The UK’s Department for Education has published statutory guidance for local authorities on the use of agency social workers which will come into effect from 31 October 2024.

The agency rules apply to all agency child and family social workers and child and family social workers looking to move from local authority employment into agency.

It applies to all local authorities in England; alternative delivery models for children’s social care (where the delivery of children’s services is outsourced to a trust or not-for-profit organisation that is separate from, but accountable to, the local authority); and partnership-based models (where a single leadership team oversees delivery of children’s services across two or more local authorities).

This latest guidance says local authorities may continue to use agency child and family social workers where it is the most appropriate resourcing option and their use is in line with the guidance.

It also states that local authorities must provide the Department for Education with quarterly data on the use and cost of agency child and family social workers, including where supplied via a project team or other packaged model.

Furthermore, it says local authorities should “work within their region to agree and implement agency child and family social worker price caps that all local authorities within the region should comply with.”

Local authorities should ensure all contracts to supply agency child and family social workers via a project team or other packaged model comply with the following requirements:

• prior identification and local authority approval of all constituent child and family social workers
• disaggregation of costs related to the provision of each child and family social worker and any other service provided
• governance arrangements that allow the local authority to maintain complete oversight, control, and management of social work practice delivered via the project team or other packaged model

The Department of Education also said local authorities must ensure all agency assignments have a four-week notice period or align the length of assignment notice periods with that of the local authority’s contractual notice period for substantive staff in the same or an equivalent job role where that is less than four weeks.

The full agency rules can be found here.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation issued a response.

REC Deputy Chief Executive Kate Shoesmith said in a press release, “The government’s response rightfully recognises the important role agency workers, interims and locums play in children and family services. As our recent campaign, Voice of the Worker, underlines, there are many reasons why people need and choose to work via an agency. Growing demand on social services, increasing pressure on social workers and a strong desire for flexible working are key drivers.”

“So, while it is encouraging that the Department for Education (DfE) has added a dose of pragmatism to some of the suggested policies, for example on the inclusion of a break glass provision in the agency rules, we remain concerned that these new rules don’t learn the lessons of other public sector procurement frameworks,” Shoesmith continued.

Shoesmith added, “This is a workforce that needs far better support and an appreciation for why they work the way they do. Through collaboration between government, local authorities, recruiters and social workers, we can reduce the risk of losing social workers from the sector when all that many of them want is greater flexibility.”

 “It is going to be vitally important that each measure is fully evaluated so the proposals set out today do not exacerbate the significant recruitment and retention crisis in the UK social care sector – our own data shows 30,856 job postings for social workers right now,” Shoesmith said.