The Welsh Assembly is launching a bid to solve a recruitment crisis which is leaving a shortage of social workers.

Politicians will examine the results of an investigation which found a fifth of residential care workers were quitting each year and employers were getting fewer applicants.

Low pay, criticism from the media and lack of career progression, are all blamed for the shortfall, as members of the Health and Social Services Committee will hear on Wednesday.

A taskforce established to look in to the crisis is due to report to the committee after it was given �500,000 to tackle the problem.

Assembly members have to stem the tide of employees leaving the profession. Twenty per cent of residential carers leave each year and the figure is slightly higher in private homes.

Staff shortfall

The care sector employs 70,000 people and, in the last five years there has been a 16 per cent increase in the workforce.

But with growth now estimated at between two and three per cent until 2006, the authorities will have to search for 2,000 new recruits every year.

AMs will be told that child care has been hit particularly hard after the stress of heavy workloads and media criticism in high-profile cases prompted carers to quit. Some disenchanted carers leave for part-time work in agencies.

Some local authorities, such as Caerphilly, have offered extra pay and other incentives to plug gaps, but they cannot fill the demand.

The taskforce is likely to recommend more cash is spent on a campaign to boost the image of carers and on extra training.