A report from the LGA, the group representing English councils, found 50,000 fewer young people are receiving help from national job schemes than three years ago.
The Government insisted it is tackling this issue and has pointed to falling youth unemployment levels.
"This report fails to recognise that despite youth unemployment being a big challenge for a decade, the level has fallen by 38,000 since last year, and the number of young people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance has fallen for 14 consecutive months," a Government spokesperson said.
The LGA said the current system is over-complicated, with 35 national schemes across 13 different age boundaries at a cost of £15 billion a year.
The study, Hidden Talents: national programmes for young people, has been published as part of the LGA's ongoing campaign into the concerns around youth unemployment.
It highlighted a drop of 8% in the number of 16 to 25-year-olds, starting national schemes between 2008 and 2012.
The figures showed a fall from 605,354 in 2009/10 to 559,183 in 2012/13.
The LGA said "continued meddling" in national programmes by consecutive Governments is having a negative effect on schemes designed to help get young people back into work or training.
"It's clear that nationally-driven attempts to tackle youth unemployment aren't working," said David Simmonds, chair of the LGA's children and young people board.
"While there are a number of good initiatives, government has sidelined councils and incentivised a series of services like schools, colleges and voluntary 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."
Big challenge
A Government spokesman said: "We're not complacent about the challenge in tackling this problem and through Jobcentre Plus we're already working locally with businesses and councils to help young people into work."
The LGA said the complexity of successive national schemes and the way the Government publishes statistics makes it impossible to view how effective the schemes are and how they are performing.
It is now calling for Government departments to adopt a common system for providing information on their programmes.
The LGA said local authorities should be given the tools to be able to scrutinise Government-funded programmes and ensure it is meeting the needs of local young people.
Last week ONS job figures revealed unemployment for 16 to 24-year-olds had risen by 15,000.