A retreat from permanent employment?: Accounting for the rise of professional agency work in UK public services

Ian Kirkpatrick; Kim Hoque

doi:10.1177/0950017006069806

A retreat from permanent employment? Accounting for the rise of professional agency work in UK public services

Ian Kirkpatrick^*, Kim Hoque

^*Corresponding author for this work

The York Management School

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The last five years have witnessed a steady growth in the use of agency workers to fill core professional roles in public sector organizations. Whereas in the past the use of agency workers was driven mainly by employer demands for improved flexibility, this current expansion is predominantly supply led occurring against a backdrop of increasingly tight labour markets. In this article our objective is to explore some of the factors that lie behind this change. Specifically, we raise questions about how far current trends can be explained using the 'free agent perspective' and the notion of portfolio careers. Focusing on one group of professionals in the UK public sector -local authority social workers -we find only limited evidence to support this interpretation. Instead, it is argued that current moves into agency work are in large part a reaction to increasing rigidities in the employment system and to deteriorating conditions of work.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	649-666
Number of pages	18
Journal	Work, Employment and Society
Volume	20
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017006069806
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2006

Keywords

Agency workers
Free agent perspective
Portfolio careers
Public sector
Social care

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10.1177/0950017006069806

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A retreat from permanent employment? Accounting for the rise of professional agency work in UK public services

Abstract

Keywords

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