Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW)

CSSIW carries out its functions on behalf of Welsh Ministers there are a number of safeguards in place to ensure our independence.

We encourage improvement by:

• Regulating, inspecting and reviewing social care, early years and social services
• Providing professional advice.

We do this through our four regions (North Wales; South East Wales; Mid and South Wales and South West Wales) which are the focus for professional assessment and judgement about services and organisations. They inspect and review local authority social services, and regulate and inspect care settings and agencies.

Our national teams lead on managing and analysing information to deliver all-Wales reviews and provide professional advice to improve services.

In April 2009 we introduced a new overarching framework for local authority social services inspection, review and evaluation. It is a proportionate and integrated approach that is designed to be citizen focused and to encourage improvement, innovation and ownership of change by local government.

We regulate:

• Care homes for adults – including care homes which provide nursing care
• Domiciliary care agencies 
• Adult placement schemes 
• Nurses' agencies 
• Children’s homes
• Day care services for children – childminders, full day care, sessional day care, out of school care, crèches and open access play 
• Public sector and independent fostering agencies 
• Public sector and voluntary adoption agencies 
• Boarding schools, residential special schools and further education colleges which accommodate students under 18 
• Residential family centers
• We publish reports on the findings of our assessments.

Further information about CSSIW can be found by clicking on the link below:

Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (External link)