Asked by: Margaret Beckett (Labour - Derby South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the cost to local authorities of agency social workers.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
Local authorities receive funds through local taxes, fees and charges, as well as through central government. Local authorities are best placed to take decisions on spend for social care based on local priorities. In response to calls for further funding to tackle the immediate pressures, the Local Government Finance Settlement increased the dedicated funding available for social care through increased flexibility around the social care precept and with a new dedicated £240 million Adult Social Care Support Grant in 2017 to 2018, distributed according to relative need.
Asked by: Margaret Beckett (Labour - Derby South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of memoranda of understanding and regional agreements in managing the costs of agency social workers.
Answered by Edward Timpson
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.
Asked by: Margaret Beckett (Labour - Derby South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a national cap on agency social worker fees.
Answered by Edward Timpson
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.
Asked by: Margaret Beckett (Labour - Derby South)
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.
Answered by Edward Timpson
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.