The Department for Education is likely to go ahead with rules restricting agency social work in statutory children’s services in England, a sector leader has indicated.
Association of Directors of Children’s Services workforce policy lead Rachael Wardell said ADCS had repeatedly raised the need for the DfE to implement its proposed rules and that the department had been receptive to its lobbying.
The DfE consulted on the proposals, which include capping the pay of agency staff to the equivalent of permanently-employed social workers, between February and May this year, and is due to report back on the consultation this September.
The proposed rules proved highly divisive following their publication, with the ADCS urging faster implementation than the target date of next April, and agency leaders – and many social workers – warning they would worsen existing staff shortages, with one in five social work posts vacant in children’s services as of September 2022.
DfE ‘has listened’ to directors on agency rules
Rachael Wardell (photo: Phil Adams)
However, despite the opposition from some quarters, Wardell indicated to last week’s ADCS annual conference that the rules would come into force.
“We are pushing the point to government over and over and over about how important it is to go ahead with the reforms,” she said. “My sense is that we have been listened to by the DfE.”
In an interview with Community Care, ADCS president John Pearce said it was now supportive of the April 2024 start date proposed by the DfE.*
What are the proposed rules on agency work?
- All procurement of agency staff should follow national rules.
- 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.
- 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.
- A ban on agency project teams.
- A requirement for employers to request and provide references for all agency social worker candidates.
- 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).
- A requirement for a minimum six-week notice period for agency social workers.
- 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.
Growth in use of agency teams
The ADCS’s support for restrictions on locum work stems from what it sees as the growth in unacceptable practices by some social work agencies when placing staff, particularly restricting supply to teams in cases when councils need individual workers.
The number of social workers councils hired through such project teams grew fivefold from 2021-22, according to research by ADCS published last year, while the proportion of children’s services social worker roles held by agency workers reached a record high of 17.6% in September 2022, up from 15.5% the year before.
Banning the use of project teams is among the eight rules, along with a national price cap on costs per locum worker – effectively capping their pay – and a prohibition on social workers taking up an agency post in local authority children’s services until they have acquired five years’ experience.
“If we do achieve what we intend to do with these reforms we will bring to an end some scurrilous practices including here today gone tomorrow project teams and agencies who can’t provide you with one agency social worker but with six plus a team manager,” Wardell told last week’s conference.
This critique is rejected by agency representatives, with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation also warning that the proposals would “damage services and drive people out of social work”.
BASW: need to address factors behind agency work
The British Association of Social Workers England, while accepting that “market forces” had led to increased costs from agency work, as well as greater inconsistency of support for families, warned that implementing the plans without addressing the drivers of locum work would be “destabilising” to the workforce.
Agency staff working in council children’s and adults’ services were more satisfied across a range of measures than permanently-employed social workers, found the Local Government Association’s latest social work health check, based on a poll of almost 8,000 practitioners from October 2022 to January 2023.
Pearce said he recognised the need to address the pull factors for agency work, in an interview with Community Care at last week’s conference.
John Pearce, ADCS president, 2023-24
“That’s where local authorities have a huge responsibility,” Pearce said. “We need to make sure we are good employers and we are ready to welcome with open arms those agency social workers who want to come into the permanent workforce. It’s our expectation that a significant proportion of those in the agency world will come into permanent roles. We need to create environments in which they want to do that.”
*The story has been updated to include this detail.
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Agree this is required as social workers are leaving permanent positions to agency social work positions that pay more. This impacts on team stability as agency workers come and go
The answer to that problem isn’t to ‘batter’ the locum social workers, but for the Local Authorities to make substantive posts more attractive. From the perspective of working as a locum and in a substantive post, I much preferred locum work. For me the primary factor was not having to work 8 weeks notice if I wanted to change roles when employers only have to give 1 week the other way.
In my current role (with the NHS) I would have to earn £30 per hour – given the expenses of working as a locum, two lots of tax & NI contributions, apprentice precept and payroll feed – to even break even and that’s before the loss of paid leave and sick pay. Yet despite all this I much prefer locum work.
