A damming report into the Youth Offending Service (YOS) has found more work needs to be done to stop risk of harm to others from offenders.

The inspection of the borough's YOS, the council department which works to prevent young people offending, said substantial work was needed to improve the service.

It scored the lowest mark in the report, just 47 per cent, in the way it handles the risk of harm.

Inspectors criticised staff for failing to take into account previous offences and neglecting to include recent evidence, in particular involvement with serious youth violence.

The report also said substantial improvement was required in safeguarding young people.

The service scored 64 per cent for likelihood to re offend compared to the national average of 71 per cent.

Julie Fox, assistant chief inspector said: "Overall, we consider this a moderate set of findings.

"Performance on work to manage risk of harm to others and to address safeguarding for children and young people required substantial improvement.

"We were pleased to see that tasks such as assessments and interventions were being completed, but the focus now needed to be on improving the quality of work undertaken.

"We have confidence that the recommendations from this inspection will be implemented by Wandsworth YOS, and result in an improved service to both children and young people and the community."

A council spokesman said: "There are a lot of positives in this report.

"The inspectors recognised that lots of good work is being done and that further significant improvements are being carried out as we speak.

"It does however also draw attention to some procedural shortcomings and these are being addressed as a matter of urgency.

"It is worth bearing in mind that staff on the frontline who are faced with very difficult and challenging young people, some of whom have committed very serious crimes, are doing some very solid and successful work in cutting re-offending rates and getting these young people's lives back on track and the report clearly recognises this."