The Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW)

Regulating Care in Wales

The Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) was established in 2002 as part of a package of reforms which aim to protect and promote the quality of life and independence of vulnerable people and children. Other changes included improving the performance of social services in Wales, ensuring coordination between health and social care and the establishment of the Care Council to set standards and regulate the workforce.

What does CSSIW do?

CSSIW regulates and inspects services for everyone throughout Wales from the very young to older people. CSSIW reviews services at both a national and local level so that they can tell the public whether services are up to standard, suggest ways of improving services and help safeguard the interests of service users and their carers. CSSIW regulates a wide range of social care services, checking that services provided are safe and of a good quality, as set out in law.

Regulated services include: children’s homes; services for children under eight years old;
domiciliary care agencies; nurses’ agencies; adult placement schemes; and care homes
including those providing nursing care; independent fostering agencies and voluntary adoption agencies.

CSSIW has responsibility for the following:

• Registration – to decide who can provide services
• Inspection – to inspect those services and publish reports
• Enforcement – to take action to make sure that requirements of the Care Standards Act and associated regulations are met
• Complaints and concerns –When CSSIW receives a concern or complaint about a provider they look to see whether they are providing a safe service or if they are failing to meet the requirements and conditions of their registration. If they think  they are not doing these things, CSSIW will carry out an immediate inspection or ensure this aspect is checked at the next scheduled inspection.They cannot deal with complaints linked to individual circumstances and if they are not able to deal with your particular complaint, they can direct you to the organisation best placed to help you.

How CSSIW is organised

CSSIW have three main offices in Wales at Llandudno Junction, Merthyr Tydfil and Carmarthen.

Anyone wishing to provide one of the services listed above must apply to their regional CSSIW office for registration. Anyone providing a service which is not registered will be breaking the law. Any complaints or other enquiries about services should be made to your regional office:

CSSIW South East Wales Region
Welsh Government
Government Buildings
Rhydycar CF48 1UZ
Tel: 0300 062 8888
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CSSIW South West Wales Region
Government Buildings
Picton Terrace
Carmarthen SA31 3BT
Tel: 01267 245160
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CSSIW North Wales Region
Government Buildings,
Sarn Mynach,
Llandudno Junction LL31 9RZ
Tel: 0300 062 5609
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For general information about the work of CSSIW please visit the website or contact the national office:

CSSIW
Welsh Government
Government Buildings
Rhydycar CF48 1UZ
Tel: 0300 062 8800
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: www.cssiw.org.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com/cssiw