EIGHT allegations of abuse were made against members of education staff in Blaenau Gwent in the last quarter of 2014, a council report has revealed.

From October to December 2014, ten meetings were held following allegations of abuse relating to eight members of staff within education, and two relating to foster carers. The allegations against members of staff are ongoing.

A meeting of the Joint Blaenau Gwent Council Scrutiny Committee will today [Friday, April 1] receive a report entitled Safeguarding Performance Information Social Services.

The report was put together to show members of both the Education and Skills Committee and the Social Services and Active Living Committee information about where the authority may need to improve safeguarding.

Compiled by the corporate director of social services, Liz Majer, and the corporate director of education, Lynette Jones, the report presents the statistics between October and December last year.

Until recently, information on the council’s safeguarding was presented to individual committees but the council has now set up a joint scrutiny committee to better focus on the information.

In the final three months of 2014, social services received 1,214 referrals, including 821 child in need, 91 child protection cases and 302 referrals to universal services provided under Families First. This was up from 1,155 referrals in the quarter before.

The number of child protection referrals have also gone up from 59 to 91 – although this number is still less than it was in April to June 2014 when it stood at 100. The number of children on the child protection register has also decreased by one for the first time after a rise throughout last year. Forty one of those children on the register were categorised as in neglect cases, 43 in emotional abuse and five in physical abuse.

The report said: “Over the year we have seen substantial increase in those on the register for emotional abuse and a reduction for those under neglect as compared with previous figures.

“Overall the number of children on the register has increased from 50 to 90 during 2014. There is no specific reason behind this rise and this type of rise has been seen previously and the numbers have been higher in the past.”

The report also said: “There is also an increase in the number of referrals to universal services which is at it highest ever level and may reflect the closer working relationships between social services and Families First, Flying Start and Early Years.”

Of the 91 child protection referrals between October and December, 30 per cent were made by education, 32 per cent by the police and 21 per cent made by health. 10 per cent of referrals were made by individuals, four per cent by other agencies and the remainder made by other local authorities and social services.

The report also saw how Blaenau Gwent council is focusing on safeguarding training, with 246 staff across six schools being trained to level one in the last three months.

Blaenau Gwent council were contacted for comment.