Wales has opened a 12-week consultation on a revised National Framework for Commissioning Care and Support. The draft would require local authorities, health boards and NHS trusts to take a more consistent approach to planning, buying and reviewing care. For providers, the useful bit is not the policy wallpaper. It is the proposed stronger focus on the real cost of care, fair and sustainable fees, workforce planning, recruitment, retention and the Real Living Wage.
This is a proposal, not a rule already in force. The current code has applied since September 2024. The consultation draft says version two is intended to take effect in September 2027, subject to the consultation and the legal steps that follow. It would also require statutory partners to send an annual self-assessment and priority improvement plan to the National Office for Care and Support by 30 April.
The revised code would strengthen joint commissioning, provider collaboration, market-sufficiency evidence and the use of lived experience. It also adds expectations around neuroinclusive services, Welsh-language provision, unpaid carers, climate resilience and the transition towards not-for-profit care for looked-after children. Providers are affected through the commissioning and contracting system, but the code’s direct statutory requirements fall on public commissioning bodies.
Care managers and provider leaders should use the consultation window to assemble evidence rather than adjectives. Record where contract prices do not cover safe staffing, training, travel, supervision or inflation. Show how short contract periods, late decisions or incompatible reporting demands affect recruitment and continuity. Identify commissioning practices that work well too; a response carries more weight when it contains a usable alternative rather than one magnificent sigh.
The consultation closes on 1 February 2027. Providers, staff, unpaid carers and people using services can respond. The practical next step is to compare the draft with current contracts and submit specific examples of financial, workforce or quality impacts before the deadline.