Yes. A temp. An object, to serve function and provide a service (SORY I meant YOU’RE an EMPLOYEE), easily worn used, and replaceable. Know your place!

No right to raise a grievance, no real rights. Pick up the slack AND
Just get on with it ! !

Divide and conquer at it’s best : (

Interesting perspective.

But I’ve absolutely no idea what conclusions you are jumping to. I never said anything about social workers dying, being sick or having personal issues…..

Such is life…

There’s Pros and cons but as an agency SW I come first.

The myth that agency SW earn so much more is NOT true when you bear in mind we get zero sick or holiday pay . I recently had 3 weeks annual leave ( my choice … unpaid of course ) then got sick for a further 2 weeks . Therefore had no income for 5 weeks . I get that’s the deal when you do agency work , but every thing has a price . If our wages are also going to get reduced to match permanent roles … without the benefits .. what’s the point of this ?
It will be even harder to recruit staff
I agree with the other points ( references , minimum post qualifying experience etc ) but thought that was ALREADY in place ? ?

If these proposals go ahead I will leave social work and all Agency workers should leave too and those permanently employer can pick up the slack but mostly likely they’d all go off sick anyway

My god in other words a social worker should never die , have long term health issues , need to respond to personal matters.
We are just a number, replaceable
Found your perspective quite telling of the so called caring industry

its a shame that not much recognition is given to the people that risk thier lives going out at odd hours alone sometimes to handle issues to protect children. social worker are out thier alone risking their lives ( the lady that was stubbed in wood green)but is this news given recognition????? Noooo.. a single reporting and onto other news.

while restriction on quick moving between jobs would be good for families, the same notice period should be implemented by the LA that way it will be leveled ground.

This will push social workers to quit the sector or to go private.

Nothing says ‘bullying culture’ like imposing these restrictions and oppressive decisions on agency staff. This is effectively done without consultation or consensus, which is the antithesis of what social work is meant to be.

Let’s face it, social workers are abused, whether through being slated by the public, media and politicians, and on occasion through emotionally abusive and malignant managers (is not reflective in my current managers).

I can tell how thrilled I was when as a permanent worker that I had to remain in my role for over 3 months (due to having a 3 month’s notice period), despite my manager questioning my ability as my work was suffering, when my father in law had stage 4 gliblastoma. That’s a quality boss.

We constantly do far above expected hours, usually at the detriment of our health and family (I can tell you how sad it is to hear my son say to his brother, “don’t worry, dad didn’t go to my sports day either”. My immediate supervisor probably works 60+ hours, which is having a real impact on their health

Social work is toxic and one that I would leave, if I could find work where I made the same amount, as a temp worker.

>All procurement of agency staff should follow national rules. – which are what?

>National price caps on what local authorities may pay per hour for locums, based on the average earned by equivalent permanent staff, on a like-for-like basis. – except your not employed on the same basis, often forfit sick pay/ annual leave and in house training benefits?

>A requirement for social workers who graduated in or after April 2024 to have a minimum of five years’ post-qualified experience working within children’s social care and to have completed the ASYE to be appointed to an agency post. – l would really hope you have completed the AYSE after five years? If not is it not an issue with the LA?

>A ban on agency project teams. – possibly this may help? Possibly not if the reasons aren’t dealt with?

>A requirement for employers to request and provide references for all agency social worker candidates. Are LA’s and agencys not requesting references for people, what is going on here?

>That councils do not engage agency workers for a period of three months after they have left a substantive role within the same region (excluding certain exceptions). – this idea has been around before and failed ?

>A requirement for a minimum six-week notice period for agency social workers. – then your not an agency worker FGS?

>The collection and sharing of core agency and pay data, to support better workforce planning and the ability to monitor, enforce and assess the impact of the proposals. – Are LA’s not doing this already to try to ofset and reduce agency staffing in projections and referrals numbers monitoring? Isnt the real issue they can’t afford as they aren’t funded to employ enough staff to manage the workload, and havent tracked inflation in pay, leading to such poor working conditions and pay that people have moved over to agency?
None of the above deal with this so maybe people will do what l have done and leave the LA workforce and find other roles? Pay isnt everything, but if your doing this kind of role and carrying the amount of stress and pressure in many of the cultures that are detrimental to your mental health and wellbeing some compensation and recompense is not unreasonable – we note MPs keep having payrises, despite many of them not attending parliment?

A few points i’d make.
– The small LA I work in cannot afford to pay the going rate £50 per hour for an agency workers. Neighbouring LA’s are bigger and have more money and are able to pay these rates. This means that our LA cannot retain experienced social workers because they can go from 2k a month to 4k a month as agency workers working for the LA next door. I honestly understand this from a financial point of view. Why would you work in an LA assessment team when you can work as an agency worker in the same role for double the money?

– As the LA cannot retain experienced workers and cannot afford to employ agency workers, social workers from other teams are getting drafted into frontline assessment teams, despite working in other teams already. This is absolutely dynamite for staff morale.

– I’ve lost count how many families i’ve spoken to who have had a sudden change in worker because aan agency worker has upped and left suddenly. Often chasing a few more pounds an hour in the next LA.

– I’ve lost count how many cases i’ve reviewed where said agency worker has left without updating their case notes, without finishing off work and often not even telling the family that they were leaving.

– These two points have a massive impact on the families that we work with and only adds to a negative experience and a mistrust of social workers. It’s noted above in one of the comments about being able to move from post to post with little to no notice. But its absolutely terrible practice in reality.

– Agency workers complain that you dont get paid sickness, holiday pay or access to the council pension. But you get double the hourly rate and can easily pay into a private pension/sipp elsewhere. – Which would have the same tax benefits as the council pension.

– Obviously, working for a LA has its downfalls and I agree with concerns raised about poor management, bullying, poor working conditions and poor pay. There are a number of other issues that need to be addressed within LA’s in order to encourage agency workers to return to LA’s.

– I think the pay rates of social workers should be considerably more and this would go some way to retaining LA workers. We have a considerable level of responsbility, constant training requirements and the fact that we have an incredibly important job within society should justify this. Perhaps if LA social workers were offered a reasonable level of pay, many wouldnt feel the need to work for an agency.

– I think also think LA’s need to up car mileage rates and offer a car maintainance payment to go towards wear and tear.

– LA’s need to offer regular overtime as well. No one wants to work over their hours for free or for the promise of “flexi time”. Ultimately, our skills, experience and time is worth money and no one in the profession should ever, under any circumstances work over their hours for free. Working late to get that assessment completed, to get that home visit done, to get that court report done etc etc all should be paid via overtime at time and a half.

– Some LA’s do offer retention payments, which probably goes some way to help keeping staff. My LA offers 2.5k a year paid at the end of the tax year. Sounds great but after Tax+NI, pension and student loan takehome is considerably less.

– I think the answer is complicated, but what is clear to me is that social work has been in complete crisis for atleast 10-15 years now and its only getting worse.