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This guidance is for:

• chief finance officers (CFO) or Section 151 officers, and monitoring officers
• children鈥檚 trusts chief executives聽
• councillors, including leaders of councils and lead members for children鈥檚 services聽
• directors of children鈥檚 services聽
• heads of HR, commissioning, commercial, contracts or procurement
• heads of service and service managers聽聽
• local authority chief executives
• social workers and practice supervisors in children鈥檚 social care 聽

This guidance is written for those who work in and with local authority children鈥檚 social care. It contains information that may also be useful to those, like recruitment businesses, who supply child and family social workers to local authorities.

It applies to:

• all local authorities in England
• alternative delivery models for children鈥檚 social care (where the delivery of children鈥檚 services is outsourced to a trust or not-for-profit organisation that is separate from, but accountable to, the local authority)
• partnership based models聽(where a single leadership team oversees delivery of children鈥檚 services across two or more local authorities)

Statutory guidance is issued by law. The data collection section of this guidance is a legal requirement for local authorities. The rest of this statutory guidance should be complied with unless exceptional circumstances arise.

Agency rules

This is statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE). This means that all local authorities should comply with it when using agency child and family social workers to carry out duties in their children鈥檚 services departments, unless exceptional circumstances arise.

Creating the right conditions to allow all social workers to thrive and do the best social work they can relies on a stable, effective, and supported workforce. This guidance describes a set of rules that collectively set out what local authorities should do when using agency child and family social workers.

Further details on the data collection and price caps rules can be found in the data and price caps operational guidance.

Standard reference template

Using the standard reference template will facilitate a system that supports local authorities to effectively manage performance and recruitment across the agency workforce.

The standard reference template is based on the in England. The professional standards are the threshold standards necessary for safe and effective practice set out by Social Work England outlining what every social worker must know, understand, and be able to do after qualifying. Local authorities should ensure that both sections of the template are completed.

DfE commissioned Research in Practice to produce the standard reference template tool alongside wider resources to support local authorities in engaging agency child and family social workers effectively and implementing the agency rules statutory guidance.

Support and resources

DfE funded Research in Practice to develop resources to support the implementation of the agency rules statutory guidance. Developed in collaboration with Essex County Council and King鈥檚 College London, and in consultation with local government and the recruitment sector, these resources are intended to complement the agency rules statutory guidance.

The resources are available on the platform.