Now that the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) 2016 has received Royal Assent, the focus has moved to developing and agreeing the regulations. These are secondary legislation to be used where more detail or prescription is needed in implementing an Act.
Phase 1
Phase one included regulations relating to the new system of workforce registration and regulation required by the Act, to be operated by Social Care Wales from 3 April 2017.
Read the written statement by the Minister for Public Health and Social Services, issued on 22 November 2016 about the first phase of implementing the Act.
Read the consultation summary report for phase one of the Act, also published on 22 November 2016.
Regulations that are now law
These workforce-related regulations are now law and came into force on 3 April 2017:
The Social Care Wales (Specification of Social Care Workers) (Registration) Regulations 2016
The Social Care Wales (Extension of Meaning of “Social Care Worker”) Regulations 2016
The Social Care Wales (List of Persons Removed from the Register) Regulations 2016
The Social Care Wales (Content of Register) Regulations 2016
The Social Care Wales (Constitution of Panels: Prescribed Persons) Regulations 2016
The Social Care Wales (Proceedings Before Panels) Regulations 2016
Read the Explanatory Memorandum of these regulations.
They make changes to other secondary legislation as a consequence of the commencement of Parts 2 to 10 of the Act. They came into force on 3 April 2017.
Read the Explanatory Memorandum of these regulations.
The Social Care Wales (Proceedings Before Panels) (Amendment) Regulations 2017
These regulations amend the Social Care Wales (Proceedings Before Panels) Regulations 2016 to provide access to an enforcement mechanism for Social Care Wales, in the summonsing of witnesses to appear before its panels, via the High/County Court, rather than the Care Standards Tribunal. They came into force on 3 April 2017.
Read the Explanatory Memorandum of these regulations.
Phase 2
The second phase of regulations will focus on the requirements and standards expected of service providers and responsible individuals in domiciliary and adult residential care settings; children’s residential care settings; secure accommodation for children and residential family centres.
These regulations will be consulted upon in late spring to summer 2017, and the final draft regulations will be laid before the National Assembly in winter 2017 to come into force in April 2018.
Phase 3
The third phase of regulations will focus on the requirements and standards expected of service providers and responsible individuals within voluntary adoption agencies and adoption support agencies, fostering services, adult placement (shared lives) services and advocacy services.
These regulations will be consulted upon in late spring to summer 2018, and the final draft regulations will be laid before the National Assembly in winter 2018 to come into force in April 2019.
Phase 3 will also include the legislative implementation of the market stability and financial assessment provisions within the Act.