Wood made the reference in an interview published in The Guardian on
Wednesday after being asked his thoughts on a group of academics who wrote an open letter opposing government plans to allow councils greater freedoms to outsource children's services.
"I don't take kindly to all these academics turning out crap social workers writing letters to The Guardian," he said.
That prompted The College of Social Work to release a statement saying the comments were "inappropriate" and that it was "dismayed" by them.
At the ADCS annual conference in Manchester this week, Wood told CYP Now he does have concerns about the quality of some social work training, but added that he could have expressed his sentiments better.
"It was not the most elegant or appropriate way of describing what is a very serious issue in terms of social workers, and if I have offended anybody by that, it was not my intention," he said.
"I'm an emotional guy, I get very passionate about things and sometimes say things in a very direct way," he added.
Wood said that the appointment of Isabelle Trowler as chief social worker, alongside the work of the ADCS's workforce development group, has given a "good shot in the arm" to the ongoing debate about the training and development of social workers.
Wood added that social work education required “the same thorough rethink” as initial teacher training, which he said had been “fundamentally rethought, restructured and reengineered".
"Of course one's going to be frustrated but I think we will move at pace".
Earlier this year, a report by government adviser Sir Martin Narey called for a number of measures to improve social work training.
He recommended that those applying for degree courses have at least 240
Ucas points - the equivalent of three C grades at A level - if they are to be accepted onto a course.
He also recommended that Isabelle Trowler should produce a single skills list that is used as the basis of all social work curricula.
