Social work jobs and social work assistants are desperately needed to work within the social sector despite its 10 per cent staff increase recently.

A survey by the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) which was published this week, covered the period from the end of 2007 to the end of 2009 and revealed that although councils have seen an average 21 per cent rise in most safeguarding social work activities, staff are still needed to work in this area.

Half of the councils surveyed had at least one managerial or social worker vacancy in teams responsible for initial child protection contacts and assessments, with just one in three having social worker assistant or administrator positions available.

Incoming president of the ADCS, Marion Davis said: "It is clear from the 10 per cent increase in staffing that councils are aware of increasing pressures and are taking steps to increase the number of staff dealing with child protection concerns; but councils have not been able to keep pace with the dramatic rise in demand. The rises are in every part of the system, from the front door to the family courts and we believe this shows that this is not a knee-jerk reaction to high profile cases, but rather that agencies are getting better at identifying those children who require extra support."

The ADCS plans to do further analysis of the reasons for referrals and the ages of the children and young people affected in order to estimate cost implications for local authorities.