A REPORT has shed a light on the impact of the pandemic on some Southampton children.

The effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on the education of a number of city youngsters identified as being "of greater vulnerability" is yet to be established.

The news comes as an Ofsted report into Southampton City Council's Children's Services has also found that the health and well-being needs of "many care leavers" in the city are not known because their personal advisers have not been in contact with them "for many months".

The council said the ability to visit all children during the pandemic has been "challenging" but "this is being addressed as the lockdown ceases".

Watchdogs said the council made "good progress" and several improvements have been highlighted.

But they also said that workloads for social workers are "too high" and "many children" are the subject of "poorly devised" child protection and child-in-need plans.

The news comes as Ofsted is looking into how England’s social care system has delivered child-centred practice and care during the pandemic.

According to the report, during the pandemic there has been a "small rise" in the number of children educated at home following their parents' decision - the so-called Elective Home Education (EHE).

But inspectors said: "Schools have continued to notify the local authority of children who are EHE, and a dedicated team identifies any support required and applies risk ratings to inform the urgency of visits. However, only a handful of children who have been identified as being of greater vulnerability have been visited by the EHE team in the last year.

"Managers in this service have not yet addressed and rectified this issue. As a result, the educational experiences of these children during the pandemic have not been established."

The report also found that "a small number" of children placed in unregistered children’s homes have not received "sufficiently effective social work planning, review and visiting" and the senior management oversight of children in care living with their parents "is insufficiently rigorous".

"Too many" care leavers are not in touch with their personal advisers and are not in education, employment or training, according to Ofsted.

But inspectors also found that the council has made "good progress" in strengthening and reshaping partnership arrangements which is rebuilding "eroded trust and confidence".

It comes as last summer the authority apologised and pledged to improve children's services after a report highlighted "failings".

Ofsted also found that the quality of work has improved and that senior leaders demonstrate "a balanced, accurate self-assessment" of the quality of frontline practice to protect vulnerable children.

The council said additional personal advisors have been employed, more staff who will focus on working with young people who are not in education, training or employment are being recruited and performance analysis is being strenghtened.

Cllr Peter Baillie, cabinet member for children's social sare, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic presented an extremely challenging set of logistical difficulties for our hardworking social workers but we accept that there are important lessons to learn from our response. While I’m pleased that Ofsted has recognised that there are encouraging signs of progress, it is also clear that there are areas which have not progressed sufficiently. We will continue to focus relentlessly on improving the pace of change and the quality of the service.”

Council leader Daniel Fitzhenry said Ofsted recognised the new leadership in the department.

He said the council is committeed to improving children's services.