It says this practice - known as a "cool off" period - “has already been adopted across some regions” and “has been effective in removing incentives for permanently employed social workers to join agencies”.
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Analysis: Recruitment agency practices compound workforce pressures
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Ban or regulation: steps to tackle agency dominance of workforce
The ADCS has made the recommendation to lengthen the ban as part of its response to a government consultation on plans to bring in national rules on the use of agency child and family social workers by councils. This closes on 11 May.
The Department for Education is also being called on to consider extending this ban further to include staff working in councils in neighbouring areas, particularly in regions with a high concentration of local authorities, such as Greater London and Greater Manchester.
“This will make the proposal much tighter and resolve this issue for local authorities on a regional border,” states the ADCS in its response.
Remote working also needs to be considered. The ADCS warns that a cooling off period “will have little impact” on those able to work from home.
“To mitigate this potential issue, DfE should be clear that case-holding agency child and family social workers are always expected to deliver face to face work with children and families,” it adds.
According to official government figures both children’s social worker vacancy rates and council reliance on agency staff have increased to record levels over the last year.
Figures published in February show that the number of vacancies in 2022 was 7,900, up more than a fifth on the previous year.
Meanwhile, 6,800 full time equivalent agency workers were used last year, up 13 per cent on 2021’s figures.
“We have long raised the need for government to provide coordinated, national action to help manage this market so that it works for local authorities and, crucially, for children, young people and families,” adds the ADCS’s response.
“Local authorities up and down the country face significant barriers to recruiting and retaining social workers. More specifically, retaining enough experienced social workers to meet the needs of the children and young people we support is increasingly becoming a bigger challenge nationally.”
The government’s consultation follows calls to reduce an overreliance on agency workers made by the independent review of children’s social care last year.
Government’s call for price caps on the use of agency workers is also backed by the ADCS as it would “achieve greater equity of pay and workload across permanent and agency social workers”.
However, it warns that this cap “will need to reflect local circumstances where the cost of living is higher”.
Ministers are also being urged by the ADCS to be on the guard to ensure agencies are “unable to exploit any loopholes”.
