THE social services department at Blaenau Gwent council "stabilised and improved" over the last year.

That is according to the first annual report of the Advisory Board - which was set up in March last year after a damning report of children's services by the Social Services Inspectorate of Wales and the Audit Commission.

There are still said to be challenges facing the authority, however.

A report from the advisory board, which is to be presented to a meeting of the full council this week, says the department underwent a "significant period of turmoil" when the board was first formed.

It says that a poor joint review in 2003, followed by the damning children's services review in March 2004, created an environment in which staff morale was low and the service was approaching "crisis point".

There was also "low internal and external confidence in the ability to stabilise the performance of the service".

Since then, however, the board says the authority has addressed its senior management capacity problems and has recruited a "strong" senior management team.

A new social services director, Philip Hodgson, took up his post earlier this year.

The board says there has also been a stabilisation and subsequent improvement in performance indicator data - and that there have been positive reflections from the chief inspector of social services in his last briefing to the Assembly.

The report also adds that the social services budget has been stabilised. Councillor John Hopkins, leader of Blaenau Gwent local authority, said: "We are very pleased with the progress and are committed to continuing this improvement journey."