Special school residential services can now register with us

If you provide a special school residential service, please apply to register with us by 30 June 2024. 

You can find more information about the regulations underpinning this change at the end of this news item. 

Guidance to help

When applying to register with us, please take a look at the following documentation on our website, which has been updated to cover special school residential services.

• Registration guide
• Statement of purpose guide
• Statement of purpose template

Relevant legislation

We’ve provided links to the relevant pieces of legislation, and the statutory guidance, for providers to be aware of on the legislation page of our website. Click on the grey box labelled ‘Special school residential services’.

More detail about the regulations

The Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 provides the statutory framework for the regulation and inspection of social care services and the regulation of the social care workforce in Wales.

Underpinning the 2016 Act are the Regulated Services (Special School Residential Services) (Wales) Regulations 2023 and the Regulated Services (Registration) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, which came into force on 31 December 2023. These define "special school residential service" as a new regulated service and require them to register with us. 

Meanwhile the Special School Residential Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) Regulations 2024 (External link) came into force on 31 March 2024. These place requirements on service providers and responsible individuals around the quality and safety of the care and support provided, and focus on people’s well-being and outcomes. Statutory guidance for providers and responsible individuals of special school residential services is available on the Welsh Government website (External link).

This fulfils the recommendation made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) (External link).

Questions?

If you are a provider of a special school residential service and have not heard from us via email, please contact ciw@gov.wales as soon as possible.