Members of staff at Cardiff County Council face changes to their rights of appeal against dismissal or relegation following a meeting on Thursday.

Instead of their appeals being heard by a panel of councillors, as had previously been the case, the appeals of officers below chief officer level will now be heard by one of the authority's corporate managers.

The change in the arrangements for appeals was one of the recommendations of the recent joint review report into the council's social services.

The changes were approved at the council's employment committee meeting on Thursday.

Neil White was sacked from Cardiff council

It follows a year in which two senior social work managers have been sacked and council social services heavily criticised.

Neil White, a former officer sacked for challenging social service provision, has said the proposals are unfair.

Mr White was fired after he refused to discipline an employee at a council-run home in Cardiff, who alleged elderly residents there had been mistreated.

He has taken his case to an industrial tribunal.

Four months earlier, another manager, Charles Faber, was sacked for financial mismanagement.

His dismissal came after he raised concerns in a BBC Wales documentary about the effect on vulnerable children of staff shortages in social services.

However, an industrial tribunal later unanimously decided that Mr Faber was fairly dismissed for financial mismanagement by Cardiff County Council, not for whistleblowing as he had claimed.

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In the original story published on the Wales index of BBC News Online on Thursday 19 December, we mistakenly reported that Mr Charles Faber was dismissed by Cardiff County Council for raising concerns about social services in a BBC Wales documentary.

We are happy to make it clear that this was incorrect and that Mr Faber was dismissed by Cardiff County Council for financial mismanagement. This decision was upheld by an employment tribunal in November.