What we do

Our business plan sets out our work programmes, objectives, performance measures and budget for the year. Each quarter, our Board and Welsh Government scrutinise our progress on delivering the activities.

We're committed to:

• being a truly bilingual organisation
• valuing diversity and improving opportunity for all
• involving the people of Wales in how we work
• listening to your feedback
• setting high standards of customer service
• publishing and accessing information
• improving our own performance.

Welsh Language Standards

We welcome contact from customers in both Welsh and English, we aim to provide a completely bilingual service across all our work areas. In accordance with section 44 of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, we are required to comply with the Welsh Language Standards. The compliance notice notes which standards we have to comply with.

Our strategic equality plan

Promoting equality and appreciating people’s differences are an important part of our core values.

Our strategic equality plan shows our commitment to becoming an organisation that tries to improve the lives of people with protected characteristics.

We do this by tackling discrimination, promoting equality and diversity, and creating a more inclusive society.

Summary of the plan

Our new Strategic equality plan for 2022 to 2027 supports the ambitions of our Strategic plan for 2022 to 2027. It also responds to the ongoing inequalities that have been highlighted and made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.

To help us develop the plan we spoke to people who use care and support and their carers, and we listened to people who represented a range of the protected characteristics.

The plan has five outcomes. We will:

• improve the use of equality data and information
• work with employers and leaders within social care and early years to help advance equality at work
• work to make sure equality, accessibility and inclusion are central to our work of building a digitally ready social care and early years workforce
• support the workforce by promoting our well-being resources and offers, and improving access to them
• promote opportunities to work with us, to help us achieve a more diverse and inclusive Board, staff and regulatory panel, and to widen our networks.

But our ambition is to go beyond the plan and to promote equality and tackle discrimination in all our work. We want to play a leadership role in making sure Wales opposes discrimination, so we will be vigilant, and speak up and challenge discrimination, in whatever form it may take.

Commenting on the plan, David Pritchard, our Director of Regulation said: “The plan is built on discussions with many individuals and organisations. Most importantly, we spoke to people with lived experience of the challenges faced by those with protected characteristics.

“It represents a new and assertive approach across all our work to challenge discrimination and promote equality, diversity and inclusion. An important part of this plan will be to work in partnership with others across Wales, supporting a new approach to tackling discrimination across public services, such as the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan recently published by the Welsh Government.”

We are pleased to publish our annual equality report 2022 to 2023. The reports highlights progress made during the financial year April 2022 to March 2023 towards delivering our equality objectives.

Freedom of information

The Freedom of Information Act (FoI) allows you to have information we hold and requires us to have a publication scheme.

The publication scheme means that we have to make certain types of information available. It tells you what information is available, in what format it is available and whether you have to pay a fee to get it.

Our publication scheme is based on the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)’s model publication scheme.

How to make an FoI request

If you want information that isn’t on the publication scheme, you need to make the request in writing to foi@socialcare.wales. Please state clearly what information you need.

For further help contact 029 2078 0672.

Data protection

Under the Data Protection Act 2018 you have a general right to see personal data held about you. These rights are known as ‘subject access rights’. In most situations you also have the right to be told if any information is held about you and to have a copy of that information.

If you would like to make a subject access request for your personal data, make the request in writing to foi@socialcare.wales and include the term ‘subject access’ to help us direct your request quickly. We will need to check your identity and contact information before we consider your request and release any personal information we may hold.

For advice on making a subject access request, contact 02920 780672 or see the Information Commissioner’s guidance.

The Information Commissioner

There’s an Information Commissioner who makes sure all the laws about FoI and Data Protection are followed. We are registered with the commissioner so our work can be checked.

Sometimes people may feel that they aren’t getting the right support from us, we want to know when this happens so that we put things right and improve the way we work.

If you are unhappy with the service provided please complete the complaint form so that we can investigate it.

If you are unable to complete the form online, click on the complaint form below to print it. You can return this complaints form to complaints@socialcare.wales or by post to Social Care Wales, Southgate House, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EW.

