Welsh councils must send first care sufficiency plans by 1 December as new rules take effect

New regulations requiring local authorities in Wales to prepare annual sufficiency plans for the children they look after came into force on 26 October 2026. On the same day the Welsh Government published guidance and a template for councils to use, setting out what the plans must cover and how they will be approved, submitted and revised.

According to the Welsh Government's November newsletter on removing profit from children's care, each plan will assess the current and future care and accommodation needs of the children a council looks after and explain how it will secure enough suitable places for them. The regulations list the information every plan has to contain. Councils must send their first drafts to Welsh Ministers by 1 December 2026 and publish them, once approved, by 31 March 2027.

The plans are part of Wales's wider move, under the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025, to a not-for-profit model for children's homes, fostering and secure accommodation. The newsletter repeats that from 1 April 2027 existing for-profit providers will not be able to approve new foster carers or add beds unless they have re-established as a not-for-profit body, and says Care Inspectorate Wales is updating its FAQs and contacting independent fostering services directly. The Welsh Government expects to publish its response to the consultation on limiting further for-profit growth this month.

The newsletter also reports two developments aimed at carers. Foster Wales, through which all 22 Welsh councils work together, launched a new Learning and Development Framework in September 2026, with new modules, a digital e-book and an online portal, and showcased it at its annual conference in Llangollen on 23 September. Separately, ADSS Cymru, the body representing social services directors, has worked with Foster Wales on a national fostering cost model, a framework for understanding the costs of recruiting, approving and supporting foster carers.

What this means for you: sufficiency plans are where councils set out how many and what kind of placements they expect to need, so the published plans should show where demand for local foster carers is greatest, for example for teenagers or sibling groups. If you are thinking about fostering in Wales, your council's fostering team, working as part of Foster Wales, remains the main route in alongside not-for-profit agencies. Foster Wales says its councils are working together to help foster carers who want to transfer from for-profit agencies.

What happens next: draft plans go to Welsh Ministers by 1 December, the consultation response on the 2027 restrictions is due in November, and approved plans must be published by the end of March 2027. ADSS Cymru is holding an online briefing on the changes on 12 January 2027. We will report the consultation outcome when it is published.