Regulation of residential holiday schemes
An update on regulation of residential holiday schemes for disabled children.
Residential holiday schemes for disabled children have been exempted from being regulated as ‘a care home service’ under the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016. This will continue while the Welsh Government explore options to create new bespoke regulations for these services.
The regulations which contain the required exemption, the Regulated Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 (External link), came into force on 1 April 2019. This will therefore mean that holiday schemes taking place in the summer holidays of 2019 do not need to be regulated.
Action required
However, please note the exemption within regulation 4(c)(ii) is conditional upon schemes notifying the Welsh Ministers of arrangements, in advance. If you do not inform the Welsh Ministers that you intend to a run holiday in the near future, those holidays will still need to be regulated and you would be operating unlawfully if they took place.
How to notify Welsh Ministers about your scheme
Please download the attached template to make the notification and return to RISCAct2016@gov.wales at least 7 days before the holiday is due to commence.