You have four years in a children's team at a council, the caseload is wearing you down and a colleague who went agency last year says she earns more and finishes on time. Before you hand in your notice, the rules for agency social work in England changed in October 2024 and again in October 2025, and they decide who can go agency, what you can be paid and when you can start. This is what a child and family social worker should check before making the move. The rules quoted are the Department for Education's statutory guidance on the use of agency child and family social workers, in force since 31 October 2024, and Social Work England's registration rules as they stand in September 2026.
Who the rules cover
The DfE guidance applies to councils in England engaging agency social workers for child and family work. Adults' services are outside it, and so are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If you work in adults' services the sections below on registration and pay still apply to you. The three year rule and the caps do not.
The three year rule
A council must not take on an agency child and family social worker with less than three years of post qualifying experience, and that experience has to have been gained in an English local authority in a child and family setting. Time in a charity, a fostering agency or an adults' team does not count. If you qualified in 2024 the agency route is closed to you until 2027 however good you are, and an agency that tells you otherwise is asking a council to break statutory guidance.
Two references before any offer
Councils must ask for two detailed practice based references on a standard DfE template before they offer you an assignment. These are not the two line letters HR used to send confirming your dates. They ask your previous managers about your practice. Line up your referees before you register with an agency, tell them what is coming, and expect the reference stage to take a week or two rather than a day.
The cooling off period
If you leave a permanent post with a council you cannot come back to the same council, or to one in the same region, as an agency worker for at least three months. There are exceptions for redundancy and for people who leave during probation, but for most social workers the practical effect is that your first agency contract will be somewhere else. Check the regional map before you resign, because the same region is wider than the neighbouring borough.
What the price caps mean for your rate
From 1 October 2025 every region in England has a cap on what a council can pay for an agency child and family social worker, set by the councils in that region during the summer of 2025. The cap is an hourly rate that includes employer's National Insurance and holiday pay and excludes the agency's own fee, so the figure you are quoted is close to what an umbrella or limited company worker receives before their own tax. The caps differ by region and by grade, with separate figures for social workers, senior practitioners and team managers. Ask any agency for the cap in the region you want to work in before you talk about anything else, because no council can go above it and bonuses cannot be used to get round it. A rate negotiated on a Friday afternoon because the team was desperate is no longer possible.
Notice is longer than you think
The guidance sets a four week notice period on agency assignments. A council can shorten it where its permanent staff in the same role have less, but four weeks is the default. If you wanted agency work for the freedom to walk away at short notice, plan for a month.
Project teams
Some agencies sell councils a whole team with its own manager. The guidance allows this only where the council approves each worker in advance, sees an itemised cost for each one, stays within the regional cap and keeps supervision, line management and case decisions in house. If a recruiter offers you a place on a managed team, ask who your supervisor will be and who signs off your case decisions. If the answer is the agency, the arrangement is not one the guidance permits.
Your registration is yours to keep
None of this changes your duty to Social Work England. Renewal runs from 1 September to 30 November every year, the fee for 2026 to 2027 is £122, and you must record at least two pieces of CPD, one with a peer reflection, before you apply. Agency workers miss this more often than permanent staff because no manager is chasing them. If your registration lapses on 1 December you cannot call yourself a social worker until it is restored, which costs £183, and no agency can place you in the meantime. Put the date in your diary now.
How you get paid
Most agency social workers are paid through an umbrella company or on PAYE with the agency. A few use their own limited company, though the public sector off payroll rules mean most council assignments are taxed as employment anyway. Since April 2026 the agency is liable for unpaid PAYE if the umbrella it uses fails to pay it, so expect the agency to give you a short list of approved umbrellas rather than letting you pick your own. Ask for the key information document before you accept an assignment. It must show how the headline rate becomes your take home pay, and we explained how to read one in our piece on agency pay.
What to do this week
Count your post qualifying years in an English council children's team. Ask two managers whether they will give a practice based reference. Work out which region you are leaving and where you can work after three months. Then ask an agency for the cap in that region and for the key information document. If those four things line up, agency social work can be what your colleague described.
Flamingo Workforce supplies social workers to local authorities and health and social care trusts across the UK on the terms above. Our current social work vacancies are on our social work page and you can register with us in a few minutes.