Councillors have condemned a 'serious failure of assurance' after they were given no warning about Stoke-on-Trent's failing youth justice services.

Stoke-on-Trent Youth Justice and Support Service was rated as inadequate by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation earlier this year, with inspectors uncovering 'significant shortfalls' across its work with children.

HMIP found that not enough was being done to keep children and communities safe, that planning was not consistently collaborative, and delivery of interventions was undermined by 'silo working'.

Scrutiny committee members at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, which leads the youth justice partnership, have now questioned why none of these problems were identified in a report on the service they received last year.

The children and family services overview and scrutiny committee received an update on the work the council and its partners are doing to address the issues raised by HMIP.

Committee chair Daniela Santoro said it is 'concerning' that the service was seemingly unaware of its failings when it reported to the committee in 2025, and called for an explanation.

Cllr Santoro said: "I'm deeply concerned at the difference between what this committee was told last year, and what's subsequently been found by the inspectors.

"Last year's report said that the only key risk was the possible loss of grant funding, if the plan was not approved.

"It contained no warning about planning, management oversight, victim safety or workforce capacity. It also recorded no key resources implications.

"If the weaknesses were known, the committee was not provided with a sufficiently transparent account of those weaknesses. If they were not known, the quality assurance arrangements were not effective. Either way there has been a serious failure of assurance."

Neil Macdonald, corporate director for children and family services, told the committee the inaccurate picture presented to the committee last year was due to failures within the service's quality assurance systems.

He said that steps had been taken to address this issue, with the introduction of independent quality assurance processes, and the commissioning of an external consultant from a high-performing youth justice service to act as an independent scrutineer.

Mr Macdonald said: "The committee were not misled. The reality of the situation is that the quality assurance systems which were in place failed to give an accurate overview of the quality of the work that was being undertaken.

"As is outlined in the improvement plan, we have now created an external perspective as regards to quality assurance.

"I completely agree that the outcome was both unacceptable and concerning."

Other actions in the youth justice plan include the co-location of the service with children's social care staff to enhance collaboration, and the strengthening of victim-focused practice.

All open cases have been reviewed to ensure that all children are receiving the right interventions and that there are no unmet safety concerns.

But committee members said they still had serious concerns due to the previous failure to identify problems.

Councillor Laura Carter said: "What has happened doesn't enable us to have a great deal of trust in the words written on the page today. For me, it waters down the action plan if the only risk we had last year was the loss of funding.

"I'd like to know why the quality assurance system failed so badly. I think that would have to be something that's highlighted as a risk going forward."

Councillor Abi Brown, a former council leader, said the youth justice inspection brought back memories of the council's children's services being branded inadequate in 2019.

She said: "I'd have hoped that we set the foundation for improvement both during my time as leader, and over the last four years. So I share the chair's indignation at what has happened. We now have the ignominy of having one of the worst results in the country, which is pretty shocking and embarrassing."

The committee agreed to receive a further update on the youth justice plan in six months in order to monitor progress.