New agency employment rules come into effect this month

New national rules aimed at reducing over-reliance on agency social workers within children’s services in England come into force at the end of October.

They will mean:

• Agencies can only recruit social workers who have worked at least three years at a local authority
• Social workers will not be able to return to a local authority as an agency worker in their region within a three month “cool-off” period
• A regional price cap on the hourly rate of agency social workers will be introduced to bring their pay more in line with that of local authority workers
• Local authorities will require – and provide – references for agency social workers 

The measures come in the wake of concern over high vacancy rates and the amount of costly agency workers in the children’s workforce, putting a strain on council coffers. 

High reliance on temporary agency workers is also blamed for lack of continuity experienced by people using services who face more frequent changes in social workers as a result.

Latest government figures show nearly one in five (17.8 per cent) of children’s social workers in England were employed via an agency in 2023 – a new high and six per cent up on the previous year.

Introducing regional price caps aims to bring greater consistency and stem the staff drain from local authorities.

The government has said it wants to monitor how this works, with it potentially providing “a basis for modelling centrally determined price caps” in the future.

Local authorities have until next summer to agree their regional price caps which will be expected to come into force on 1 October, 2025.

Welcoming the measures, Rachael Wardell, vice-president of the The Association of Directors of Children’s Services, 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.

“Therefore, we are pleased the Department for Education has published long-awaited statutory guidance which outlines, for the first time, a national set of rules that local authorities, agency providers and agency social workers must work within.”

However, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation warned the new rules need to be evaluated to ensure they “do not exacerbate the significant recruitment and retention crisis in the UK social care sector”.

Chief executive Kate Shoesmith said: “This is a workforce that needs far better support and an appreciation for why they work the way they do.”

The Department for Education published consultation feedback last month that acknowledged potential “unintended consequences” of the new rules.

These included the impact of social workers with protected characteristics or caring duties who are often more likely to be in agency work.

BASW also highlighted a danger of local authorities being unable to cover existing vacancies due to a reduction of agency workers. It added it was “not confident” the measures would stop social workers quitting.

One director of children’s services warned agencies might target more experienced staff due to the three year limit, reducing the amount directly employed by local authorities.

The cooling off period for recruitment to agencies after leaving a local authority could also encourage workers to seek employment outside their region, one recruitment agency warned.

Some local authorities pointed out the three-month period undermined longer cooling off periods of six months and even a year already imposed in their region.

The government said it will work with stakeholders to “understand the wider impacts of the reforms”.