THE new director of Blaenau Gwent social services today vowed to turn his crisis-hit department around within 18 months.

In his first interview since taking up the post, Philip Hodgson said his aim was to be the envy of other social services.

It follows a damning report by the National Assembly which said the department was failing the most vulnerable children.

Mr Hodgson, 54, said: "Improvement has been steady and that has been recognised by the social services inspectorate of Wales.

"I'm confident in the future we will be the subject of envious glances from neighbouring social services authorities.

"I think regulators will want to see a sustained period of improvement before taking us off special measures which could take a year to 18 months.

"If we get the all-clear before that timescale is up it will be a bonus."

Mr Hodgson said a £2.78 million increase in the social services budget of £25 million next year would help.

His plans for improvement include:

Beating the national problem of recruitment and retention with a 'grow your own' policy - exploiting local knowledge and expertise and bringing people in to be trained and qualified on the job

Continuing to improve the process of completing core assessments and child reviews on time

Prevent so many "difficult and challenging" children entering the 'looked after' system when they re-offend by encouraging troubled children in their interests and talents

There are currently 195 children being 'looked after' by Blaenau Gwent's children's services and Mr Hodgson said increased investment would allow for 16 new foster carer posts, eight of which have been filled.

Quarterly inspections made by the social services inspectorate for Wales have indicated small improvements but inspectors say there is still work to be done.

Today sees the first of these reports since Mr Hodgson took charge.

It commends the authority on "considerable progress" but repeats that further improvement is needed "to ensure basic safeguards are securely in place".

The 2003 report found "unacceptable weaknesses" in the authority's handling of children including missed reviews of foster parents, records of visits to children in care not being updated or filed properly and incomplete assessments.