Government youth unemployment schemes are not working, according to councils in England.

The Local Government Association said that the current system is too complicated, with 35 different schemes across 13 age brackets and possibly contributing to the 8% drop in the number of young people enrolling on the schemes compared with three years ago.

The Office for National Statistics recently said that youth unemployment, among those aged 16-24, had increased by 15,000 in the three months to June to reach 973,000 despite a fall of 4,000 in the overall level of unemployment.

David Simmonds, chair of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, said: "It's clear that nationally driven attempts to tackle youth unemployment aren't working.

"Many young people tell us that... finding a scheme that's right for them is a real challenge.

"While there are a number of good initiatives, government has side-lined councils and incentivised a series of services like schools, colleges and third sector providers to work in isolation of each other, with no clarity on who is responsible for leading the offer to young people on the ground.

"We think by aligning what's happening in local government with many of these schemes, we could get a lot more young people into work than is the case at the moment."