Councillors have been told that it will not be 14 years before a regional youth offending service will be inspected again.

In April this year an inspection of the Vale of Glamorgan Council's youth offending service took place – for the first time in 14 years.

The report of the inspection, which rates the service as 'good' came before councillors at a meeting this week of the authority's Homes and Safe Communities scrutiny committee.

Kirsty Davies of the council's youth offending service said it was an "unusual length of time" between two full inspections, but reassured members that the service is working towards four years for the next inspection.

Members were also reminded that youth offending service inspections were different from other areas, like education, in that there are various grades of inspection – a full inspection being just one – and that the youth offending service has been reviewed in the last 14 years.

The 14-year gap was put down to a number of reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the inspection framework.

Ms Davies said: "For me, we will very much be working on the framework that we would be inspection ready and that we are trying to have the best practice at all times whether we have an inspection or not because we have a lot of internal measures of scrutiny that we will continue to have."

Head of Children's Services in the Vale of Glamorgan, Rachel Evans, added: "I would hate for 14 years to be something that you focused on… because that suggests that we haven't been overseen, that there hasn't been any consideration for what this youth offending service is doing and that is quite the contrary.

"In the world of youth offending they have different types of inspection, different grades, different levels of involvement from agencies, so it isn't 14 years since the youth offending service has been reviewed… Kirsty is talking about the full, multi-layered inspection."

The youth offending service report also revealed there has been a significant reduction in the number of young people entering the service for the first time.

According the report put to the scrutiny committee, there was a 44% decrease in first-time entrants between April 2021 and March 2022, compared to the same period last year.