Some local authorities and regional improvement and innovation alliances (RIIAs) will be ready to implement the agency rules now, while others will need to make changes to policies and processes. The tools and resources in this section will help you understand what you need to do to be ready to meet the rules.
The statutory guidance is in force on 31 October 2024 and has a transition end date of 1 October 2025. This is to give you time to review your arrangements and make changes including to legacy contracts.
There are some things you will need to do from 31 October 2024. For example, you will need to make sure that all new assignments to supply agency child and family social workers meet the agency rules. This is except where existing contractual obligations prevent implementation of particular rules or parts of a rule.
Read about the details of the implementation date and transition arrangements.
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) sets out how each regional improvement and innovation alliance (RIIA) intends to work together. It is not a legally binding document but a statement of serious intent that equal partners voluntarily agree to. It sets out how each partner:
- will contribute
- what they expect to receive
- how they will work together to make decisions, agree priorities and allocate resources
The use of agency child and family social workers is one part of the MOU. The MOU may also include other workforce development priorities.
Review your regional MOU to check that the content aligns with the statutory guidance. Use the MOU audit tool to guide a conversation with regional colleagues, MSPs and agencies.
This will help you understand which parts of the MOU you need to change to comply with the agency rules.
For example, setting key performance indicators using the agency rules provides regular reporting to the RIIA of local and regional performance.
From spring 2025, Department for Education (DfE) will share benchmarking information with local authorities and RIIAs based on the new data collection to support reporting.
Understanding local and regional readiness
Social work employers take different approaches to using agency child and family social workers to support service delivery. Some social work employers rely on the use of agency child and family social workers to meet service demand.
This can contribute to instability in the workforce, as agency child and family social workers frequently leave or join the organisation. Consistency and quality of practice is often affected and children and young people may not receive the most effective response.
The statutory guidance aims to support local authorities to reduce over-reliance on agency child and family social workers and increase the stability of the permanent workforce.
Having a stable workforce can have a positive impact on outcomes for children and families as they are able to develop trusting relationships with child and family social workers over time.
Workforce pressures are not static and fluctuate, responding to external and internal pressures. This means that the organisational need for agency child and family social workers can change quickly.
Understanding your workforce needs and being able to adapt your response to workforce changes is critical to:
- improving retention of existing staff
- reducing over-reliance on the use of agency child and family social workers to meet unexpected capacity demands
To understand your local and regional readiness to implement the new rules, use the Agency rules readiness assessment tool. This sets out the components of the statutory guidance and asks you to self-assess your current organisational capacity to meet the agency rules.
Complete the tool for your own local authority and then discuss your results with internal colleagues and with RIIA colleagues. The tool will highlight gaps in your current capacity and can be used as a basis for your action plan.
Data collection
From 31 October 2024, agency rules for local authorities are in effect in England. The statutory guidance is for local authorities and relates to the use of agency child and family social workers. The statutory guidance includes new data collection requirements. Read more about the new data collection requirements.
Local authorities and managed service providers (MSPs) (or agencies, if you do not use an MSP) can use the data collection checklist to review the data they collect and share.
This will help you understand if you can collect all the data required for the data return or if you need to set up additional data collection plans to meet the statutory guidance requirements.
Writing your action plan
After assessing your readiness to implement the agency rules, complete your action plan. You may already have a template for this, or you can use the action plan template.
The action plan template provides a structure to help guide your thinking and decision-making. The tool is downloadable and can be personalised to suit the needs of your local authority.
When your action plan is written, make sure that the people responsible for completing the actions understand what they need to do, and by when. Also consider:
- who else needs to know about the action plan
- if you need to share information more widely to raise awareness
- how you will know if the plan is being implemented successfully
From 31 October 2024, statutory guidance for local authorities on the use of agency child and family social workers came into effect in England. Local authorities (LAs) have a responsibility to ensure their agency supply contracts comply with the statutory guidance.
LAs are also responsible for working with their regional improvement and innovation alliance (RIIA) through a mutual agreement to work together collaboratively on shared priorities.
The majority of RIIAs have an agency social work MOU in place which sets out their agreed framework for working together on the agency workforce. Regularly reviewing this with each other will strengthen collaborative working and encourage shared responsibility.
Reviewing your agreement now will ensure that your agreement aligns with the statutory guidance. Reviews help ensure that each part of the agreement is working well.
You might plan to review an MOU:
- annually as part of a regular review
- when policy or legislation changes impact on how you work together
- when parts of the MOU or contract are not working well
When you have updated your regional MOU upload the new version to the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS).
Using the MOU and contract audit tool
If you have a contract with a managed service provider (MSP), or equivalent, for the supply of agency child and family social workers, use this audit tool to assess whether the MSP contract supports compliance with the statutory guidance.
