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Employment agencies are calling on the government and councils to give them greater support when recruiting social workers from developing countries, writes Derren Hayes.

Some agencies believe the government should provide councils with central funding to help pay for the initial costs of settling-in social workers from poorer countries, similar to the way the NHS provides accommodation for nurses from the Philippines and parts of Africa.

With social worker vacancy rates still running at 20 per cent in some areas, local authorities are increasingly looking to bring in overseas workers.

For some time, staff have been brought in from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and more recently from South Africa and India. But some argue there is an untapped resource in other parts of the developing world.

Lawrence Perry, who runs Dolma International Placement Corporation, said there is a surplus of thousands of trained social workers in the Philippines who could be recruited. However, Perry said there had been little interest from councils or agencies because of the difficulty in finding them affordable accommodation.

An employment expert at the Philippines embassy in London said it had verified only one contract to recruit social workers, whereas 25,000 Filipino nurses work in the NHS.

But Philip Poole, a director of international agency Synergy Recruitment, said the red tape involved in recruiting from the Philippines is a hindrance – workers need a job offer before they can get a visa, whereas those from Commonwealth countries can enter on two-year working visas.

“There’s easier places to recruit from,” he added.

Richard Bloom, who runs socialworkrecruitment.com, recruited around 70 social workers from Zimbabwe two years ago. He loaned them between £1,000-3,500 each to get settled, but some are still paying the money back.

“The complexities of bringing them over and making sure they can cope meant we had to charge councils 25 per cent of their salaries. Most aren’t prepared to do that, but the long term benefits are great because they are hard working and loyal.”

• The General Social Care Council is to phase out its letter of verification to accredit overseas social workers formal qualifications from 30 April, after which they will be required to apply to the social work register.