Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW)

CIW’s role is to make professional assessments and judgements about social care, early years and social services and so encourage improvement by service providers.

They do this through three regions which cover across Wales (North, South East and West) which are the focus for professional assessment and judgement about services and organisations.  The contact details for these offices are available on the CIW website.

They inspect and review local authority social services, and regulate and inspect care settings and agencies.

CIW 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 centres

Regulation includes:

• Registration
• Inspection – they inspect those services and publish reports
• Complaints – they investigate and deal with complaints (if they cannot be dealt with by the providers’ own complaints procedures)
• Compliance – they support compliance with the regulations, and
• Enforcement – they take enforcement action to make sure that the requirements of the Care Standards Act and its associated regulations are met

They publish reports the findings of their assessments which are available on the publications section of their website at www.careinspectorate.wales

Contact Information

The address of the South East Wales office is:

Government Buildings
Rhydycar
Merthyr Tydfil
CF48 4UZ
Telephone: 0300 7900 126 (CIW national telephone number)
Fax: 0872 437 7302
Email: CIW@gov.wales

Full contact details are available on the CIW website.

Information on National Care Standards, specific care homes, including their registration status and copies of inspection reports can be obtained from the address above.

If you have any concerns or issues relating to a registered care home please contact CIW

Additional information on most registered nursing homes in the UK can be found on the Bettercaring website at www.bettercaring.co.uk.