Leaders have insisted there were no surprises following an inspection of Southampton’s service for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission carried out a review of the whole service and partnership system between the city council and NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board.

The watchdogs detailed various areas of good practice as well as work that needed to be done to make improvements.

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Overall, the service was ranked in the middle of three bands, with inspectors saying children and young people with SEND had inconsistent experiences and outcomes.

The council and ICB must work jointly to make improvements, a report published on July 16 said.

Rob Henderson, the city council’s executive director for children and learning, said there had been visible improvements since the previous area SEND inspection in 2017.

He told members of the local authority’s children and families scrutiny panel that the inspectors saw a system that was working well and one that was improving.

“What was most pleasing from the inspection’s feedback was that we were a partnership that really cared about children, that put children at the heart of their thinking and was driven by their needs and wanting the very best outcomes for them and they felt that was across the whole system,” Mr Henderson said.

Asked if there were any surprises in the report, cabinet member for children and learning Cllr Alex Winning said: “The short answer would be no but actually the areas for improvement that are listed here are things that we were aware of and we expected to see, which is reassuring.

“I don’t think there were any big surprises in there for us.”

Mr Henderson said the “litmus test” going forward was making sure resources and pathways were being integrated better and there was more effective communication across the service and between partner agencies.

He said inspectors had placed most areas in the middle band, while some had received scathing assessments which detailed systemic issues.

Only a small number of local areas have been put in the top category following inspections, Mr Henderson said.

He added: “I think we take an approach of humility in this.

“We want the very best for our children. They are our most vulnerable children.

“We want to do the very best and we know we have got areas where we need to improve and our commitment to our parents and our children is that as a system we are committed to doing the best we can in relation to increase in demand and constraints on resources.”