The union's revelation comes in the wake of the Channel 4 Dispatches programme, Undercover Social Worker, which exposed problems in the council's massively overstretched children's social care department.
The programme followed John, a seemingly inexperienced family support worker who was given responsibility for child protection cases, which should have been allocated to a fully qualified social worker.
Helga Pile, Unison's national officer for social care, said severe workload and recruitment problems have troubled Surrey County Council for years. But she warned that many councils are similarly overstretched.
"Many of the problems that dog Surrey council highlighted in the programme are by no means unique to them," she said. "There is a real shortage of qualified social workers and that means that newly qualified staff and support workers are often put on the frontline without the necessary experience or support needed to deal with complex child protection cases."
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