I would actually prefer if people would recognise our professional status and for all social worker to be self employed working from chambers (like barrister’s) where we would have the autonomy to do what we trained to do. In my role that would mean lots more thereputic interventions instead of the reams of repetitive paperwork and consequential superficial visits that managers require [because that is all we have time for].
It’s very obvious that the lack of notice that agency workers can give is a major problem.
That one week notice you gave whenever you wanted to change jobs gave families one week notice that they were getting a new social worker. Greta practice eh?
Might be fine for you but that is one of the major issues with agency workers. You come and go, leave families abandoned and the rest of the team has to pick up whatever mess you have left… Happens time and time again
Such is life…
There’s Pros and cons but as an agency SW I come first.
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
OK – so where do we think employers are going to get staff to fill all those vacancies then?
No-one willingly employs agency staff – time and time again local authorities have tried to adopt a policy of no agency staff only to have to go back to it within a very short time because there simply isn’t an alternative
The work still has to be done – people out there still need social workers.
This is typical of government policy – mandate that something has to be done without any commitment to providing the resources to actually do it!
Yes Janet. I strongly agree.
To me the proposals smack of managerial incompetence and small box thinking.
If there were more opportunities for part time work there would be better staff retention rates and so less need to call on agency workers. Many people do agency work as they find full time work does not fill in with other commitments or their own wellbeing.
This another factor in the demise of social work in LA. Out touch senior managers who clearly have no idea of the strains on front line Teams. Locums, just leave
This is too simplistice reaction..when I started agency you had be level 3, now they take AYSE, is directors etc to blame to get a backside on seat.
Secondly, many jobs are short-term, I have covered maternity leave, sick leave and other temp posts.
Capping this type of work will leave posts vacant, given Hammond stopped us claiming basic mileage and accommodation when working away. Usually more remote and rural areas that lack a local pool of talent.
Suggest, all agency ought be what was a level 3
Paul. When I started agency work just short of 20 years ago, I was newly qualified with no experience. In those days it was possible to finish a post one day and start another the next – how things have changed.
I too covered maternity leave, an LD worker training to be an AMHP, staff sickness etc, etc.
I have been in a substantive post for the past 5 years. The changes to T&S, getting a massive tax bill (backdated for 6 years) and wanting to train to be an AMHP – which didn’t happen as most NHS trusts won’t fund this for their own employee’s!!!
Bottom line though – to me – the proposals are the result of bird brained, small box thinking.
If there are 4 LAs in a region 2 are rated good one requires improvement and 1 inadequate and they have to pay the same how the heck will the latter 2 get any one willing to work for them? Answer they won’t = worse outcomes for their children and families. Short-sighted and typical of the out of touch mandarins
i will not be forced to be permanent. I take the risk of no sickness pay, no holidays and now i have to work for the same rate? No way sorry. in a time when we cant cover the vacancies we already have this is madness. I will leave social worker before i work permanently for LA’s that don’t appreciate me as a permanent member of staff.
Yoni. I feel your pain.
The paid the same rate part won’t even be that given that (presuming you wor ltd) you would have all your overheads to pay meaning that your take home pay would be much less.
I also appreciate your point about not being valued and the bods at the top should address that and similar issues (it’s called putting their own house in order) before making changes for the likes of you and other locums.
I think there was a consensus that when the government got rid of IR35 for agency workers they would all leave in masses to be permanent . This did not happen . Remote areas that cannot recruit will continue to struggle as they often employ workers from other areas who will decide it just isn’t worth the time spent on the road or having to stay over if the pay does not differ. I’ve been an agency worker for many years – I have worked all over and for many years at the same local authority and feel I have contributed a lot to permanent staff – especially those starting out . If agency workers don’t get a good deal many will just leave the job and do something else – the pay is terrible and the profession is being diluted by social work apprenticeships and assistants and a blame someone culture. Project teams came about because of the removal of ir35 for agency workers – the government are to blame for this / loopholes exploited and it’s the individual agency worker that does a good job who pays the price . I do agree with a minimum amount of years experience before you do it but ultimately it’s freedom of choice and councils don’t have to offer them a job. People do what they do to survive and if the profession was better thought of with better pay then maybe things would improve in the vacancy window.
