We fail to attract people of high calibre into an undervalued profession

Ruth Stark, BASW

The BASW has also warned that experienced staff in their mid-40s have been leaving the profession through stress-related illnesses.

Ruth Stark of the association said: "The recruitment crisis, which has for a number of years been the hallmark of services in England and Wales, is already beginning to be felt in parts of Scotland.

"I know of some local authorities where social work services are 25% understaffed.

Bigger workloads

"We fail to attract people of high calibre into an undervalued profession and we are losing people in their mid-40s through stress-related illness.

"Services fit for people to use need to have a valued workforce."

On Tuesday, BASW representatives gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's local government committee on the first stage of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced last month.

A number of cases are having to be put on hold

Association members work across the spectrum of social work services, in everything from local authority services to voluntary independent social work provision.

It has more than 1000 members in Scotland and is the largest organisation representing social work and social workers in the UK.

The association said that particular areas were at crisis point - including childcare services where staff were taking on larger workloads rather than doing long-term or preventative work.

Mrs Stark said: "Child, family and mental health teams are struggling to get staff and it is because this is the hard-nosed end of social work.

Complex cases

"We are losing staff who are experienced in these areas and ending up with young social workers dealing with very difficult, complex cases.

"Urban areas have difficulties getting child and family workers and it is also a problem attracting social workers to the Highlands where they may have to do a lot of travelling."

Staff are working in some difficult areas

She said: "We hear politicians talking about investment in health and education but we very rarely hear them talk about investment in social work.

"BASW seeks an independent scrutineer that will safeguard social work service users in all sectors and instil a confidence and integrity in the large workforce who are in general in receipt of low wages and working long and difficult hours."

The executive said it was developing its education and training package to help overcome recruitment problems.

A spokeswoman said: "We are aware that some authorities are experiencing recruitment difficulties but these are not across the board."