Beta This is a new service – your feedback will help us to improve it.

How to deal with breaches to the agreement

How regional improvement and innovation alliances (RIIA) work with local authorities to manage breaches of agency workforce agreements.

Each local authority faces its own workforce challenges, which may lead to breaches of the agreement, such as exceeding the agreed pay rate. The agency rules state that the Directors of Children's Services (DCS) and the chief executive (CE) of the local authority should sign off agreements to breaches of the pay rate. The regional improvement and innovation alliance (RIIA) may create a sign-off process that goes beyond this.

Each regional area should clearly define what counts as a ‘breach’ of the agreement. The RIIA can set up a process to manage breaches. For example, the RIIA may agree that a local authority must ask for permission before breaching any part of the agreement and identify who would make this decision.

The RIIA may agree that this decision is made at a regional level, or sub-regional level, depending on the size and complexity of the region. This ensures a breach is approved in advance by the right people.

To ensure this process is transparent, the RIIA might consider informing all members about the decision to breach. This is important if decisions are not made regionally due to, for example, a sub-regional structure.

The agreement to breach might specify the reason for the breach and any actions agreed. For example, a breach request may be made about pay rate. Permission to breach might include:  

  • the pay rate details 
  • the number of roles it applies to 
  • the contract length 
  • an agreement that no other contract terms will be breached (such as the cool-off period)  

All these items are not included in the data return but may be useful so the RIIA can ensure that decision-making remains transparent and provides an early opportunity for discussion. This might include sharing examples of similar situations and talking through potential solutions.

Effective management of breaches  

RIIAs may wish to consider having sanctions in place to discourage further breaches when local authorities, managed service providers (MSPs) or agencies either:

  • do not follow the agreed processes without prior agreement
  • routinely disregard the agreed processes

It is helpful if sanctions are proportionate and encourage all parties to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) to follow the agreed processes. Often, the condition of transparency and threat of sanction is enough, but if you do need to follow through, then apply the sanction as agreed.

When looking into breaches, it’s essential to record the following:  

  • the breach itself 
  • the reason for the breach 
  • the actions taken  
  • whether such actions will prevent the breach being repeated 

This information will provide important context for Department for Education (DfE) data returns that highlight price cap breaches and non-compliance with the rules. This will play a role in quarterly benchmarking.

Case study: agreeing a sanctions process

One RIIA has agreed a sanctions process, where a local authority breaching without permission is ‘fined’ a small amount of money.

These funds are then used to augment regional training.  

Other local authorities may find other solutions which provide consequences for breaching the agreement. 

Next page: What works in regional governance

Back to Top
The resources have been developed by Research in Practice in collaboration with DfE.
Published: 04 June 2025
Last updated: 04 June 2025