Rules curbing English councils’ use of agency social workers in children’s services come into force today, with the implementation of statutory guidance on their use.
Under the policy, authorities will be expected to agree regional pay caps on locums’ hourly rates, refrain from hiring early career practitioners – or staff who have recently left permanent roles in the same region – as agency workers and ensure they directly manage all staff hired through so-called project teams.
The Department for Education (DfE) rules are controversial, with the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) seeing them as vital to reducing the costs of locums and promoting workforce stability, but the agency sector warning that they will exacerbate authorities’ shortages of social workers. As of September 2023, 18.9% of full-time equivalent social work posts in council children’s services lay vacant, with 17.8% of roles filled by a locum.
The division of views was evident in reactions to the rules’ implementation today.
Rules ‘will enable better support for children’
ADCS workforce policy committee chair Nicola Curley said: “Children and families tell us they benefit from having a consistent worker who builds a strong meaningful relationship with them, yet the short-term nature of agency social work and the level of turnover, including churn amongst agency workers makes this more difficult to achieve.
“These standards will enable us to better support the children and families we work with while enabling some flexibility to remain in terms of what our agency workforce can provide.”
However, for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), deputy chief executive Kate Shoesmith said: “There’s a notable uncertainty across the sector regarding how the new rules will be implemented and enforced, which isn’t ideal on the launch day of such important directives.
Ongoing social worker shortages ‘a pressing issue’
“It’s premature to assess the impact of these changes, but the ongoing shortage of social workers and their desire for flexible work arrangements remain pressing issues.
“More broadly, it’s uncertain whether there are enough staff to meet the demands of social work under these new regulations, and whether the often-challenging working conditions will improve. Additionally, we need to keep a close eye on how frequently local authorities resort to the ‘break glass’ provision to exceed price caps.”
Following consultation, the DfE softened its initial proposals, including by dropping plans to ban the use of project teams outright and allowing councils to exceed pay caps.
DfE ‘has taken into account agencies’ views’
Reflecting this, recruitment body APSCo said the concerns raised by its members during the consultation process had been heard by the department.
Its global public policy director, Tania Bowers, said: “Overall, our members feel that their views were taken into account in the final DfE statutory rules for local authorities. This includes giving far more clarity around the use of project teams, notice periods and qualification periods required.
“Authorities are pleased about the reporting obligations and transparency. However, we know some local authorities are concerned that the rules will only work if all authorities properly apply them and create a level playing field. There are extreme talent shortages in the sector and local authorities are under a lot of budgetary pressures, which will only have been slightly alleviated by the recent Budget.”
About the agency social work rules
What are the rules?
- Councils should work within regions to agree and implement maximum hourly pay rates for agency practitioners (including employers’ national insurance contributions and holiday pay) in each of the following roles: social worker, senior social worker, advanced practitioner, team manager and independent reviewing officer/conference chair. Implementation: caps should be agreed in summer 2025 and implemented from 1 October 2025 for all new agency assignments and for all existing arrangements shortly thereafter.
- In all contractual arrangements to supply social workers through project teams or packaged arrangements, all workers are identified and approved by the local authority in advance, costs are disaggregated for each worker and any other service and councils maintain complete control of practice. Implementation: 31 October 2024 for new agency staff assignments, unless prevented by existing contractual obligations, and by 1 October 2025 for all contracts for agency assignments.
- Notice periods for agency social workers should be four weeks or in line with that for permanent social workers in the same or equivalent roles where the latter is shorter. Implementation: 31 October 2024 for all new agency staff assignments, unless prevented by existing contractual obligations, and by 1 October 2025 for all contracts for agency assignments.
- Councils should not engage social workers as locums within three months of them leaving a permanent post in the same region. Implementation: 31 October 2024 for all new agency staff assignments, unless prevented by existing contractual obligations, and by 1 October 2025 for all contracts for agency assignments.
- Councils should only use agency social workers with a minimum of three years’ post-qualifying experience in direct employment of an English local authority in children’s services. Periods of statutory leave taken as part of continuous employment count towards post-qualifying experience and the three years can be gained through several periods of employment. Implementation: 31 October 2024 for all new agency staff assignments, unless prevented by existing contractual obligations, and by 1 October 2025 for all contracts for agency assignments.
