Probation chiefs have today published a report stating that the Leicester City Youth Offending Service could do better.
Glenys Stacey, Chief Inspector of Probation, said that the Leicester service was strong in some areas but had more work to do to reduce re-offending.
Ms Stacey published the report after a recent joint inspection of the work of Leicester City Youth Offending Service (YOS).
The joint inspection of youth offending work in Leicester City is one of a small number of full joint inspections undertaken by HM Inspectorate of Probation with colleagues from the criminal justice, social care, education and health inspectorates.
Inspectors focused on six key areas - reducing re-offending, protecting the public, protecting children and young people, ensuring the sentence is served, the effectiveness of governance and court work and reports.
The report states: "Inspectors were pleased to find that work to reduce re-offending was satisfactory.
"Leicester City's Youth Justice Plan includes the objective to improve the quality and timeliness of assessments.
"Inspectors found that following on from good assessments, interventions and work to directly address offending was not consistently being delivered or evaluated.
"Work to protect the public and actual or potential victims was satisfactory.
"There were effective links with other key agencies including the police, multi-agency public protection arrangements and probation services to manage the risk of harm to others. "Work to protect others from domestic violence was not always strong enough.
"Work to protect children and reduce their vulnerability was satisfactory.
"In the majority of cases, YOS workers understood how children and young people were vulnerable, either through their own actions or because of other people."
The report states that the management and delivery of interventions to reduce re-offending was satisfactory.
Interventions to address offending behaviour needed to be used more often and then evaluated so that the YOS had a clear understanding of what was having the greatest impact.
Inspectors made recommendations to assist the YOS to make continuing improvements, including ensuring that the board membership and composition allows for all partners to effectively challenge performance and contribute to the reduction of re-offending rates.
Dame Glenys Stacey said: "Leicester City Youth Offending Service is performing satisfactorily in all key areas.
"Indeed, we found strengths in the way in which children and young people are engaged and about the support they receive to access education, training and employment.
"The YOS management board knows it still has work to do, especially in reducing re-offending, and has invested in the provision of interventions to try and tackle some entrenched thinking, behaviour and attitudes to offending."