UK children's social workers have more responsibility and a wider remit than their European counterparts, according to a new report. A report carried out by the Thomas Coram Research Unit drew on two studies of work with children and families in various European countries such as: Denmark, France and Germany.

The report found that many European social workers' responsibilities were shared between several highly trained professionals in therapeutic work, while social workers in England were in charge of case management and direct contact with families.

One of the author's of the report, June Statham has called for a fundamental reassessment of what social workers can and should be expected to do, she said: "Debate tends to focus on the best split between case management and face-to-face time with families," she said. "But a better question to ask might be, is it reasonable to expect social workers in England to do a job that is shared among members of multi-professional graduate teams in other European countries?"

In England social workers mostly work with other staff such as: support staff or social work assistants, family support workers and sessional workers.

The report also found that child psychologists in the UK mainly work in seperate child and adolescent mental health services and educational psychology teams, and in Europe child psychologists are based within multi-disciplinary social services teams.