Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the effect of trends in agency social worker fees on local authority expenditure; and if she will make a statement.

The Department for Education recognises the costs associated with the use of agency social workers. The department welcomes the efforts made by local authorities through regional memoranda of understanding to improve the deployment, and manage the costs, of agency social workers. The department has not conducted an assessment of their effectiveness or of the effect on local authority expenditure. Similarly, the department has not carried out an assessment of a national cap on agency social worker fees.