When we get things right we’d like to know. Contact us to give your feedback.

If your complaint is about a registered social care worker, see how we deal with concerns.

We are listed under The Prescribed Persons Order 2014 as a designated organisation that any worker in the social care sector can approach to report suspected or known wrongdoing. This is also known as ‘whistleblowing’ or making a disclosure.

A worker has the right not to be unfairly dismissed or suffer a detriment (like being denied a promotion) as a result of having made a disclosure.

You should have this protection if you raise a concern in good faith, that's in the public interest that concerns one of these categories:

• A criminal offence
• a breach of a legal obligation
• a miscarriage of justice
• danger to the health or safety of an individual
• damage to the environment
• the deliberate covering up of wrongdoing in the above categories.

If you would like to speak up to us and pass on information to us concerning wrongdoing in the social care sector, Contact us and use the heading ‘speak up’ or ‘whistleblowing’. You can refer to yourself as Anonymous if you do not wish to use your full name.

As a prescribed person, we have several duties, which are set out in guidance from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), one of which is to annually report on the number of whistleblowing disclosures we receive.

We reported no whistleblowing disclosures to BEIS and Protect.org between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020.

We buy a wide range of goods, services and works. Spending ranges from large to very small projects. Here is information on how we spend our money and how potential suppliers can bid for work.

We aim to secure value for money. This means balancing quality and costs over the lifetime of a purchase.

We like to work with our suppliers:

• in an open and honest environment
• with clear expectations and goals
• with clear standards for everyone involved.

Our procurement process

The type, value and complexity of a contract helps us to decide what the tender process should be. We provide all the necessary information for the procurement process. Then we give suppliers enough time to prepare their bid.

For large value or complicated contracts we encourage suppliers to work in partnership. Collaborative bids help suppliers increase the chance of winning work.

When possible, we want to work with local and Welsh suppliers. We hope this will increase local business, develop skills and bring other community benefits.

How we buy

Deciding contracts normally follow these competition rules:

• Quotations (under £5k) – we request at least 2 written quotations.
• Quotations (£5k to £10k) – we request at least 3 written quotations.
• Quotations (over £10k) – we use a more formal Request for Quote (RFQ) process via Sell2Wales.
  
• Tenders (over £25k) – all our tendering opportunities over this threshold (where a framework is not a viable option) are advertised on Sell2Wales.
  
• PCR contracts (generally above £122k) – we place adverts in the Find a Tender Service via Sell2Wales.

Pipeline commissions 2023-24

• Project Management Services: Cardiff Office Refit. Estimated publication: Quarter 2.

• Provision of a Health & Social Care Mental Health Manager Accredited Award Course. Estimated publication: Quarter 2.

• Staging and Lighting Services: Accolades Awards. Estimated publication: Quarter 2-3.

• Video Production Services: Accolades Awards. Estimated publication: Quarter 2-3.
• Database Development, Management & System Integration Services. Estimated publication: Quarter 2-3.
  
• Provision of Research Services: Review of the Regional Care Career Connector Role. Estimated publication: Quarter 2-3.
  
• Brief Solutions Focussed Therapy Services. Estimated publication: Quarter 3.
  
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) Training. Estimated publication: Quarter 3.
  
• Provision of priority-setting services on adult social care linked data research. Estimated publication: Quarter 3.
  
• Scoping exercise: Volunteering in social care: Quarter 3.
  
• Content writing for "good matters conversation for people with dementia" resource: Quarter 3.
  
• Provision of an App: Linking AMHPs with s.12 Doctors for Mental Health Act Assessments. Estimated publication: Quarter 3-4.
  
• Graphic design support for evidence-related content. Estimated publication: Quarter 3-4.
  

We advertise most of our contract opportunities on Sell2Wales and use the National Procurement Service to help us access a number of frameworks to find the best available deals.

If you would like more information or help to bid contact procurement@socialcare.wales or call 029 2078 0651.

If you have a question or if you can't find what you are looking for get in touch with us.