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Every day our social care workforce provides vital care to hundreds of thousands of people. Every day social workers change people's lives and protect thousands from harm. Older people, disabled people, people in harm's way, vulnerable people are all supported by one of society's most important workforces.

That workforce needs to grow, has to be better trained, has to be better motivated and has to be respected in our communities.

To this end, the government launched a national social work recruitment campaign to demonstrate the scope and breadth of a social worker's role and reflect the areas in which social workers operate. So far we have received more than 50,000 calls to the dedicated helpline with a similar number of people visiting the website www.socialworkcareers.co.uk.  We are also beginning to see an increase in applications to study social work, a rise of 6.3 per cent in 2002-3, reversing the previous five-year decline. The next phase of the social work recruitment campaign begins this month; and in January 2004 we shall look to TV advertising as an integral part of a new campaign to promote social care workers.

It is encouraging to report that vacancy rates for all local council social care posts in England fell from 9.4 per cent in 2001 to 6.0 per cent in 2002. However, we still face vacancy rates of more than 9 per cent among children's social workers. The proposals in the green paper Every Child Matters that address recruitment and retention and other staffing issues will build on previous work and help to establish a workforce that can provide the services that children and families need.

Importantly, we should not underestimate the effect raising the status of social work as a profession could have on recruitment and retention. The establishment of the General Social Care Council was a major part of this strategy. It has already published the first national codes of practice for social care workers and their employers and is now working on the registration of social workers. The introduction of a student bursary combined with the new three-year degree level qualification in social work are also key initiatives to raise the profile and appeal of this profession.

We also need to completely revamp employment and pay structures and modernise the social care workforce in the way Agenda for Change is revolutionising the NHS workforce.

It won't be easy. Unlike the NHS, the government does not have direct responsibility for recruitment and retention issues or direct input to pay negotiations within social care, as these are the responsibility of individual employers. But what we can do is to get employers, employees and unions talking about what is needed, discussing what will unblock recruitment and facing up to the employment challenges ahead.

Pay and conditions will have to be part of the discussions. The Local Government Pay Commission (LGPC) is now reviewing the pay structure in local authorities. The commission's terms of reference encompass the agendas of the employers and the trade unions. The LGPC proposals will be key but can only be part of a solution that will ultimately have to encompass the voluntary and private sectors as well. That is why every employer will have to face these issues and why every employee needs to join the debate now.

The government does have some indirect influence, such as the setting of council grants and the dissemination of best practice. It is also working with councils, private and voluntary sector employers to build upon and share effective employment policies and procedures, which take account of the whole package offered to staff.

Government has also provided record funding increases for personal social services. This is money that must be used to drive up the quality and availability of services as well as making sure that social care is an attractive career option. That means the debate cannot just focus on pay and conditions but must also take in key issues such as commissioning arrangements, service pricing and the modernisation of service delivery.

I have been a minister for only a few months. In that time I have been told that an agenda for change for the social care workforce is vital by directors of social services departments, voluntary sector chief executives, private employers and union representatives. If we are all agreed it's needed we have to get on and make it happen. Why? Because this is a workforce that society simply can't do without.

More pay, but for whom?  

The government is considering Ladyman's idea of paying more money to social workers who take on more complex cases. Natalie Valios gauges responses.  

Malcolm Jarman, senior practitioner, Weymouth and Portland Community Mental Health Trust, Dorset social and health services:"It has the potential to be divisive. Elitism could creep in where some people would be looking for status linked with cases and that doesn't feel comfortable. There are risks in defining tougher cases - is it because of the nature of risk, or vulnerability of client or complexity of case? I support the idea of a career grade for social workers. Senior practitioner roles have become linked with managerial responsibility so the only route for practitioners to progress is into management, rather than a more skilled and rewarded practitioner role."   

Mick Entwistle, social worker, children and disabilities, Bolton social services department:  "Who would be assessing which were the difficult cases? It will entail another tier of bureaucracy and assessment and, to me, it's a long, drawn-out process. It's not just about giving social workers more money and thinking everything will be rosy, it's about giving them more support and proper lines of management - that should be part of the government's thinking. They need incentives to recruit social workers and help people who may wish to do the social work course but do not have the finances. I was an engineer for 17 years and I had to take a 50 per cent cut in wages to get into social work. My son has just started the social work degree at 27 and has had to pack in his job. He has a bursary but that won't pay his  expenses, he can only do it because we are supporting him. If the government provided an indication of how it was going to support people it would make social work a more attractive option."   

Mavis Sawdy, service manager, children and families, Hampshire social services department: "How do you define a complex case, particularly when the government agenda is to move towards a more preventive strategy? You need highly skilled workers to deal with the non-complex end to stop a case becoming complex. Highly qualified staff make more demands of my time because they are more aware of the complexities, so they need more underpinning and guidance. The nature of the work is such that you need to be clear about what you are doing and you shouldn't be doing that in isolation. I suspect that the idea to pay more money for tougher cases is to bypass management - the assumption being that if you pay them more you can leave them to get on with the job. Paying more money should be enshrined in intelligent career structures. We should be paying social work staff more across the board and we need to reduce the discrepancy between salaries for managers and practitioners."   

Lesley Skinner, head of local government services, Employers' Organisation:  "Pay is really for local authorities to determine. Most councils are going through a pay and grading review at the moment and it is likely that there will be differences in pay between those doing more complex cases and those not. We would expect pay to reflect this factor. It's simple to talk about 'complex' cases, but grading has to be done by job evaluation to look at the complexities of that job - the skills needed and the demands it makes on the worker emotionally. It would be difficult to have a mix of national pay provision and local decisions. They don't always interact well. You wouldn't expect the same person to take on all the complex cases, it's not good management."