SOCIAL Services for both adults and children are improving in Wiltshire, according to the latest report from a Government watchdog.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection's annual review of performance found that the county council's performance against a range of indicators is improving.

However the commission has also made recommendations for further improvements.

Coun Christine Crisp, cabinet member for children and families, said: "I am pleased with the report. It shows that we are moving in the right direction and we are at the vanguard nationally of integrating our children's and family services with education.

"I am particularly pleased that the children we look after are gaining more qualifications and more are leaving our care and going into education and employment."

Each indicator in the report is scored from one to five, where five represents very good and one signals urgent action is needed.

For children and family services the report highlights that the benefits of integrating the service with education are starting to lead to improvements.

In particular the number of young people who have left care and who are in employment, education and training has improved and scores five.

The attendance at school by children looked after by the county council has improved and their performance while at school has also picked up with more children now achieving five GCSEs at grade C or above.

Children's social services were also praised in a number of other areas including access to advocacy and interpreting services, work to recruit and retain foster carers, and the introduction of a family crisis support service in the county.

Adult social services were also praised and achieved good overall improvement in the number of indicators, scoring a maximum of five.

The commission found that the county council had responded positively to the Government's priority to promote independence for older people with more being helped to live at home.

The council's partnership with health organisations was commended, in particular working with the NHS to introduce intermediate care services to prevent hospital admissions and to free up acute hospital beds more quickly.

The report called on the council to improve managing the projected overspend on placing looked after children and, for adult social services, the commission suggests further improvements to the way people are assessed.