A new survey has revealed that most social workers working with children and families feel ill-equipped to do their job.

A study by Community Care magazine quizzed 200 social workers and more than half felt they and their colleagues had not been "adequately trained" to meet the demands placed upon them.

And 11 per cent felt they did not receive enough support from their manager when making difficult decisions about the welfare of children.

One in five social workers believe there are now more child abuse cases going undetected than five years ago due to shortages of resources and staff.

Parental drug use - particularly heroin - was cited by 80 per cent of social workers as a growing factor in child protection cases in the past five years. And one in three social workers believed sexual abuse was on the increase.