Removing profit from the care of children looked after: board discussion February 2025

Our Programme for Government contains a number of commitments that set out our vision for children’s services in Wales. Our ambition is for whole system change and, at its heart, we want to see more children and young people being enabled to live with their families and in their home neighbourhoods with many fewer needing to enter care. We also want to ensure the period that young people are in care is as short as possible.

We are committed to keeping families together. Our vision is to redesign how we look after children and young people so we can do the best for our young people, their families and communities by providing services that are locally based, locally designed and locally accountable.

The initial focus of our proposals is on the private provision of residential care for children, alongside independent sector foster care and secure accommodation.

A multi-agency Programme Board has been established to progress the technical and development work to support our legislative options, shape our future approach and deliver market stability.

Progress in relation to the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill

• The bill’s general principles were debated and agreed by the Senedd on 22 October. It completed stage 2 scrutiny on 28 November and completed stage 3 scrutiny on 28 January this year.
• At both stages, all government amendments were agreed, and no non-government amendments were agreed.
• A revised explanatory memorandum and regulatory impact assessment were laid following stage 2. The bill was passed by the Senedd following the stage 4 debate on 4 February 2025.
• The bill has now entered a 4 week ‘period of intimation’ and it was hoped that following this the bill could receive Royal Assent in late March 2025. The Sealing Ceremony would then see the bill become an act.

No questions or comments were raised at this time, and members were informed they could view the bill as passed.

Planned Welsh Government targeted communications

An update was provided by Welsh Government officials on the following communications which were being developed and finalised to share in line with the bill gaining Royal Assent, when known.

Communications for children and young people

Following a wide range of feedback and comments, a refined version of these communications had been shared with the papers for this meeting.

Communications for the children’s residential care workforce

A smaller group under workstream 1 had been considering this in detail and a proposed final version of the text was also shared for members consideration.

Communications for foster carers

A draft communications update for foster carers had been shared with a small group of those involved in this area for feedback prior.

Other planned engagement events included duplicate workshops/information sessions for private providers which would be held in Wrexham and Cardiff in early April.

The purpose of these sessions would be to cover some of the key questions raised by private providers regarding the legislation.

In addition, representatives from Care Inspectorate Wales would be in attendance to provide information regarding the practical steps providers would need to take from a registration perspective.

Risk register and lessons learned log

Following agreement at the last Programme Board meeting to share the risk register with each workstream prior to meetings, feedback and recommendations were made by workstream 1 and 2 to amend several of the assigned residual risk and mitigating action scores. The Programme Board agreed these recommendations and the risk register was confirmed.

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.

The report noted very little movement or changes observed following finalisation of the bill.

There was a need identified however to remain particularly alert to changes over the coming months as the bill becomes an act.