Implementing the agency rules

Use these tools and resources to help you understand what you need to do to be ready to meet the agency rules. 

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.

Reviewing your memorandum of understanding (MOU)

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. 

Agency rules readiness assessment tool

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 22.9 KB

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email support-for-social-workers-team@education.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

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

Action plan template

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 58.71 KB