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Government plans for all child protection workers to gain a new post-qualifying award in child care could fail unless staff replacement forms part of the training equation.

The warning from the British Association of Social Workers follows last week's revelation by national training organisation TOPSS that it is to pilot the new course from this June.

The award was outlined in last year's social services White Paper, which said it would "enable 7,000 social workers engaged in child care and child protection work to achieve a new post-qualifying award".

But BASW's assistant director Graham Fanti said that while the organisation has long campaigned for an accreditation of this kind, detailed planning is needed to ensure jobs are covered while staff undergo training.

"One of the things we have to recognise in social work is that there is considerable pressure on social workers which makes it difficult for them to go away and train," said Fanti.

"It's not just about training costs but about the staff replacement time and it's quite clear that there is difficulties in getting staff released for training," he said.

The Association of Directors of Social Services agreed that the DipSW was insufficient preparation for staff working in the specialist field of child care. But directors with a responsibility to cover the training costs of social work staff are concerned that any new qualification in child care measures up to the demands of the current job requirements.

ADSS president Chris Davies said: "It is us as employers that need to be convinced it is taken forward in the right way. As long as it is pursued in consultation with us, we would want to support it as it will make a difference."

Jennifer Bernard, chief executive of social work training council CCETSW said it will be open to the new council whether it wishes to recommend the training scheme to the Secretary of State for accreditation.

However, she warned directors not to wait for an accreditation decision to back the new award. "It is going to be a brave director of social services that ignores this."