitted, and states that the Welsh Ministers must publish each return submitted to them.

Section 14 of the 2025 act changes this, to instead require service providers to publish their annual return on their own website and to make copies of it available on request. A new regulation-making power is also created, allowing the Welsh Ministers to prescribe a time limit for the publication of an annual return.

Therefore, on commencement of section 14 of the 2025 act, service providers will still be required to complete and submit an annual return to CIW by the established deadline of 26 May but then must also publish that return on their website within a prescribed time limit. Service providers will also be required to make copies of their annual return available on request, for example, to individuals who use their service(s) or their representatives.

These amendments were consulted upon as part of the 2022 consultation on changes to primary legislation and have been made to section 10 of the 2016 Act to ensure that the service provider retains overall responsibility for the information contained within their annual return and that timely, transparent and comparable information about their service(s) is made accessible to service users and the public. 

What are we proposing?

We propose to use the new regulation-making power within section 10 (4A) of the 2016 act to require that service providers publish an annual return on their website on or before 91 days following the end of the financial year to which it relates. That is, by 30 June each year.

This proposed timescale aims to give a reasonable period after service providers have submitted their annual return to CIW by 26 May, via their CIW online account, to then publish the automatically generated PDF copy of the return on their own website by 30 June.

Specifying a time limit within which annual returns must be published gives clarity and certainty to service providers on what the requirement is and will help ensure that, across Wales, accessible information about regulated services is current and up to date.

When will this take effect?

We intend to commence section 14 of the 2025 act, and amend The Regulated Services (Annual Returns) (Wales) Regulations 2017, so that this requirement first applies to annual returns for the 2025 to 2026 financial year. Therefore, service providers will be required to publish those returns on their website on or before 30 June 2026.

To comply with this legal requirement, service providers will need to have their own website. This issue was raised as part of the 2022 consultation on changes to primary legislation and is addressed within the regulatory impact assessment chapter of the explanatory memorandum (at paragraphs 7.213 to 7.236).

CIW is continuing to raise awareness of this requirement with service providers through direct communications and the provision of support, in readiness for this to come into effect.

Enabling the offence of failure to publish an annual return to be dealt with via a penalty notice

Section 14 of the 2025 act also amends section 48 of the 2016 act, creating an offence for a service provider to fail to publish an annual return on its website within the prescribed time limit. This was also consulted upon as part of the 2022 consultation on changes to primary legislation and mirrors the existing offence within section 48, of failure to submit an annual return within the prescribed time limit.

Therefore, on commencement of section 14 of the 2025 act, it will remain an offence for a service provider to fail to submit an annual return to CIW on or before 26 May and it will become an offence for a service provider to fail to publish an annual return on their website within the prescribed time limit (30 June is proposed, above).

Further to this, section 52 of the 2016 act enables the Welsh Ministers, by regulations, to prescribe offences that may be dealt with by issuing a penalty notice to a person whom they are satisfied has committed that offence. This power has been exercised through the Regulated Services (Penalty Notices) (Wales) Regulations 2019 to allow the Welsh Ministers (in practice, CIW) to impose a penalty notice if they are satisfied that a service provider has failed to submit their annual return in time. The penalty for that offence is an amount corresponding to level 4 on the standard scale of fines for summary offences (currently £2,500).

Penalty notices may be issued instead of bringing proceedings for the prosecution of an offence. Whilst there is no obligation on the person to whom the notice has been issued to pay the sum, doing so would discharge any liability to conviction for the offence. Therefore, if served with a penalty notice, service providers would have the opportunity to pay the specified sum and thereafter could not be prosecuted for the offence. If a service provider does not agree that the offence has been committed, they can refuse to pay the penalty notice, at which point criminal proceedings would be considered by the Welsh Ministers.

What are we proposing?

We propose to use the regulation-making power within section 52 of the 2016 act to allow the offence of failure to publish an annual return within the prescribed time limit to be dealt with by way of issuing a penalty notice.

We propose that the penalty should be set at an amount corresponding to level 4 on the standard scale. This is currently £2,500.

This is consistent with the approach taken with the existing offence of failure to submit an annual return in time and would enable CIW to have the option to issue a penalty notice, where they were satisfied that a provider had failed to publish their annual return within the time limit. Without having the option to issue a penalty notice in these cases, if criminal proceedings were pursued through the magistrates’ court, a person found guilty would be liable to an unlimited fine upon summary conviction. 

In practice, CIW’s securing improvement and enforcement policy sets out the regulator’s proportionate approach to enforcement, of which the issuing of penalty notices is a part. Service providers are likely to be given notice and time to address non-compliance before any penalty notices are issued.

Information to be provided within an application a service provider makes to cancel their registration

Section 14 of the 2016 act allows a service provider to apply to the Welsh Ministers for cancellation of their registration, where they intend to cease operating altogether. Section 15 of the 2025 act amends this, to confer a power on the Welsh Ministers to prescribe the form of and information to be contained within such an application. 

This regulation-making power has been added to section 14 of the 2016 act to enable the Welsh Ministers (in practice, CIW) to require information from service providers about how they will continue to comply with requirements as to the standard of care and support to be provided, until they cease to operate.

