Morale in adult social work is 'high', DH claims

"I can't speak for children's social care, but I've travelled around the country and found morale is high at the moment," he said.

"There's a positive feeling about the future; all of the social workers I've spoken to are really positive about the Social Work Task Force, positive about the interim report and about the work they are doing to come up with solutions to strengthen the profession."

Mason pointed to examples of successful multi-agency working in Stoke on Trent, where social workers specialising in dementia have teamed up with community psychiatric nurses, and in Wakefield, where practitioners work with occupational therapists, where practitioners were enjoying sharing their expertise other professions.

"They're really pleased about the difference they can make," he said.

The upbeat assessment conflicts with the findings of a report published by Unison in August, which found adult social work practitioners and managers were being put under severe strain due to lack of resources.

A Community Care investigation into vacancies in local authority social work departments in England found that as of as of 31 January 2009, vacancy rates in adult social work were marginally lower than children's, with 12% of adults' posts unfilled compared with 13% of children's.

Meanwhile, the taskforce is examining ways of improving all aspects of the profession across children's and adult services in England.

An interim report in July said that it would set out recommendations for long-term reform in its final report, due out next month.

However, it listed a number of "pressing issues" which managers should deal with immediately, including "staffing, the workplace environment, supervision, and morale".