- Councils should provide a detailed practice-based reference, using a standard national template, for all agency social workers they engage and require at least two such references the same before taking on a locum. Implementation: 31 October 2024 for all new agency staff assignments, unless prevented by existing contractual obligations, and by 1 October 2025 for all contracts for agency assignments.
Data collection requirements
Councils must (by law) supply the DfE with quarterly data on each agency social work assignment and on their use of locums generally. Assignment data must include the role type, hourly pay rate, start and end dates, the social worker’s registration number and details of whether they are part of project teams or packaged models. General data must include the local authority’s degree of compliance with each rule, explanations for non-compliance, details of price cap breaches, including who signed them off, a list of agencies whose behaviour affected rule compliance and the total monthly cost of the agency workforce.
Councils must submit their first cut of data, covering 1 January to 31 March 2025, between 1 April 2025 and 31 May 2025. Price cap data will be submitted from the final quarter of 2025 (1 October to 31 December) onwards.
Staged implementation of rules
The rules will be implemented in four stages:
- From 31 October 2024, councils will be expected to follow statutory guidance on the rules, meaning they should comply with it other than in exceptional circumstances. In practice, they will be expected to comply with all of the rules, except those on price caps, for new agency staff assignments, unless where contractually prohibited.
- From 1 January 2025, councils must start collecting data for the quarterly collection, with the first submission, covering the first quarter of 2025, due in April or May 2025.
- In June and July 2025, councils will be expected to agree price caps within their regions, submitting these to the DfE by 1 August 2025.
- From 1 October 2025, the price caps should be applied to all new agency assignments, with all other assignments following as soon as possible thereafter. By the same date, the rules in general should be in force for all contractual arrangements to hire agency staff.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 
Hampshire County Council 
Oxfordshire County Council 
South Gloucestershire Council 
Wokingham Borough Council 
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A good summary. One more thing to note however is that pay rate should include all costs, i.e no extra incentives or allowances, such as Accommodation support etc. It should all form part of the total pay rate and that rate should be under the cap agreed regionally. Also regions may have terms that are stricter than national level (i.e cool off periods may be longer in one region than another). The DfE rules are minimum rules.
It’s so obvious what the issue is. Pay ALL in house social workers more, and then cap locum wages nationally.
Agree with you
No other sector is like this it’s just another way of controlling and diluting the role of an agency worker. Local authorities that offer additional pay for travel and accommodation do this because there are regional differences in the availability and recruitment of social workers so having a one size fits all will not work.
Pay for level of experience that these social workers have. It just shows how poor the pay is and the stress the workers are under.
Intervention of this kind is at least a decade too late. The profession has been on its knees and invisible to Government.
I am30 years post qualified and became a locum 20 years ago to achieve a living wage in London. Locums are subject to IR35 rules, have to work as Umbrella companies and cannot claim any expenses. I pay tax at 40% , pay all travel to see clients far and wide . I am no better off than perm workers. I don’t have sick pay and have to fund my own pension etc. being a locum is not the Golden Goose , it pays a living wage and no more. It does give me control over who I work for and as a result if I have a bad manager I can move on . So people tend to respect you a little more.
💯 Agreed. It’s disgusting how Locums are perceived and with no morals when it comes to abusing and exploiting us to do work which is usually left in a bad state by a predecessor. We don’t seem to have the same perks or levels of privilege as to those in house.
Absolutely, recruitment and retention are long standing issues. Agency worker’s don’t have a magic wand. We generally support over worked, under resourced and inexperienced staff. Try bottom up leadership and listen to the front line staff.
Of course we are child focused, but we have a family to.
Just recruit more staff. Don’t the children deserve better than stressed out workers meeting KPI ‘so. We are corporate parents.
It’s not just about pay (although being paid for the hours you put in is a very refreshing change when you work out the free hours done as a permanent staff member which can knock you below the national minimum wage!), it’s also about overloading permanent staff to burn out point and then these workers walking away to access the flexibility that agency work can provide.
