Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025

Social care workers: registration and fitness to practise

18 Meaning of social care worker: childcare workers

(1) Subsection (2) amends the 2016 Act to add, to the list of persons that the Welsh Ministers can except or include in the definition of “social care worker” for the purposes of the Act, people who provide supervision to children (but may or may not provide care and support as part of their role).

(2) In section 79 of the 2016 Act—

(a) in subsection (3)—

(i) in paragraphs (e) and (f), for “care and support to any person in Wales”, substitute “—

(i) care and support;

(ii) childcare,

to any person in Wales”;

(ii) after paragraph (l) insert— “;

(m) a person employed to provide childcare by a person registered under Part 2 of the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 (nawm 1) as a provider of day care for children”;

(b) after subsection (3) insert—

“(3A) In subsection (3), “childcare means care and supervision that is provided for children.”

19 Fitness to practise cases: powers to extend interim orders

(1) Subsection (2) amends the 2016 Act to give a panel hearing interim order proceedings the power to extend an interim orde‍r.

(2) In section 147 of the 2016 Act—

(a) in subsection (1), after paragraph (e) insert— “;

(f) in the case of an interim order that has not been extended by the tribunal under section 148, extend the interim order.”;

(b) after subsection (2), insert—

“(2A) A panel may make a decision specified in subsection (1)(f) only if—

(a) the panel is satisfied that the decision meets one or more of the conditions referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (2), and

(b) the extension does not result in the interim order having effect for a period of more than 18 months.”;

(c) in subsection (3), after “extended” insert “by a panel under subsection (1)(f) or by the tribunal”;

(d) in subsection (4), after paragraph (a)(i) insert—

“(ia) an interim order as extended or further extended by a panel;”;

(e) after subsection (4) insert—

“(5) But subsection (4)(a)(i) and (b)(i) do not apply in relation to the reference to an interim order in subsection (1)(f).”