DfE rows back on plans to ban agency social work teams

The plan was initially put forward as part of the government’s response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care earlier this year.

Such teams see agencies offer an entire team to local authorities rather than just the number of social workers required.

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An investigation by CYP Now, which was cited in the government’s response to the Care Review, found a 10-fold rise in agency teams being used by local authorities in last five years, amounting to a total cost of £41.1m across all councils.

The public consultation on workforce proposals made following the Care Review’s final report reveals that more than half of respondents agreed that project teams should no longer be used, while nearly a third disagreed.

Council-employed child and family social workers were more likely to agree with the proposal in comparison with agency social workers.

In its response to sector views shared as part of the consultation, published today (25 October), DfE shares watered-down plans for oversight of the use of such teams through new national rules for local authorities around engaging agency social workers.

The rules will put pressure on local authorities to avoid agency teams carrying out case-holder work and avoid “incurring unnecessary expense to councils”.

“We expect agency suppliers to work with local authorities to offer access to agency workers in ways that support effective workforce planning and the best interests of children and families.

“Most of the responses to the consultation indicated that project teams, or other packaged services, are not appropriate to fulfil the majority of a local authority’s agency social worker workforce needs.

“However, there remains a place for project teams and each local authority’s resource needs will depend on their specific circumstances,” the consultation document states.

John Pearce, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said: “The proposal in regard to the use of project teams will bring much needed regulation to this area and we look forward to working with the department on the statutory guidance that will follow. 

“However, we have not seen any positive case for the use of project teams to undertake case holding social work and the original proposal to remove them from these activities would be clearer and in the best interests of children and young people.”

The national rules, which are expected to be implemented next spring, will also include guidelines on imposing regional price caps for agency workers, strengthening contracts to include areas such as notice periods, which currently stand at as little as a week, and a ban on engaging agency staff with less than three-years’ experience post-qualifying.

The response specifies that local authorities will have a duty to ensure they are adhering to some of the rules within their regions, including stipulations around price caps.

“We do not have the data to be able to implement centrally determined price caps with national coverage at this stage, nor do we have the data and systems in place to be able to assess and monitor the impact of any such cap regionally or nationally.

“We will, therefore, set out in statutory guidance that local authorities should work within their region to agree and implement agency worker price caps that all local authorities within the region should comply with,” the consultation document states.

The rules are also expected to include a three-month “cooling-off” period in which local authorities cannot employ agency workers who have been engaged to work with them within the time frame.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents to the consultation agreed with the general principle of the national rules, while more than half of respondents agreed that local authorities should comply with the rules by spring 2024.

Some 86 per cent of local authority employed child and family social workers agreed with the national rules in principle, while just 16 per cent of agency child and family social workers agreed.