Guide
CIW registration timescales: how long an application takes
Updated
CIW is unusually specific about timing, which is useful, because the wait is the cost. You cannot trade during it.
The published timescales
| Application | CIW timescale |
|---|---|
| Initial application to register a service | In general up to 14 weeks, longer if more information is required or requested information is not returned on time |
| Responsible individual or registered person application | 6 weeks |
| Application to vary conditions of an existing registration | 6 weeks |
These are CIW's own figures for completed applications (careinspectorate.wales). The word completed is doing a lot of work: the clock is about processing, not about the weeks you spend assembling floor plans, a bank reference and a medical reference for the responsible individual.
What CIW does with the time
CIW's Guide to Registration describes an initial assessment of the quality of the application within three weeks of it being allocated to a registration inspector, with a meeting arranged to give feedback and a timescale for resubmission where an application is assessed as poor quality. CIW says it will only grant applications when it is satisfied that all matters meet the relevant parts of the 2016 Act or the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 and associated secondary legislation.
Where the weeks actually go
- The DBS window. A responsible individual's DBS certificate must be on the update service with details provided, or be no older than three months at submission. Start it too early and it ages out; too late and you wait.
- The medical reference. CIW requires one for each responsible individual, uploaded with the application, and clinician turnaround is not something you control.
- Financial evidence. A bank reference, a two year business plan, a detailed projected cash flow and, for organisations with a trading history, two years of annual accounts.
- Premises. Floor plans, and for children's homes, CIW's guidance on registering a care home for children and its policy on mixed-age homes.
Planning around it
- Write the statement of purpose first. Everything else is evidence for it, and CIW publishes a guide and a template for compiling it.
- Sequence the checks. Line up the DBS and the medical reference so both are valid on the day you submit, not two months before.
- Assume 14 weeks minimum after submission, and do not commit to a service start date, a staff cohort or a lease that assumes faster.
- If you are told the application is poor quality, take the feedback meeting seriously. Resubmitting a weak application spends the 14 weeks twice.
If you think CIW has caused unreasonable delay, or has not followed its registration process, CIW says you can raise it through its complaints process. That is separate from an appeal against a decision.