If you do not have a MSP or agency contract in place, this audit tool can be used to help you assess whether your agency contracts support compliance with the statutory guidance. Your MSP or agency contract should include details about how the local authority and the MSP or agency will work together.
This usually includes:
- the names of important contacts in the MSP or agency and the local authority
- the level of contact and the purpose of the activity you are working on together
- how you will share responsibilities
- the details of what you are trying to achieve together
- how you will measure each other’s performance
Your MSP or agency can support you to meet the agency rules by:
- providing you with information, such as data about pay rates
- setting up processes that evidence compliance, such as asking the agency supply chain to provide evidence that they are supplying candidates who meet the requirements
- adhering to the statutory guidance, for example, by agreeing a process with you about referencing
Use the information in this section to audit your MOU, your MSP contract or your agency contract. This will help you check that:
- everyone involved understands their responsibilities
- you are identifying the right priorities
- you have performance measures in place
Check your MSP or agency contract allows you to make changes when new legislation or policy comes into effect
Some contracts might have terms that allow changes without a formal revision of the agreement taking place. Check your contract to see if you can make changes to bring the contract in line with the statutory guidance without going to formal review.
Take steps to make changes to the contract to ensure continued compliance with the agency rules. Speak to your MSP or agency and arrange to make changes to the contract so it aligns with the agency rules. Seek legal advice on how to proceed where appropriate.
Work with RIIA partners to coordinate conversations with MSPs or agencies, particularly if you use the same suppliers. Work collaboratively with MSPs or agencies to agree the terms which will support your local authority to comply with the agency rules.
Review the contract to make sure that specific personnel are named and responsible for certain activities including the approval of price cap breaches
The named contract manager may need to negotiate changes with the MSP or agency. The statutory guidance assigns responsibility to the director of children's services (DCS) and the local authority chief executive to approve all assignments that breach the price cap. Make sure you include how breaches will be approved in the contract arrangements, and in the regional MOU.
Regularly review the personnel named in the MOU and contract to ensure that the details are kept up to date, and there is transparency about responsibilities.
Check that your MOU and MSP or agency contract includes the DCS and chief executive responsibilities as set out in the statutory guidance. For more information about this read the statutory guidance and the agency social work data and price caps operational guidance.
If your MOU or MSP or agency contract does not name specific personnel to be responsible for certain activities, consider including a list of responsible positions.
Having a regional agreement in place which identifies a specific person to approve exceptions, or changes, helps ensure that everyone in the RIIA understands their responsibilities. Developing a process for applying for exceptions encourages consistency and provides a measure for compliance.
Review how the MSP or agency contract identifies job types and definitions
The statutory guidance identifies five core job types for agency child and family social workers. These job types will not always be the same as the job titles in your organisation. All local authority job roles should be mapped to the core job types using the descriptions in the data and price caps operational guidance.
This will allow consistent regional and national reporting on agency child and family social worker use. It is important that all partners understand the core job type definitions and how local job titles are mapped onto them.
The RIIA should update the job types and descriptions in the regional MOU to align with the statutory guidance. The LA should review and revise the lists of job roles in your local MSP or agency contracts and reporting systems to align with the statutory guidance. Use the job mapping template to ensure that local authority job titles and roles are mapped to the core job types.
Share the mapping information with supply chain partners, and check they understand the local authority reporting responsibilities. Regional discussion about the job mapping process will provide peer review and support and improve regional consistency.
Check that the MOU or agency contract requires the MSP or agency to provide data to the local authority
Statutory data returns must be provided quarterly to report on agency use and cost. Much of this data is already collected by the MSP or agency. Local authorities may already receive some data from the MSP or agency but may not be receiving all the information needed for the quarterly data returns. More detailed information about the data you need to collect is in the data and price caps operational guidance.
Review the data-sharing agreement with your MSP or agency (use the Data collection checklist) and check that it aligns with the statutory guidance data reporting requirements. Update as necessary.
Review the local authority data reporting requirements and check that internal processes are in place to report on agency use and cost before the start of the data collection period. Check that you have a process in place to collect data on off-contract spend.
Consider working with your MSP or agency to agree how you will share data. Review the local authority data reporting requirements and check that internal processes are in place to report on agency usage and cost before the start of the data collection period. Automating the data collection process will improve accuracy and efficiency.
Check that the MOU or agency contract specifies how data should be formatted and provided to the local authority
The DfE data returns contain specific fields and format to be completed by the local authority. Completing these returns is much easier if the data is provided to you in the right format and with fields completed.
Review your arrangements with your MSP or agency and agree to any changes necessary to align with the statutory guidance. You can find more information in the data and price caps operational guidance.
Consider meeting with your MSP or agency to develop a data-sharing agreement so that you receive the data you need in a usable format. This will aid you to complete your data return.
