Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse in Wales: What Foster Carers Must Know
Wales became the first nation in the UK to introduce a statutory duty to report child abuse when the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect (Wales) Order 2024 came into force. For foster carers, this is not a minor regulatory update — it changes the legal footing of a duty that previously existed only as professional guidance.
Understanding exactly what the Order requires, who it applies to, and what the consequences of failing to report are is now a basic professional literacy requirement for anyone fostering in Wales.
What Changed in 2024?
Before the 2024 Order, foster carers in Wales operated under a professional and ethical expectation to report concerns about child abuse. The Wales Safeguarding Procedures set out that duty clearly, but it was guidance rather than statute — a meaningful distinction if a concern was ever not reported.
The Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect (Wales) Order 2024 converted that expectation into a legal obligation. It applies to a defined group of "regulated" individuals who work with children, and foster carers are explicitly within scope. This places Wales alongside countries such as Ireland and Australia that have long-standing mandatory reporting regimes, and ahead of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, which at the time of writing still rely on professional guidance.
The Order came into force through the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014's enabling powers, reflecting Wales's broader commitment to a rights-based approach to child welfare enshrined in that legislation.
Who Is Required to Report?
The Order applies to individuals in specified categories who have contact with children in the course of their work or voluntary activities. For fostering purposes, this includes:
- Registered foster carers providing regulated care to looked-after children
- Any adult in the household who has regular, unsupervised contact with the child
This is broader than many carers initially assume. It is not only the named approved carer who carries the duty — it extends to other adults living in the household who have significant regular contact with a child in placement.
The Threshold for Reporting
The duty to report is triggered when a regulated person knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that a child has experienced, is experiencing, or is at risk of experiencing abuse or neglect.
The phrase "reasonable cause to suspect" is deliberately lower than proof or certainty. You do not need to have witnessed abuse directly. You do not need to be certain. If a child's behaviour, physical condition, or disclosure gives you reasonable grounds to believe that abuse may be occurring — or may have occurred — the duty applies.
The categories of abuse covered by the Order align with the four established categories used across Welsh safeguarding practice:
- Physical abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Neglect
The duty covers both concerns about the child in your own placement and concerns you may have about other children you encounter in your caring role — for instance, a child who visits the home or a sibling group member in a different placement.
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Who Do You Report To?
The report must be made to the local authority (children's services) or the police. In Wales, children's services can be contacted through the single point of contact for each local authority's multi-agency safeguarding hub.
In practice, for foster carers, the first point of contact for a concern will almost always be your Supervising Social Worker (SSW). You should contact your SSW immediately when a concern arises. If you cannot reach your SSW and the concern is urgent, you contact children's services directly or call 999 if the child is in immediate danger.
The key point is that the legal duty to report runs to the statutory authorities — not just to your fostering service. Making a disclosure only to your SSW satisfies the duty in ordinary circumstances, because the SSW carries their own professional obligation to escalate the concern appropriately. But if you believed your concern was not being acted upon, the legal obligation remains yours.
What Happens If You Don't Report?
Failure to comply with the mandatory reporting duty is a criminal offence under the Order. The maximum penalty is a fine, though the reputational and professional consequences — potential deregistration as a foster carer and referral to Care Inspectorate Wales — are likely to be the more immediate concern for most carers.
This does not mean the system is designed to punish carers who misjudge a situation in good faith. If a carer reports a concern and it turns out, on investigation, that no abuse occurred, they are protected from liability provided their suspicion was genuinely held and reasonable in the circumstances. The law is designed to lower the barrier to reporting, not to create anxiety about making a mistake.
The Relationship with Existing Safeguarding Duties
The mandatory reporting Order does not replace the existing safeguarding framework in Wales — it reinforces it. Foster carers continue to operate under the Wales Safeguarding Procedures, the statutory requirements of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, and the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services in Wales.
The All Wales Induction Framework (AWIF) — the structured learning programme that Welsh foster carers are expected to follow — dedicates Section 6 specifically to safeguarding. This section covers identifying signs of abuse across all four categories, the process for making referrals, and awareness of child sexual exploitation (CSE) and online safety risks. Completing this section is now more than professional development; it is the foundation of meeting your mandatory reporting obligations competently.
Practical Implications for Foster Carers
Several practical habits follow from the 2024 Order:
Keep a contemporaneous record. If a child says something that concerns you, write it down immediately — time, date, the child's exact words, and what you observed. This contemporaneous record is your protection if the concern is later investigated.
Act on disclosures the same day. Do not wait to see if a behaviour repeats itself or to gather more evidence. The threshold is suspicion, not proof. Report and let children's services determine what happens next.
Know your local authority's contact number. Foster carers should have the out-of-hours emergency number for their local authority's children's services saved before they need it.
Include household members in your understanding. If you have a partner or another adult living in your home, they need to understand the mandatory reporting duty too. Being unaware of the law is not a defence to failing to report.
Distinguish between reporting a concern and making an allegation against someone. The duty to report does not require you to identify who is responsible for the abuse. If you suspect a child is being harmed — whether by someone in your own household, a birth parent, or someone else entirely — report what you know and let the investigation determine responsibility.
The Wales Fostering Approval Guide covers the mandatory reporting framework in full, including the AWIF safeguarding module, the four categories of abuse recognised in Welsh law, and what to do if your concern is not acted upon by your supervising social worker. If you are preparing to foster in Wales and want to understand your legal obligations before your first placement, the complete guide is available here.
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