An overview of our progress against this outcome in 2024 to 2025
Two thirds of the Welsh public have confidence in people who work in social care and early years. But there’s more work to be done to increase awareness of the regulation of the social care workforce in Wales.
According to the 2025 Wales Omnibus Survey in which 1,000 members of the public were asked what they think about social care and early years:
- 73 per cent have confidence in those who work in care (72 per cent in 2023)
- 86 per cent know what an acceptable standard of care is (up from 82 per cent in 2023)
- 55 per cent think social care workers and social workers are regulated (8 per cent less than in 2023)
- 32 per cent know how to report a social care worker who they suspect isn’t working to the standards expected of them (up from 29 per cent in 2023)
- 66 per cent think childcare and early years workers are regulated in Wales – only 12 per cent know they’re not (in 2023, 70 per cent thought they were regulated and only 8 per cent knew they weren’t)
- 84 per cent know what an acceptable standard of childcare is (similar to the 83 per cent in 2023)
- 73 per cent agree people should receive care in Welsh if that’s what they choose (a 6 per cent increase on 2023 and 2021) – support is higher among those who speak Welsh (86 per cent), but it’s relatively high among non-Welsh speakers (68 per cent), too.
We’ve helped increase the public’s confidence in the registered workforce by:
Regulation
We protect the public by making sure the regulated workforce is registered and fit to practise. We want people who rely on care and support to be assured that registered workers have the qualifications and skills they need to provide care and support, and that they’re working to the standards we’ve set for the sector.
Registered workforce
In March 2025, 64,215 people were registered with us – around 3,000 more than last year:
- 1,286 adult care home managers
- 26,354 adult care home workers
- 1,018 domiciliary care managers
- 22,650 domiciliary care workers
- 6,825 social workers
- 712 social work students
- 426 residential child care managers
- 4,836 residential child care workers
- 111 other registered groups.
Fitness to practise
Where social care workers don’t meet the standards expected of them in the code of professional practice, our fitness to practise processes allow us to take action to protect the public and uphold the integrity of the profession by making sure only those who are fit to practise can do so.
In 2024 to 2025:
- 746 social care workers were referred to our fitness to practise team –
323 were taken forward
- we held 36 final hearings
- 40 people were removed from the Register, which means they can no longer work in a registered social care role in Wales (four were removed by agreement).
Review of the Codes of Practice
The codes of professional practice for social care workers and employers set out the standards expected of them, In 2024 to 2025, we worked with the sector to review and update the codes, and had 400 responses when we asked them what they thought about the revised code of practice for social care workers. This has allowed social care workers to shape the standards they’re expected to meet and means we’ll have a clearer and more meaningful set of standards in place. We’ll continue to measure the impact of these changes when we publish the revised codes in 2025 to 2026.