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How we inspect adult and childrens services

Information and guidance about how we inspect adult and children's services.

Reference to ‘Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales’ (CSSIW) in the documents on this page should be read as ‘Care Inspectorate Wales'.

What we check and report

When our inspectors visit a service, they will generally consider four core themes:

  • Well-being
  • Care and support
  • Environment
  • Leadership and management

How often we inspect

The frequency of our inspections is set out within our Code of Practice.

Annual Return

More information about completing your Annual Return is available on our Submitting an Annual Return page.

Help for providers

Providers should read our Code of Practice. It outlines how we inspect services registered under the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 (External link).

From April 2025 all care home and domiciliary support services will receive published ratings following inspection. We have published guidance on our inspection framework for these services and how we will award ratings, including resources to support providers with the move to published ratings.

We have also produced inspection frameworks for each of the adult and children services that do not come under published ratings. These set out what we will consider within our inspections.