The government is employing social work professionals to assist social workers, Minister for Social Policy Michael Falzon told The Malta Independent.

On Friday the minister was asked for a reaction as to the latest statement by the Social Work Profession Board, which said on Friday that it has taken note of the current debate around the profession of social work and would like to express its most serious concern to the emergent issue related to non-professionals acting as social workers.

"The government is hiring social work professionals, who are not social workers but are social work professionals to help with the social workers' workload." There is a distinction, he said, between such professionals and warranted social workers.

Last week, the minister denied that government is recruiting unqualified social workers, but rather is employing social welfare professionals who are there to assist.

In turn, the Maltese Association of Social Workers has contradicted Falzon, insisting that "unqualified people" are getting employed as social workers. In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Nationalist MP Graziella Attard Previ had said that state agencies for social workers are having to resort to 'quick fixes' to address the significant shortage of social workers in the country, by bringing in unqualified persons for the role.

"We cannot forget that the government employs all social workers who graduate from the university" he said.

Additionally, he said that the lack of social workers is not only a problem in Malta as a country, but is also present in foreign countries.

He said that social work professionals have been hired to assist social workers "as they are also qualified in humanities" rather than to do the job of a social worker.

Asked whether he had been in talks recently with the aforementioned board, he said that when a board is governed by laws "the ministry should not interfere". However he said that he has been in talks with them more than once but could not recollect when the last meeting was held.