STAFF working for Wiltshire Social Services have been praised by their boss after Wiltshire received a high rating in a national league table.

In the first league table of Social Services, Wiltshire County Council was given a performance rating of two stars. The top rating was three stars.

Wiltshire was one of 50 local authorities to receive two stars. Eight councils received three, 82 received one star and ten received no stars.

Swindon Borough Council was one of those which received a zero rating.

Annie Hudson, the acting director of Wiltshire County Council's Social Services department, said the two-star rating reflected the efforts of staff.

She said: "We are delighted with the two-star rating which means we are amongst the best county council Social Services in the country.

"I am pleased the hard work of staff to deliver good quality services to the people of Wiltshire within our limited resources has been recognised."

Ms Hudson said she was not concerned Wiltshire had not achieved three stars.

"Everybody would want to be the best and only eight authorities got three stars," she said. "Getting a two-star rating is a positive endorsement about the children's and adults' services that we provide.

"It also recognises the quality of our staff and the partnerships we have with other agencies, including health and education, and the way Wiltshire does very actively involve users and carers in shaping services."

The ratings were given by officials at the Department of Health in London who analysed statistics provided to them by all the councils.

The department looked at two main criteria: Whether councils were serving people well and what the prospects for improvement were.

In Wiltshire the inspectors found in services for children the council was serving most people well, with promising prospects. In services for adults the council was serving some people well, with promising prospects.

The inspectors said that performance in 60 per cent of the indicators was either good or very good and the remainder were average.

The performance indicators included performance of fostering and adoption, the health and education of children under the care of Social Services, inspection of children's homes and residential care homes, reviews of child protection cases and the number of adults with learning disabilities helped to live at home.

The inspectors did not identify any areas of performance that required urgent action or special monitoring.

Among the areas noted for improvement by the inspectors was home care.

"Compared to some authorities the inspectors say that perhaps we are not getting enough home care out to enough people," Ms Hudson said.

"We have an excellent in-house home care service and we also purchase from the independent sector.

"The issues we face are sometimes having resources available and having home carers for particular needs.

"The inspectors are expecting us to improve on our proportion of resources into home care.

"What the inspectors have raised is not an issue with the quality of the service we provide but about the volume.

"There is some really good practice going on and we need to build on that."

Wiltshire County Council is undertaking consultation over proposals to tender out some learning disability services and close some residential homes following a Best Value review. Ms Hudson said the proposals are a bid to improve services and not to save money.

Decisions on changes will be made by the council's cabinet in November.