Yoni. I feel your pain.
The paid the same rate part won’t even be that given that (presuming you wor ltd) you would have all your overheads to pay meaning that your take home pay would be much less.
I also appreciate your point about not being valued and the bods at the top should address that and similar issues (it’s called putting their own house in order) before making changes for the likes of you and other locums.
I understand the need to reduce agency workers for team stability, have more notice period and match permanent staff wages. My worry is the impact on staff where there isn’t sufficient permanent staff. In my last FST post there was only two (including me as a newly qualified) permanent staff in a team of 6 and the other person didn’t work 5 days and this was evident throughout the three years I stayed there. What are they doing to improve the high case loads/lack of resources/moral that causes SW to leave I wonder?
I have worked several posts as a locum where I was about much longer that some substantive staff members. I literally saw people come and go. Where is the stability in that???
So the agencies (not the social workers within them) have finally killed the goose that laid the golden eggs by getting too greedy. BUT there needs to be a really good look at why there are these recruitment and retention issues that lead to agency workers being required in the first place before just cutting off the supply and leaving teams desperately short staffed to the peril of workers and those they serve.
What load of nonsense. If agency workers want to be permanent they would, it is because the salary of permanent workers is totally inadequate
Trying capping their ipay strongly suggest it is an under handed tactic to force them into the permanent employment which just won’t work.
Given that it is well known that the Government do not respect social work as a profession and have tried lots of things to marginalise social work (Care Act anybody??? or branding you as a Social Care Worker with much less qualified staff???). This could be seen as yet another attempt to make social work so marginalised that it becomes a thing of the past.
I have been contracting for over 20 years. IR35 limits how far l can travel for work. There is no way l would take a permanent job. I want a work life balance not a chain round my neck. We do this job because we care about people and not for the poor pay and conditions.
Agency staff kept this country going through covid and this is the thanks we get.
I like others will wait and watch the fall out as the system falls apart.
Personally I think a couple of middle-ground actions should be looked at. Such as locum rate capped at 1.5x perm equivalent (takes account of lost benefits not received as locum); 4 week notice period (since any employed person in probation is only 1 week, and sometimes LA’s want to get rid of a locum too, 4 weeks seems reasonable) and thirdly have set regulation that no more than 10% of your workforce can be locum. This can balance LA’s investing in talent pipelines and grow your own initiatives, whilst having some experienced workers via locum to help support these initiatives. Workforce stability is normally a 3 year+ process; not an overnight fix by simply banning agency workers.
If the notice period was 4 weeks either way, that would be fine but I think you will find that it would be as one sided as most contracts for substantive posts. Giving my contract [with the NHS] as an example. If I want to leave, I am contracted to give 2 months notice. If the trust wants to give me notice, they only have to give me a week. I also know s/w’s employed by LA’s who have similar terms bot none where this is a level playing field.
Jokers, absolutely. You now have vacancies throughout services with no real oversight when this is implemented.
You are all buying into the agenda to stop locum being tax efficient supporting this government where ex prime minster earns £20000 per hour.
Dont worry John Pearce sort this out and jump on to help you all out.
The answer to the question of agency workers is not simple. I’m sure there is a role somewhere for agency workers, but the simple fact is both Local Authorities and the NHS are hemoraging money due to the rediculous cost of that agencies workers cost. Neither LA’s or the NHS can afford this anymore.
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.
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
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…..
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 : (
What are the proposed rules on agency work?
>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?
This is idiocy at its worst.
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.
Ex-prime minister earns £20000 per hour and Mr Pearce is battling agency worker for earning £45 per hour. who is fooling who here???? Keep the person at the bottom, at the base and take away any possiblity for them to try and raise thier head up.
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.
If the pay will be identical to permanent social work roles… does that mean we will also get paid sick leave and annual leave ?
Will we also get more than a weeks notice from our employers… if we are to give 6 weeks’ notice ?
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 ? ?