Ms Clare Murphy:

There are certain statutory functions, such as those relating to court and taking children into care, that can only be done by a professionally registered social worker, but there are many other functions that are well able to be done by childcare workers who are professionally trained. Although we have always employed childcare workers, one of the things we have had to do in the context of the deficit in social work is to look at the tasks that were traditionally done by a social worker but are within the competence and capability of social care workers. We have allocated those pieces of work to social care workers. There are no social care workers doing tasks that can only be done by a professional qualified social worker, however.