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Government plans to remodel the children's workforce along the lines followed by the teaching profession must not undermine the role of social workers, staff representatives have warned.

Proposals to give social workers more time to "concentrate on the complex work that needs their skills," are in the children's workforce strategy, which cites the changes in schools including the increased work done by classroom assistants as an example that may be followed. But the National Union of Teachers has argued that this is a money-saving exercise to replace teachers with less-qualified support staff.

British Association of Social Workers director Ian Johnston warned that remodelling should not be used as a way of replacing social workers or of dealing with the recruitment problems in the profession. But he said a model which made the best use of social workers' skills and involved support from one or two assistants could be "quite attractive".

Caroline Abrahams, director of public policy at children's charity NCH, said remodelling should be seen as "an opportunity not a threat". She said the policy could mean the recruitment of more family support workers who would provide practical help to children and families.

But she warned that proposals to introduce social pedagogues, who would provide overall education, health and social care support, particularly to looked-after children, must not be at the expense of specialist social workers. The children's workforce needed both specialists and generalists, and pedagogues should work alongside children's social workers and not be an alternative to them, Abrahams said.

The strategy also suggests that social workers be given the role of "lead professionals" in which they would manage the relationship between different agencies where multiple interventions were needed.

Having a lead professional was a good idea and could be a useful contact for other services such as schools but they need not necessarily be a social worker, Abrahams said.