The Department for Education’s (DfE) statutory guidance on agency social work came into effect on 31 October 2024 before becoming a legal requirement from 1 October 2025. Central to the reforms are measures such as capped pay rates, longer notice requirements, and a restriction on hiring workers who have recently left an agency post in the same region. By tightening these arrangements, the DfE aims to reduce churn in the workforce, helping to create more consistency for staff and better outcomes for children and families.
One of the most notable differences in the way in which the DfE’s rules and guidance have been implemented in Yorkshire & the Humber has been the timescale, with the decision made to implement these ten months before authorities were legally required to do so. In preparation for this, engagement work with agency workers and providers first began in September 2024 before authorities adopted the DfE guidance and rules in January 2025, with a transition period of three-months on price caps. The thinking behind this was in large part, to focus minds and create some lead-in time to iron out any issues before the national deadline.
As a result, the region has already seen a dramatic reduction in the number of full-time equivalent agency workers; down from 512 in September 2024, to 306 by the end of June 2025. Regional leaders say that feedback from their counterparts in other parts of the country, who have also introduced similar changes ahead of time, indicates that they too are seeing positive results as the changes take effect; a trend which they believe will become increasingly apparent in the coming months.
The decision to adopt the DfE statutory guidance in January formed part of a regional Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), The agreement commits them to working collaboratively, sharing information and overseeing compliance through a regional governance group. It also standardises vetting and referencing procedures and sets expectations for agency staff to maintain an on-site presence as required to meet the needs of the role. In addition, the MOU commits all authorities to fully apply each of the DfE’s guidelines as “musts” rather than “shoulds”.
To explore the implementation and impact of this in detail, we spoke with Nicola Curley, our region's Lead Director for workforce and Director of Children & Young People's Services at Rotherham; Ann-Marie Matson, Director of Children's Services in North East Lincolnshire; and Ruth Terry, Executive Director of Social Care and Practice, Bradford Children's Services Trust. Together, they have offered an interesting look into the transformative impact the MoU is having.
“The announcement of a national shake-up of the agency workforce provided an opportunity to pursue an agenda which had been on the table regionally for some time. I think what we felt with the new guidance coming from DfE, was it gave us a real opportunity to refresh and grip what was an incredibly challenging problem for us all." - Nicola Curley, Rotherham
Read our interview with Nicola here
“We had to recognise that a lot of our agency workers had actually been in Bradford for a long time. These were some really good social workers as well, it wasn't that they were people we didn't want to work with. They were colleagues who were really committed to Bradford. So our priority was encouraging them to become permanent” - Ruth Terry, Bradford Children's Services Trust
Read our interview with Ruth here
“I think it's fair to say I've been pretty vocal about the use of agency social work over many years across the region, and seeing firsthand the impact of the instability that that brings children and the impact on children's outcomes. So I absolutely welcomed it with open arms as a step in the right direction.” - Ann-Marie Matson, North East Lincolnshire