The issue they need to focus on is social work burn out! It’s worrying to see how many are struggling in meeting work demands and it’s just become accepted as “it’s the nature of social work!”…. no, no , no!!!!! It has to stop!
i so agree with all your points Also Instead of some colleagues having a downer on our agency colleagues let’s remember we all need each other. The social worker role has vastly changed with so many of us working longer hours for free and unlike other professionals often little thought of by society including many politicians despite us undertaking so much on behalf of society.
Seems to me like ongoing exploitation of Social Workers, whether permanent or agency, again relying on their goodwill working without pay. Shame on those who are promoting this
All social workers should be mad about this, including permanent staff. The government have just capped your earning potential as a professional. Why? Because demand outstrips supply. Why, because the working conditions and pay in the sectors are poor. Why? Government cuts and pay freezes for public sector workers.
Treat the symptoms not the cause! Capitalist market produced the current issues alongside erosion of wages, pension, sick pay, pay cuts, poor and sick vilified, a profession not respected and culture of bullying is entrenched and widespread, so let’s stifle people’s right to work where and how they choose.
I would beg to differ with Capitalism being to blame. Under a Communist / Socialist System you would be paid the same wage as a person who worked in a factory, yet the pressure and skill required for Social Workers is far greater, so we would be worse off. You would be expected to do the work for the same wage, all for the ‘Greater good’ of humanity, yet under that system there were still those at the top of the tree, who benefited greatly, and there were still vast inequalities under that system for those at the middle and lower end of the spectrum.
The reason why everyone is leaving their post, to go work at an agency is because in-house social workers get paid less. Increase pay for in-house workers and cap it in line with agency workers. Some councils are fully run by agency workers.
Good luck implementing it, most agency social workers I know have already said they will leave the profession.
These rules were made by people who have no understanding of what it takes to do agency social work. You have to learn the system in less than a day, little or no help from anyone, very often you will be give cases permanent staff refuse to do, weak management etc. You have to perform as if you are a permanent member of staff while still trying to figure who you are actually working for and the politics that goes with it. Always having to prove that your are value for money while listening to permanent staff having a go because you must be earning loads. The reality is we agency workers earn the same sometime less. I have worked for LA’s who have paid less. I have worked with newly qualified social worker worked how have earned the same and their practice was poor but they were ever taken to task and the agency social workers had to take over. All I hear is, “give it to the agency” . I have driven miles to get to work 13 hrs days. Make no mistake agency work is not a pot of gold and even when you plan there are always surprises. Bit of respect wouldn’t go a miss. Are they capping other professionals.
I agree with all the above, I have worked as an Agency Worker for the past 15 years, dipping in and out, whilst undertaking roles covering maternity positions for 12 months.
I’ve recently worked for a LA where we were getting 50 plus cases whilst on duty, and carrying 30 plus CP/ CIN cases. I was expected to carry the more complex cases.
Many permanent workers thought I was loaded and comments were made on a daily basis which use to annoyed me.
The same LA have brought in oversea’s Social Workers with little knowledge of how the system works in the UK. These workers are struggling and therefore pressure is put on the permanent workers to mop up.
If the LA’s did pay their permanent workers a better rate, and reduce the level of cases, the unfortunate thing is, the senior managers have no idea and have lost touch, with what is occurring on the ground.
There is always a sterile discussion about agency versus permanent staff that obscures what is actually going on. If managed and LAs were actually concerned with the quality and effectiveness of their services they would address their failings. It’s easy flinging public money at Agencies than admitting failure and implementing real improvements for users and staff. The rest is the usual cacophony that passes for discussion for managers.
How much does it cost to employ a locum, When l compare wages to an experienced sw, there is little difference full time staff have holiday pay and pensions.
How much are the job agencies making.
I feel that locums should organise and agree national minimum hourly rates for work. We are self employed and are under paid for the flexibility we offer.
That’s it really Neil. It’s the significant top slice that agencies charge. The actual pay of agency vs permanent is roughly the same, taking into account sick pay, pension and AL plus benefits (some places do have some good staff benefits)
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I don’t disagree that agencies take a commission, when I was agency, my rep, earned it.
The issue I faced was a reference that was malicious and unfounded. Agency worker’s are vulnerable in that respect. We are encouraged to challenge bad practices but when we do. We have zero support.