The latest Ofsted inspection said Connexions Cumbria had helped reduce the numbers of young people not in education or employment.

The service provides support on issues including housing, drugs, education and training for youths aged 13 to 19.

But the Ofsted report said one in five young people in the county was being let down by the service.

The report said Connexions provided a good range of programmes and activities to help meet many of the needs of young people and exceeds most national targets for achievement and local targets for participation.

Cumbrian teenager Fran Bailey, 17, praised the service for the help she had received, particularly after suffering a brain tumour three years ago.

Strengths recognised

She said: "It left me with short-term memory loss which was a real problem when I was coming up to my GCSE exams.

"Obviously, I needed to be able to remember facts for my exams and my personal advisers helped me with different revision strategies."

But inspectors said in some areas the service could do better, saying practice was more often satisfactory than good, and that young people were not sufficiently challenged to do better.

It said: "Achievement for as many as one in five young people was hindered by a minority of personal advisors under-estimating what they are capable of doing."

But Connexions' Chief Executive Sian Rees said she was on the whole pleased with the Ofsted report.

She said: "It recognises our considerable strengths and the progress that has been made to make a real difference for young people in Cumbria.

"It's only right that the young people of Cumbria get the chance to tell us to our faces whether we are getting it right. After all, we are here to help them - not the other way around."