HALF of Oxfordshire’s young offenders do not comply with their sentences and often nothing is done about it, a critical new report has found.

Of the 62 cases studied, 49 per cent of young offenders did not do what magistrates or judges had ordered.

Yet Oxfordshire County Council’s Youth Offending Service (YOS) took insufficient enforcement action 40 per cent of the time, says a Criminal Justice Joint Inspection led by HMI Probation.

The service is responsible for managing young offenders who have been in trouble with the law.

Report editor Julie Fox said youngsters were not turning up to scheduled meetings or engaging with work to deter them from crime, and should have been sent warning letters or taken back to court.

She added: “We were finding they were missing things in the previous behaviour of young people.

“They were doing assessments, but with not really enough quality, breadth or depth.”

The report called for “substantial improvement” to the team to minimise the risk of harm posed to the public, saying it was adequate just 56 per cent of the time.

Yet it cited some good practice, including a drug user who was helped to examine his drug use by studying the music of reggae star Bob Marley and his use of cannabis.

Council spokesman Louise Mendonça said: “We are aware that case management is still focused on welfare rather than enforcement, and this is an area the YOS is working on.”

Most work is “high quality” but she said: “This particular inspection has highlighted a number of deficits which we accept as things we need to improve.”

The council has four weeks to draw up an improvement plan – with a re-organsiation, better training and improved staff supervision planned.

Blackbird Leys mum-of-three Sylvia Shaw, 48, who was hounded by teenagers for a decade, said: “Sentences are not enforced, and the young offenders won’t go to what they have to go to.

“It is all too soft, and the criminal behaviour keeps re-occurring.”

The report rated the YOS as ‘average’.

The findings come after the YOS was cited in a critical report of youth offending teams’ court work.

March’s ‘Not Making Enough Difference’ found national efforts were not “being done well enough often enough”.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith and the county council’s opposition spokesman for children and young people, Janet Godden, were unavailable for comment.