SWINDON Council has gone to great lengths to recruit new employees.

Eight social workers have been brought from the USA to work for the Social Services department, which two weeks ago was awarded a one-star rating by the Government after years in the doldrums.

The cost of recruiting each worker from the States was £4,000 but the council reckons that this represents good value at a time when there is a national shortage of qualified social workers.

Ian Dobie, lead member for Social Services, said: "The shortage of social workers is a national problem and affects all authorities.

"This is recognised by the Government, who have increased the training of social workers, but it takes three years for one to be qualified and in the meantime we need to fill in the gap.

"We have a duty to protect people and our sole focus is to do our best for children and young people at risk, so no stone was left unturned to recruit the best social workers we could, regardless of where they came from."

A spokeswoman for Swindon Council said the new arrivals all have Masters degrees and their appointment followed an advertising campaign in the UK, which had produced no responses.

Coun Dobie (Con, Haydon Wick) said: "They are highly qualified and our systems are very similar, so we can probably learn something from them. They are adapting quickly and language is not a problem. I don't see this as any different as a company like Honda trying to recruit the best. It costs around £8,000 for an advertisement in the professional publication and we spent about £35,000 trying to recruit here with no result."

Stan Pajak (Lib Dem, Eastcott) said: "It's hard to believe the council has invested so much money in it.

"Also there are differences between social work here, and in the US, where they have more powers. But I'm not criticising the people themselves. It's quite possible they could give us a new perspective."