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

Governance case studies

Use these case studies to understand how local authorities and partners have responded to challenges with the agency workforce. 

One helpful way of identifying mutual responsibilities is to collate case studies. These can describe how local authorities and partners have responded to challenges, such as soliciting, false advertising or working with project teams.  

Case studies can help to:  

  • describe the issue 
  • explain how the decision to respond was made 
  • assess if this was successful 
  • identify what they learned from the process 

Helpful support resources can assist others in tackling a similar problem, such as providing template emails. See three example case studies from the London area.

Five example case studies from the London area and the West Midlands are below.

Case study London: breach of London pledge rates 

A local authority provided a case study of the steps they took to prevent a breach of the London Pledge rates. 

They discovered that one agency had presented them with candidates as a ‘project team’ solution at rates above the London pledge rates. The same candidates had previously been presented to the same borough as individual candidates at the London Pledge pay rate through the Managed Service Provider (MSP) system.

The local authority negotiated with all four candidates represented by the agency and agreed to pay them at the London Pledge pay rate. All candidates accepted the offer. 

Case study West Midlands: using price caps effectively

West Midlands Region, in partnership with West Midlands Employers (WME), has seen several benefits from collaborative agreement on price caps based on the hourly rate paid to the agency worker. These benefits are: 

  • a consistent and transparent approach to pay rates across 14 local authority areas providing set rates against job roles 
  • a reduction in breaches to the agreement and a reduction in applications by local authorities for exemptions to the regionally agreed price cap (where local authorities have an exemption agreed, this now has a time-limit and a plan). 
  • improved collaborative working with their managed service provider (MSP) and agencies resulting in changes in behaviour, such as a reduction in adverts above the price cap rates 
  • agency social workers feel supported in converting to permanent contracts. Over a 10-month period, ten local authorities reported a total of 144 agency to permanent conversions. The local authorities involved collated information about supporting conversion and shared this across the region

Case study London: tackling promotion of roles at incorrect rates

A local authority governance group advised the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) (London RIIA) that some agencies that were regularly promoting roles at incorrect rates. The issue was escalated and, with support from the Managed Service Providers (MSPs), contacted the agencies involved and made it clear that this was not acceptable.  

The agencies agreed to take the adverts down.  LIIA shared the information with all MSPs to support regional supply chain management.

Case study West Midlands: using data for improvement

West Midlands collects data which monitors spend against the actual rate paid to the worker. The directors review the data regularly, work together to find solutions to problems, and make evidence-informed decisions.

Introducing an ‘induction to the Memorandum of Understanding’ process helped new directors in post quickly understand the regional data and their own local authority data. 

Collecting data sets using this methodology provided the evidence for West Midlands to:

  • set controls
  • identify trends
  • work as a region
  • review contracts
  • manage supplier expectations

Case study London: combatting inaccurate advertising

The London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) tackled inaccurate advertising in coordination with another region. A regional Local Authority (LA) governance group discovered that an agency was advertising to London candidates suggesting they leave London to receive a better pay rate in another region.

The LA escalated this to LIIA. Both regions felt this was irresponsible behaviour and spoke to the agency about this, highlighting the collaborative working between regions. 

The adverts were taken down and LIIA shared the information with all Managed Service Providers to support regional supply chain management.

You can also use case studies to support implementation and learning as well as continuous improvement. Case studies are a good way of recording learning and sharing good practice. It can be helpful to organise case studies according to ‘types’ including:  

  • escalating an issue 
  • breaches 
  • good news stories 
  • general information sharing 

Local authorities sharing the practical steps they took can support other local authorities in a similar position. Sharing reusable resources, such as email templates can be helpful.

Case studies can provide positive examples of behaviours local authorities (LAs), Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and the Regional Innovation and Improvement Alliance (RIIA) want to encourage, as well as examples of behaviours they are trying to reduce. 

Local authorities can use data to improve internal practice

Accurate regional data, provided by local authorities and the MSPs (or agency), can provide the basis for open conversations at a local and regional level. 

Make sure there is a commitment and process to collect the data from all partners. Data analysis supported by a narrative can explain the context. This will provide an opportunity for partners to analyse the data and plot it against RIIA priorities and performance measures. It will also generate a better understanding of the pressures each LA faces.

Local authorities can use the data to interrogate their internal practices, identifying blocks and barriers. Regionally shared data provides transparency and accountability, enabling open debate. Regionally agreed actions for local authorities to take forward can then be reviewed regularly. 

Each LA will receive access to their own data and regional and national benchmarking data as part of the new data collection process in the agency rules statutory guidance. You may want to consider putting in place data-sharing agreements across your region so that your RIIA can analyse, review and use data at a regional level.  

Having reliable data over time means that the governance groups can:  

  • explore trends 
  • identify areas of focus or priority 
  • cross reference with other datasets, such as the census 

The benefits of involving MSPs and agencies in designing solutions

For regional data collection to work well, there needs to be an effective data-sharing agreement in place. This may need to be reviewed to check it aligns with the data collection requirements in the statutory guidance.

Actively involving and engaging managed service providers (MSPs) and agencies in understanding the issues and co-designing solutions are important to develop mutual responsibility.

This might include involving them in system developments or supply chain engagement. They might contribute to developing mechanisms for sanctions within existing contracts or provide support to a hiring manager.

Case study: developing a ‘cool-off template’

One local authority has co-developed a ‘cool-off’ template with their MSP.

This template supported a relational approach to speaking to candidates and agencies. It was implemented successfully.

Next page: How to deal with breaches to the agreement

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