The government has published new statutory guidance for local authorities on the use of agency workers for child and family social work.
The rules, which will be effective from 31 October 2024, follow feedback from a public consultation which concluded in February this year.
According to the government’s consultation response, participants were broadly supportive of the draft statutory guidance, with most positive about post-qualifying experience (86% agreed or strongly agreed) and references (85% agreed or strongly agreed).
Following the consultation, however, changes have been made to improve the rules around some issues, such as price caps (48% agreed or strongly agreed), and notice periods (58% agreed or strongly agreed). Other minor changes have also been made to make the statutory guidance clearer.
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Commenting on the government’s guidance and consultation response, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) deputy chief executive Kate Shoesmith said: “The government’s response rightfully recognises the important role agency workers, interims and locums play in children and family services.
“As our recent campaign, Voice of the Worker, underlines, there are many reasons why people need and choose to work via an agency.”
She cited a growing demand on social services, increasing pressure on social workers and a strong desire for flexible working as key drivers, and highlighted that more work still needed to be done.
Shoesmith said: “While it is encouraging that the Department for Education (DfE) has added a dose of pragmatism to some of the suggested policies, for example on the inclusion of a break glass provision in the agency rules, we remain concerned that these new rules don’t learn the lessons of other public sector procurement frameworks.
“This is a workforce that needs far better support and an appreciation for why they work the way they do. Through collaboration between government, local authorities, recruiters and social workers, we can reduce the risk of losing social workers from the sector when all that many of them want is greater flexibility.”
Shoesmith believes it will be “vitally important” for each measure to be fully evaluated so the proposals do not “exacerbate the significant recruitment and retention crisis in the UK social care sector”, highlighting its data showed 21,703 current job postings for social workers.
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