Peter Clarke says more people must be attracted to social work

Mr Clarke unveiled his third annual report on Tuesday.

In it he said some children who are "at risk" may have no access to a social worker.

Bullying was also identified as a key issue in the report and Mr Clarke said the subject came up frequently in his conversations with children.

In the report, Mr Clarke said some vulnerable children are in danger because they do not have a trusted adult in their lives.

He added that others are passed between up to three workers a year, preventing them from building good relationships with any of them.

There is a crisis - a serious crisis that does need to be addressed Paul Elliot, Unison Cymru Wales

Mr Clarke argued the shortage of social workers in Wales is so critical, it constitutes "an emergency".

He suggested that to attract more people to the profession, there should be a review of pay and conditions and blames a perceived negative portrayal of social workers in the media for adding to the problem.

The union, which represents the majority of the 3,000 social workers in Wales, welcomed Mr Clarke's decision to highlight the problems faced by the profession.

Paul Elliot, head of local government for Unison Cymru Wales, said attracting new recruits was a stumbling block.

Graduates looking for their first jobs might feel that the starting salaries - varying from �20,000 to �24,000 - were not sufficient for a job which carried so much responsibility, he said.

Mr Elliot thought some potential candidates might also be discouraged from applying because of high-profile cases in which social workers had been criticised for missing signs of abuse in vulnerable children.

"There is a crisis - a serious crisis that does need to be addressed," he told BBC Radio Wales.

Salaries increased

"Local authorities have difficulties attracting people into social work, and the publicity surrounding the Victoria Climbie case and other cases have put a lot of people off," he explained.

Some local authorities in Wales had been forced to offer additional salary increments to attract candidates, he said. But that meant other authorities had to follow suit, and did not address the main problem.

Mr Elliot said more needed to be done to make social work an attractive career, and that meant reviewing salaries, and improving training and support mechanisms for new staff.

Gary Birch, chairman of the Association of Directors of Social Services in Wales, said some local authorities had been forced to recruit from abroad.

"It's a serious challenge within Wales, and each local authority is trying its very best to recruit and retain social workers," he said.

In some areas, however, the number of graduates applying for places on social work courses was greater than the number of places available.

Another major part of the Children Commissioner's report will address the problem of bullying - highlighted recently by the tragic death of Laura Rhodes, from Neath, south Wales, who took an overdose after being continually bullied.

'Miserable lives'

"Bullying is a subject that almost always comes up during my conversations with children and young people," Mr Clarke said.

"For some, it makes their lives a misery to the point of contemplating suicide.

"For others, it becomes a daily round of bitter endurance, the effects of which will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

"The study I shall be undertaking will of course look at preventative policies and procedures, but the most valuable data is likely to come from children and young people themselves.

"We will be focusing in particular on their experiences, views and recommendations on what works, to ensure that future action by all concerned is productively focused."

The document, Mr Clarke's third annual report since taking up his post as Children's Commissioner for Wales in 2001, covers the period 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004.