Inspectors raise concerns over London youth offending service

An inspection of youth offending work in Lewisham rated the authority's work in reducing reoffending as "unsatisfactory". ?

??Although the majority of initial assessments were sufficient, the lack of consistency in planning and review was unsatisfactory, it said.

??Lewisham Council's work in protecting the public, and protecting children and young people was also found to be unsatisfactory.??

"We found some good work by case managers to protect the public underpinned by strong assessments," the inspection report said.

??"As with work to reduce reoffending, however, plans were not always meaningful for the child or young person and lacked measurable objectives."

??Inspectors said there was some good safeguarding work undertaken by individual case managers with assessments usually including a "coherent analysis of the risk to child or young person". But it warned planning and review did not always reflect this??.

"The immediate sharing of information between the youth offending service and children's social care services about missing children and young people was not sufficiently robust," the report said. ??

"The provision of mental health services was good, but physical health and speech, language and communication needs were not being adequately met."