BLAENAU Gwent children's services has failed to deal with six high priority cases of 19 identified as requiring urgent attention more than a year ago.

And children's commissioner for Wales Peter Clarke has said he is "losing sleep" over the welfare of vulnerable children in the county.

The social services authority, currently being monitored on a quarterly basis after a report in May, 2003 found "unacceptable weaknesses" in practice, was top of Jane Hutt's agenda in her report to the Health and Social Services committee.

The Assembly health minister received a damning update on the state of the department from Social Services Inspectorate Wales (SSIW) chief inspector Graham Williams.

Mr Williams reported that progress made up to July 31 was "disappointing and slow" but commended interim social services director Dr Sue Ross who had made small improvements since taking up her role in April.

But the report told a gloomy story. Of 19 cases picked out by the SSIW last year as urgently requiring attention, six involving a total of eight children had still not been signed off. Problems with these six cases included confidential documents missing from children's files, a lack of regular visits from social workers, and an "insufficient" care plan for a child with complex needs.

The report went on: "A significant number of children on the child protection register and looked after children still do not have an allocated social worker and the general quality of assessment and case management remains poor."

Committee members attacked Blaenau Gwent's lack of progress, accusing the county of "not adequately protecting its children" and Mrs Hutt said the problems were "deep seated".

The minister said: "I remain concerned about social services in Blaenau Gwent. I will receive regular reports and meet the leader of the council again in January."

Assistant children's commissioner for Wales Sara Reid said: "Issues for concern still blight Blaenau Gwent social services. We feel very strongly about the ongoing development of these youngsters."

But Dr Ross said: "The six outstanding cases are all dealt with. Blaenau Gwent has alerted the SSIW to that and await their confirmation." She said that all 65 children on the at risk register now had a social worker and of the 197 looked after children, six were currently not allocated to a social or support worker.