Must try harder. Pic: Bunch and Duke via Flickr

A report by HMI Probation has called Hackney’s work on youth offending “disappointing”.

They described a “disappointing set of findings” with the majority of areas being labeled “improvement required”.

The inspection, which analyses how youth workers within Hackney deal with problems such as re-offending, specifically looked at the councils new youth programme ‘Young Hackney’.

The programme is a merged group consisting of the old ‘youth support’ and ‘youth offenders’ teams. It acts as a system of support for young people in the borough, aiming to show them amongst other things how they can get by in society without turning to crime.

Hackney Council’s cabinet member for children’s services Rita Krishna responded to the report by saying that youth offending is a top priority in Hackney, and fundamental changes have been made to the youth service in recent months.

Krishna added: “The inspection took place during this major change and there was a resulting impact on our scores. Inspectors have recognised this in their report and they make clear the challenges of updating this crucial service”.

However, the report described the improvements being made to youth work in the borough as “already ongoing effectively”.

Krishna went on to say that the council were “pleased that inspectors have confidence in Young Hackney” and described how she is “confident that our systems and our staff are well placed to provide a high quality service that, if inspected now, would achieve higher scoring”.