The government recently pledged to plough £58m into bringing the 'best and the brightest' into the profession.
Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary wants to improve the standing of the profession, to attract a better standard of recruit and to retain experienced social workers in their jobs.
The move is in response to Lord Laming's independent review into the death of Baby P scandal, which identified weaknesses in the quality of social workers and found that many experienced social workers were leaving the profession in despair at growing bureaucracy and poor management.
A government target has now been set for 500 former social workers to be brought back to the profession and ministers are sponsoring 200 university places from September, so that "the brightest and highest achieving graduates" can take conversion courses to qualify as social workers.
Ed Balls also said public perceptions of social workers should change, and the profession's successes should be celebrated more often.
His action plan has been broadly welcomed by people working in social work.
Stuart Gallimore, is director of Operations Children and Young People at West Sussex County Council, which is recruiting an additional 20 social workers.
He said: "I welcome the government's efforts to encourage people to return to the profession and to sell social work as a profession to people. Similar moves in recent years worked really well with teaching and nursing."
However, he warns that although the government's response to Laming's review will help in the long term, local authorities need to fill vacancies right now.
"The problem is there will be a time lag between getting people on courses and into practice. There is a real shortage of social workers with people retiring or being promoted.
"There's also another pressure – negative press attention in cases like Baby P. Only a third of people doing social work courses go on to practise social work. People are asking themselves if they want to become a social worker and risk exposing themselves to that kind of attention."
Gallimore would like to see a change in the way social workers are perceived by the public and hopes Ed Ball's action plan will help persuade more people that this is a rewarding profession.
"There's no two ways about it – it is a challenging job. But I've been doing this for 25 years and never at any point have I regretted my decision to go into social work.
"It gives you the opportunity to profoundly impact on the lives of children and their families. I often meet young people who tell me their life chances have been significantly enhanced by being looked after. That's the sort of thing that picks you up again.
"I'm not overstating the situation when I say that some children are alive today because of the timely intervention of social workers into families that were too dangerous to continue to care for those children.
"And there are families that are still together where, had it not been for the timely intervention of social workers, the child would have been removed.
"That's the sort of thing that still brings people into social work and keeps them coming into their work every day. There aren't a lot of other jobs that provide that level of satisfaction."
Paul Engelmann, 42, changed his career as an engineer with the RAF to become a social worker because he wanted to make a difference to children's lives.
"I love it – it's the most rewarding job I've ever done," says Engelmann, a father-of-two whose role as a foster carer led him to change careers three years ago from an engineer with the RAF to social work via an Open University degree.
He worked with children and families in Scotland before taking up his post with West Sussex County Council in April this year.
"I don't think anyone realises just how difficult the job is because of the pressure on resources and the lack of social workers. But all the social workers I have met have real integrity."
He sees his job as protecting children – whether that means removing them from their families or helping parents to make changes so the child can remain at home.
Engelmann admits the job can be incredibly hard and that he finds it difficult to switch off from the most difficult cases. What keeps him going is the conviction that his work is making a significant difference to children's lives.
"One of my cases was a single mother who was a drug user and whose boyfriend was a dealer and she had started dealing. Her two children's attendance at school was down to around 65 per cent. The grandparents came to the rescue and it was amazing to see the kind of stability that living with them gave the children, whose attendance at school went up to 100 per cent.
"With our support the mother went into detox and into three-month residential support. When I left my previous job to come here she had been clean for seven months, the 16-year-old daughter was sitting her Higher exams and the children were starting to make overnight visits.
"It's wonderful to see the change in children like that – they start to put on weight, they go to school every day, they do a lot better socially and start making friends. They get some stability into their lives, which have been so chaotic, and they thrive."
So, what kind of qualities does it take to survive in this tough and demanding profession?
Stuart Gallimore says: "You need to be passionate and have a high level of resilience. You won't take no for answer because often you'll meet obstacles and won't see the level of change you'd anticipated.
"You also have to be grounded and be able to make difficult decisions. Although you want to see the best in people and believe in people's capacity to change, some people won't change or can't in the timescale that's needed for their children.
"You need to have the strength of character to not lose sight of the child's needs. You need to be a clear thinker, well organised and a good communicator.
"Most important of all you've got to want to work with and like children and young people in what is a really challenging but rewarding job."
This article is sponsored by the West Sussex county council
