A SOUTHAMPTON MP is urging civic chiefs to make children in the city a “priority”.

Royston Smith, the MP for Southampton Itchen,  is urging Southampton City Council to get children’s services in the city “under control”.

The news comes as the council has pledged to improve the service after an investigation found a number of “failings”.

As reported, the council’s chief executive Sandy Hopkins , has apologised for the findings of the report which followed a whistleblowing complaint.

The council said a number of changes have already been implemented and work on the details of an action plan continues.

Mr Smith said: “I would urge them to focus on this. It is our responsibility as politicians to focus on people’s lives. We will now look towards this service because this is the one that is the most important and the one we need to get right. They need to focus completely on this. They need to put all of their collective energy on this. This has to be their priority.”

He said the request from members of the council’s scrutiny panel to receive regular updates on the action plan is “a start”.

Mr Smith also said the restructure of the department which is going to have a new director is “a step in the right direction”.

But he added: “They have spent the whole time blaming their predecessor and now eight years later we have two ‘requires improvement’ assessment and a whistleblowing. I have no confidence in them being able to sort  it out, not after eight years. This is the council who told us they have got it all under control, they’d better get it under control now.”

As previously reported, Ms Hopkins said to be committed to improving the service.

In a previous comment she said: “We approach these findings with a genuine openness and a willingness to learn. While it is disappointing to hear that these concerns have been raised before and have not been addressed, as a new team we are committed that this time it will be different. Going forward we will use all our partners to help us further improve our services. We are reducing the possibility for unsafe practice through more consistent restorative supervision, appropriate allocation of cases and caseloads, increased capacity for trauma support, and stable, reliable and dependable leadership.”

When contacted for comment, the council directed the LDRS to previous statements and said it would not be commenting any further.