Agency child and family social workers: data return and price caps

Guidance around the new quarterly statutory data collection on the use and pay of agency child and family social workers and the development and implementation of price caps.

Ahead of the first data return, local authorities will have to complete and submit a job mapping exercise to the Department for Education (DfE) to support the development of consistent and comparable price caps. Relevant timelines are detailed in the data and price caps operational guidance.

The guidance includes information on:

• the data being collected
• the supporting rationale
• the job mapping exercise
• data protection
• price caps
• high-level timelines

DfE will willupdate providethe operational guidance aboutwith information on how data can be submitted later in 2024.