GOVERNMENT watchdogs have praised Southampton social services for its performance.

The Social Services Inspectorate and the Audit Commission reported that most of the city's residents are safe and there were "pockets of excellence" - such as an extremely good record in placing children for adoption - with 71 per cent of users happy with the care they receive.

But the department has also been told there are areas of its work that need to be improved.

Dr John Beer, pictured, executive director of social services, said: "Even where the review found areas of weakness, we found that in most cases we'd already identified these and were working on them, and in itself that is a strong endorsement of our actions."

The report comes in the wake of the Bridge Report into the death of Southampton two-year-old Jason Dorricott.

The Bridge Report criticised social services, the health authority and the police for missing warning signs and indicators of physical abuse which could have made Jason's life less traumatic.

The SSI and Audit Commission report, which was presented to the City Council's social services corporate committee on Friday, criticised the department for not providing enough care for the needy and had its competence to develop and sustain improved services thrown into question.

It said: "Southampton City Council needs to manage change better, become better informed about its performance and progress on meeting priorities if more people are to be well-served by good-quality services."

The report added that it "needs to balance its efforts better and focus on the gap between Southampton's aspirations to be a 'caring city' as part of the leading city vision and the daily experience of some people in the city not getting all the care that they need and that the authority would want them to have."

The report is part of a rolling programme of reviews of social services in each council.

It found Southampton currently limiting services for adults and older people not in desperate need.

It also found high numbers of children registered for short periods on the Child Protection Register.

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