Regulation and inspection of childcare

The role of CSSIW is to make professional assessments and judgments about social care, early years and social services, and so encourage improvement by the service providers.

CSSIW encourages the improvement of social care, early years and social services by:

• regulating
• inspecting and reviewing, and
• providing professional advice to Ministers and policy makers.

National Minimum Standards for Regulated Child Care

The National Minimum Standards for Regulated Child Care establish the standards that registered providers of child minding and day care  for children under the age of eight in Wales are required to meet. The standards are to be read in the context of Part 2 (Regulation of Child Minding and Day Care) of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 and associated regulations. The regulatory body responsible for ensuring that these standards are met is the Care & Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW). See Related Links.

Regulation

Regulation consists of:

• Registration: deciding who can provide services
• Inspection: inspecting those services and publishing reports
• Complaints: investigating and dealing with complaints (where they cannot be dealt with by the provider’s own complaints procedures)
• Compliance: supporting compliance with the regulations, and
• Enforcement: taking enforcement action to make sure that the requirements of the Care Standards Act and its associated regulations are met.

CSSIW regulates the following day care services for children:

• childminders
• full day care
• sessional day care
• out of school care, and
• crèches and open access play.

Further information

More detailed information about CSSIW can be found on the CSSIW website.

Contact details

The telephone number for CSSIW’s national office is 01443 848450.