A COUNCILLOR has said he is 'disgusted' that a Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) report on Blaenau Gwent council's provision of children's services has yet to come before the local authority for discussion.

The report was published on the CIW website on June 29 and revealed that council staff were battling against 'unsustainable' rates of increases in the amount of children coming into its care.

The CIW report said a self-assessment by the council described the "current rate of increase in looked after children numbers as unsustainable from a workforce and budgetary position".

Praise was also given to the council's "committed workforce" who were responding to an increased workload in the report.

But at a full council meeting on Thursday, Cllr Stephen Thomas (Labour, Tredegar Central & West ward) questioned why councillors had not been sent the report.

Cllr Thomas said the first he heard about the report was when he read a news article about it.

He said: "I do not think any members received a copy of that report.

"There was a comment made by this council in a self-assessment that the number of children coming into care was 'unsustainable.'

"That clearly should be a highlight.

"One of the major parts of being a councillor is to look after the most vulnerable.

"I am disgusted in a sense that this report has not come up."

Damian McCann, corporate director of social services at the council, said there had not been time to schedule the item on to the social services scrutiny committee agenda yet but that it is planned to discuss the issue in September.

Mr McCann said the council is now implementing a three-year pilot scheme to recruit specialist foster carers and that the benefits of the scheme are starting to be felt.