The council says it has had a remarkable success

Glasgow City Council, which reported more than four of every 10 posts were vacant, said it has recruited 100 qualified social workers in six months. However, unions are sceptical about how the city council has achieved this.

The authority maintains that it has not offered cash incentives to poach social workers from other councils.

More cash

In September 2003 vacancies in Glasgow City Council's Children and Family services department were 43%. They are now 11.5%.

Director of Social Work, David Comley, said the fall in vacancies was down to a massive advertising campaign, a reshaping of the service to put managers back into the front line and offering help to unqualified support staff to pass professional exams.

He denied that it has poached staff from other authorities by offering more cash.

But the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) said Glasgow had increased pay scales and a number of staff have left jobs in other authorities.

Mr Comley said a major restructuring had taken place

Ruth Stark of the BASW said it was "wonderful" for Glasgow but it had been at the expense of the other authorities.

She said: "At the present moment there is only a limited pot of qualified social workers and they are naturally attracted to the jobs that pay more and offer better conditions of service."

"People have moved from other authorities to be paid as much as �6,000 more than they were doing exactly the same job somewhere else."

She called for a national agreement covering all local authorities.

Mr Comley said: "We have avoided getting into a bidding war with other authorities. This is a fundamental restructuring of the way we do the business in Glasgow.