Policy for publishing inspection reports of regulated services

When we inspect a regulated service, we have a duty to prepare a written report of our findings and make this report available. This policy sets out the arrangements by which we make inspection reports available. The relevant legislation is listed at the end of this policy. 

We publish inspection reports to make our inspection findings available to people who wish to know about a given service, including the provider(s) of that service. Where our findings include ratings of quality of the service, we publish the ratings as part of the report. 

For most of the services we regulate, we publish inspection reports to our website in the form of a summary of our findings (including ratings, where applicable), with a full version of the report attached in the form of a printable PDF document. The two most recent reports are displayed on the website. , 

Due to the potential sensitive information included within inspection reports for the service types detailed below, these report(s) are not published on our website

• Care Homes for Children
• Secure Accommodation
• Residential Family Centre
• Special School Residential Service

We issue these reports directly to the responsible individual and/or registered provider. Should you require a copy of a non-published inspection reports you can submit a request to CIW.

For most types of service that we regulate, we: 

• email electronic copies of the final unpublished version of the report directly to designated individuals connected with the service
• publish the final version of the report to our website  
• supply hard-copy versions to those for whom electronic access is not an option.

All our reports are available in English however from 30 March 2016, in line with Standard 40 of the Welsh Language Standards (No.1) Regulations 2015, Care Inspectorate Wales are exempt from having to publish all regulatory inspection reports in Welsh. We will publish these reports bilingually in the following circumstances:

• For services who operate in Welsh or bilingually.
• Where we have ascertained that this would reflect the language preference of the service. We will confirm the language of choice of a service at the point of registration and check via the annual data collection exercise.
• When the report pertains to a particular care setting where the majority of its customers are Welsh speakers and Inspectors feel that service users or families may want a Welsh language report.
• The public can make a reasonable and proportionate request for any of Care Inspectorate Wales inspection reports in Welsh.  For such requests Care Inspectorate Wales will consider whether the subject matter or anticipated audience suggests that the report should be made available in Welsh, in accordance with Standard 47 of the Welsh Language Standards (No.1) Regulations 2015.  

Requests from the public should be sent to the Care Inspectorate Wales mailbox.

In general, we expect to issue the inspection report to the Registered Person, Responsible Individual or relevant person of the service within 25 working days of the last inspection activity. The ‘last inspection activity’ could be the inspection visit itself, or follow-up telephone calls to relatives or professionals, or reviewing questionnaires. 

We aim to publish the inspection report within 50 working days, following completion of all inspection activities. Occasionally, this timescale may be extended depending on the circumstances surrounding an individual inspection.

Where we identify areas for priority for action, a separate Priority Action Report will be issued to the service provider. This contains personal and sensitive information and is not published. 

Upon receipt of the inspection report the Registered Person, Responsible Individual or relevant person has the option of publishing the report immediately via their personal CIW Online account. 

If this option is not taken, CIW will publish the report on the date specified in the covering email when the report is sent. 

There is also the option for the Registered Person, Responsible Individual or relevant person to request a review of the report, and its ratings, specifically relating to:

• factual accuracy (such as typographical, spelling or numerical errors)
• completeness of evidence 

There is 10 working days from receipt of the report to do this. 

Our Policy on Requesting a review of evidence and findings of inspections reports (including ratings), which is available on our website, gives more detail on how providers can respond to us about the content of an inspection report, and how we handle such responses. 

Where a review has been requested and completed, the Registered Person, Responsible Individual or relevant person has the option of publishing the report immediately via CIW Online account. 

Where this option is not taken, CIW will publish the report.

Our Privacy notice sets out the kinds of personal information we may collect, what we do with it, who we may share it with, how long we will hold it for and what people’s rights are in relation to it.

We do not publish personal information unless legally required to.

The following statutory provisions apply in relation to publishing reports about regulated services in Wales:

• Children Act 1989: paragraphs (9A), (9B) and (9C) of section 87.
• Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010: section 40
• Child Minding and Day Care (Inspection and Information for Local Authorities) (Wales) Regulations 2010: paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) of regulation 2.
• Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016: paragraph (3) of section 36.