This will ensure CIW has relevant information about the intended operation of the service(s) and assurance as to the ongoing care, safety and wellbeing of individuals using or living at the service(s), to enable it to carry out its regulatory duties effectively during the closure period.

What are we proposing?

We propose to use the new regulation-making power within section 14(1A)(a) of the 2016 act to require that an application to cancel a service provider’s registration includes the following information:

• the proposed date on which cancellation of the service provider’s registration should take effect
• the reason for making the application
• for each regulated service provided, a statement as to how the service provider intends to comply with the regulations made under section 27 of the 2016 act (standard of care and support to be provided) until the cancellation takes effect
• for each regulated service provided, details of any notice given about the intention to cease providing the service to service users; to the local authority within whose area the service is being provided to the local health board within whose area the service is being provided; and to any other person
• where the service provider is applying for cancellation of their registration less than 3 months before the proposed effective date, a report as to whether any of the regulated services they provide or any place at, from, or in relation to which they provide a regulated service has ceased or is likely to cease to be financially viable within the next 12 months

This, in effect, replicates the information required under the Regulated Services (Registration) (Wales) Regulations (2017) when a service provider makes an application under section 11 of the 2016 act to vary their registration, to remove one or more services from their registration.

We intend applications to cancel a service provider’s registration, under section 14 of the 2016 act, will be made in the form of an online application, accessed via the CIW website.

This mirrors the approach currently taken when a service provider applies to vary their registration and will be required through the new regulation-making power within section 14(1A)(b) of the 2016 Act, where a provider seeks to cancel their registration in its entirety.

Your responses to this consultation exercise and resultant analysis will inform advice to ministers and the drafting of regulations to be laid before the Senedd in early 2026. It is intended the regulations will come into effect from 1 April 2026.

The Regulated Services (Annual Returns) (Wales) Regulations 2017, as amended, set out further information to be contained within a service provider’s annual return under section 10 of the 2016 act. This enables CIW to collect data on staffing, workforce planning, training and qualifications relating to regulated services.

The social care workforce regulator, Social Care Wales (SCW), also gathers similar information for its annual workforce data collection, from local authorities about the people employed by their own social care services, and in relation to organisations they commission to provide care and support.

Consequently, an overlap in data requests from CIW and SCW made in relation to regulated services has been identified. CIW and SCW are currently working to consider how their data sets could be harmonised and information requests streamlined, to minimise the burden on service providers, meet the information needs of both regulators, and develop a clear and comprehensive picture of the national social care workforce in Wales.

Should this work result in proposals to change these regulations, this will be consulted upon at a later date.

Question 1

Do you agree with the proposed time limit of 91 days after the end of the financial year (30 June) for service providers to publish an annual return on their website?

Question 2

Do you agree that the Welsh Ministers (CIW) should have the option to issue a penalty notice to a service provider where they are satisfied that the provider has failed to publish an annual return on its website within the prescribed time limit?

Question 3

Do you agree that the proposed amount of the penalty (level 4 on the standard scale, currently £2,500) is proportionate?

Question 4

Do you agree that the information to be required on application to cancel a service provider’s registration is relevant and proportionate?

Question 5

Do you think that the proposals in this consultation will have any positive or negative impacts, including on groups with protected characteristics?

Question 6

What, in your opinion, would be the likely effects of any of the proposals on the Welsh language? We are particularly interested in any likely effects on opportunities to use the Welsh language and on not treating the Welsh language less favourably than English. 

Question 7

In your opinion, could the any of the proposals be formulated or changed so as to:

• have positive effects or more positive effects on using the Welsh language and on not treating the Welsh language less favourably than English
• mitigate any negative effects on using the Welsh language and on not treating the Welsh language less favourably than English

Question 8

We have asked a number of specific questions. If you have any related issues which we have not specifically addressed, such as any practical implications to consider for service providers, please use this space to report them.

Please submit your responses by 8 October 2025, in any of the following ways:

• complete our online form
• download, complete our response form and email socialcareconsultation@gov.wales (please include the reference WG52306 in the subject of your email)
• download, complete our response form and post to:

Consultation: WG52306 
Social Services and Integration Directorate
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

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Data Protection Officer

Data Protection Officer
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

Email: data.protectionofficer@gov.wales

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 745 or 0303 123 1113

Information Commissioner’s Office's website.

The Welsh Government will be data controller for any personal data you provide as part of your response to the consultation. Welsh ministers have statutory powers they will rely on to process this personal data which will enable them to make informed decisions about how they exercise their public functions. Any response you send us will be seen in full by Welsh Government staff dealing with the issues which this consultation is about or planning future consultations. Where the Welsh Government undertakes further analysis of consultation responses then this work may be commissioned to be carried out by an accredited third party (e.g. a research organisation or a consultancy company). Any such work will only be undertaken under contract. Welsh Government’s standard terms and conditions for such contracts set out strict requirements for the processing and safekeeping of personal data. In order to show that the consultation was carried out properly, the Welsh Government intends to publish a summary of the responses to this document. We may also publish responses in full. Normally, the name and address (or part of the address) of the person or organisation who sent the response are published with the response. If you do not want your name or address published, please tell us this in writing when you send your response. We will then redact them before publishing.

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Number: WG52306

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