Removing profit from the care of children looked after: board discussion March 2026

The Eliminating Profit from the Care of Children Looked After Programme Board (“the Programme Board”) was initially established in September 2021 following publication of the initial Programme for Government in July 2021.

Its purpose is to oversee and advise on implementation of the Programme for Government commitment to ‘Eliminate private profit from the care of looked after children’, being taken forward through the provisions within the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025 (“The 2025 Act”). A summary of Programme Board discussions is published for transparency.

Welsh Government update:

• The summary report of the consultation on changes to the registration and annual returns regulations, and approach to monitoring and enforcement were published in January. Amended regulations are due to come into force from 1 April 2026.
• A further consultation launched in February on the local authority sufficiency plan duty, the deadline for submissions is 7 April 2026.
• Funding has been awarded to Cwmpas to continue its support to for‑profit providers considering operating on a not‑for‑profit basis under the new arrangements.
• Monitoring of the Eliminate and Radical Reform 2025 to 2026 grant funding to local authorities is complete. Officials are currently considering local authority 2026 to 2027 workplans.
• The Transformation Programme for Children's Services: Legacy Report had been compiled and published.
• A Written Statement and Press Notice were published on 10 March 2026 giving updates on the implementation of the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025, alongside key milestones.
• The first removing profit newsletter was published on 19 March 2026, which provides updates from key organisations within a single place.
• Regular monthly removing profit communications meetings continue with comms leads across different organisations - Welsh Government, CIW, SCW, 4C's, WLGA, Cwmpas and ADSS Cymru, ensuring greater consistency in language and messaging as appropriate.

Market Intelligence Report:

The Market Intelligence Report had been prepared by the Children’s Commissioning Consortium Cymru (4Cs) and shared with members ahead of the meeting and an update was provided:

• The number of commissioned services from independent providers of residential care had decreased but capacity had continued to grow. The majority of new registrations were still from for-profit providers.
• The proportion of local authority homes registered continues to rise and this trend is expected to continue in future years.
• More for-profit residential providers have indicated their plans to re-establish to comply with the Act. These providers had been referred to Cwmpas for support where required.
• Commissioned foster care placements have declined, and Wales continues to face capacity shortages.
• Several Independent Fostering Agencies are considering re-establishing but have concerns about the process.
• Reports suggest foster carers are unlikely to transfer between agencies until they are aware of their current organisation’s intentions.

ADSS Cymru update on support for Local Authority implementation:

ADSSC provided an overview of activities over the last year, noting significant progress in a number of areas, including:

• Work on financial and demand modelling tools to inform sufficiency planning.
• A Memorandum of Cooperation agreed across local authorities to help foster a collective approach to information and data sharing across authorities.
• A recent ADSS Cymru ‘Lunch and Learn’ session had over 200 attendees, with positive feedback received.
• A specific focus on workforce was identified within ADSS Cymru’s 2026 to 2027 workplan.

Risk register and lessons learned log:

• Narrative changes had been made to the Risk Register following the last Programme Board and recent Workstream 1 meetings, but no changes to specific risk scores were made.
• A new entry was added to the Programme Board Lessons Learned Log relating to communications on the implementation schedule, specifically the restrictions due to be imposed on existing for-profit providers after April 1, 2026.

Workstream updates:

Workstream 1 had met 3 times since the Programme Board meeting. Key discussions included:

• ADSS Cymru had previously commissioned a piece of work exploring children and young people’s experiences of being placed in a service operating without registration (OWR) and this was due to be published on the ADSS Cymru website. The intent behind the publication of this report is to share lessons learned around safety and best practice.
• Members of the workstream had also fed into the work on sufficiency planning and how this translates into regional and national sufficiency conversations.

Workstream 2 last met on 22 January 2026, with conversations focusing on organising a set of events for potential new entrants to the children’s care sector such as those operating services in a related field.