Councils and recruiters struggling to fill social care jobs will soon face a much different situation as 40,000 people have registered to become part of the social services since September 2009.

The Times reports that the Children's Workforce Development Council's (CWDC) plan to solve the recruitment crisis in social work jobs has been a resounding success. The CWDC aimed to attract people from different backgrounds into the profession, and a vast majority of the 40,000 are reportedly people looking to switch from their existing career.

Astonishingly, thousands of people reportedly registered in a single day this month. On Tuesday the fifth of January, just one day after the country returned to work, some 5,000 applicants signed up to the CWDC programme.

The CWDC programme is just one effort that the government and individual local authorities have been pursuing to encourage people to return to or enter social work. High-profile incidents and negative media headlines have had a devastating affect on the profession. Since 2005 there has been a 30% increase in the number of vacant social work posts; 1 in 7 such posts are vacant in England.

Last spring, the Local Government Association launched a campaign to attract 5,000 qualified social workers who had retired recently to re-enter the profession, specifically in the children's services. This has been the sector of social work hardest hit by staff vacancies, with some councils even turning to overseas recruitment to fill posts in their most desperate hours. Another programme to encourage people to join the profession is the "step up to social work" scheme. This allows people who currently work with children to take part in a shorter training scheme to become qualified social workers.

Speaking on behalf of the CWDC, the organisation's director of strategy Keith Brumfitt said: "I think the public sees that this is a profession where things are changing, getting better and, of course, is hugely rewarding."