Explanatory note

The Care Council for Wales (“the Council”) was established by Part 4 of the Care Standards Act 2000 for the purposes of promoting high standards of conduct and practise among social care workers and promoting high standards in their training.

The Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 (“the Act”) renames the Council as Social Care Wales (“SCW”), restates and modifies SCW’s original functions and confers additional functions.

Section 174 of the Act requires SCW to make rules to establish registration appeals panels, fitness to practise panels and interim order panels. Section 174(5)(a) of the Act contains a list of persons who may not be members of a panel.

These Regulations are made under section 174(5)(b) of the Act, which gives Welsh Ministers the power to prescribe additional persons who may not be members of a panel.

Regulation 3 and paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 prescribe, for the purposes of section 174(5)(b) of the Act, the persons who may not be members of any registration appeals panel; paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 prescribes additional persons who may not be members of a registration appeals panel to which a particular matter is referred. Regulations 4 and 5 and Schedules 2 and 3 respectively make similar provision in relation to fitness to practise panels and interim orders panels.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from the Department of Health and Social Services, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.