Review the contract for measures to reduce or prevent unsuitable candidates being sent to you for consideration
Managed service providers (MSPs) and agencies can help prevent unsuitable candidates being sent to hiring managers. The statutory guidance sets out requirements for agency child and family social workers, such as minimum post-qualifying experience, notice periods and cooling-off periods. The MSP or agency can make sure they only send candidates that meet the agency rules.
Review your agreement with the MSP or agency. Make changes so that the MSP or agency checks candidates against the statutory requirements before passing details to hiring managers. Consider whether hiring managers need training so they understand the suitability requirements.
Meet with your MSP or agency to discuss how they can support you by ensuring you only receive details of candidates who meet the agency rules requirements and are suitable for the role. Agree how this will be quality assured by you and by the MSP or agency.
Check the contract contains the requirement for practice-based references for agency child and family social workers
The statutory guidance states that local authorities should provide a detailed practice-based reference for all agency child and family social workers at the end of their assignment.
The agency rules also say that local authorities should not hire agency child and family social workers without reviewing at least two detailed practice-based references. Candidate references should be requested by the local authority.
The local authority is responsible for making sure that all those involved know about the process for providing and requiring practice-based references. Other local authorities may request references from staff in your local authority when they are considering candidates. The MSP or agency may need your consent to share references with them.
Update your organisational reference template for agency child and family social workers to the standard reference template published alongside the statutory guidance. Make sure everyone completing or receiving references knows they should use the standard reference template for all agency child and family social worker references.
Meet with your MSP or agency to agree how references will be collected, provided and shared in line with the statutory guidance.
Consider the policies and processes you need to have in place internally to ensure that the right people complete references, using the standard reference template on time You may need to provide training to staff about the new arrangements for providing and requiring references for agency child and family social workers.
Review the contract for details about the transfer of personal information
The local authority and the MSP or agency will be sharing general and personal data about agency child and family social workers. Your data-sharing agreement should clearly identify the information to be shared, the responsibilities of each party and how the agency child and family social worker will give permission for their data to be shared. For more information read the section on privacy notices in the data and price caps operational guidance.
Review the new requirements with your information governance lead and MSP or agency. Revise the data-sharing agreement so that the data-sharing clause meets the agency rules.
Seek advice from information governance professionals to help create new protocols so that you comply with data-sharing legislation. Search for the Data protection privacy notice model document for more information on how to write a privacy notice.
Check the contract against the agency rules on the use of project teams
The agency rules include specific guidance on the use of project teams or agency workers provided as part of a packaged model.
Review the statutory guidance and update your contract to ensure that the agency rules on the use of project teams are followed. Review your processes to check you can identify requests for project teams outside of contract arrangements.
Review the statutory guidance to ensure you fully understand the scope of the agency rules on the use of project teams or other packaged models. Review your contracts and internal processes to ensure any future use of project teams or other packaged models is identified and is compliant with the statutory guidance.
Review the local authority arrangements for checking the employment status of agency child and family social workers
Refer to the statutory guidance for details of the local authority’s responsibilities.
Local authorities can use HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool to help them make employment status decisions. This tool gives HMRC’s view of a worker’s employment status, based on the information you provide.
Review your arrangements. Ensure that the protocols for determining agency workers’ tax status are effective. Confirm their status with the MSP or agency before making your hiring decision.
Review the online booking system functionality
Most MSP or agency contracts include use of an online booking system. Some MSP contracts may allow changes to be made to the fields, while other contracts may not. If the online fields can be changed to map to the statutory requirements, local authorities will be able to make changes consistently and continue to meet the rules.
Speak to your MSP or agency to check that the required fields on the booking agency child and family social workers form, and process, meet the statutory guidance and regional protocols.
Implementation of the statutory guidance means that all local authorities will be asking MSPs and agencies to provide information to enable them to satisfy the DfE data requirements. It’s likely that your MSP or agency has already thought about how they can provide you with this information.
Speak to your MSP or agency about changing the fields in the online booking system. Review your contract with the MSP or agency to ensure you specify the details required for the data return.
Check if the contract requires the MSP or agency to send a cover sheet for each agency worker
Managers making hiring decisions might not know about the statutory guidance, especially if they’re new or covering for someone.
Existing cover sheets and notes can provide additional information but might not cover all the agency rules. The cover sheet could clearly detail how the candidate complies with the agency rules.
Review existing templates so they work for the agency rules
Consider how your local authority hiring managers will ensure they meet the statutory guidance and regional rules before agreeing to hire agency child and family social workers.
Develop and implement a process so there is a consistent approach that you can monitor so you know if your local authority complies with the agency rules.
Next page: Governance
The resources have been developed by
Research in Practice
in collaboration with
DfE.
Published: 30 October 2024
Last updated: 04 November 2024
Published: 30 October 2024
Last updated: 04 November 2024