Social workers could be recruited from Hong Kong to ease an ongoing shortage in Carmarthenshire. Councillors were told that the social worker course in the former British colony was delivered in English and recognised in Wales.
The overseas option has underlined how difficult Carmarthenshire Council is finding it to employ qualified and experienced staff. Addressing a meeting of the education and children scrutiny committee, service manager Noreen Jackman said: "Social worker vacancies is a problem nationwide. And it is a crisis. The Welsh Government are looking at how they can support local authorities with it."
Ms Jackman co-authored a report which said staffing pressures combined with a rising number of referrals to children's services could result in more child protection cases and more young people taken into care. The impact of staff shortages and increasing workload on existing employees, it said, was a concern.
