Researchers from York Consulting studied six of the 14 targeted youth support areas selected to test the government's scheme but found little evidence of improvements in the early identification of vulnerable young people - the key purpose of the initiative.
The findings are published two months after all local authority youth services in England were supposed to have such provision in place.
The Targeted Youth Support Pathfinders Evaluation, commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), stated: "In half of the 44 cases examined, the young people already had high-level needs when they were identified for support."
It also found that young people's long-term needs were only met in one-fifth of cases. And a "significant positive impact" on young people was made in only one-eighth of cases. Examples of such an outcome include improvements to family relations or substantial improvements in school attendance.
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