Council apology for three teen deaths

Swansea Council admitted to "shortcomings in our child protection procedures" yesterday and described the deaths as a "tragedy". The public was also given an assurance lessons had been learned.

The teenagers also received a posthumous apology from the handful of agencies, including those run by the council, responsible for their welfare.

An independent intervention board was imposed by the Welsh Assembly last year. An expert team then went on to oversee the work of the council's social services department.

The two schoolgirls and one schoolboy were referred to as child E and child B, while the schoolboy is child D.

Child B died of a heroin overdose at her mother's flat in April 2008. The mother and an adult sister were later convicted at Swansea Crown Court of the teenager's manslaughter.

Swansea council had been responsible for her since 1997 and only 10 days before her death she was released from a secure unit and placed in her mother's care.

Child E took her own life at home in the spring of 2008. She had a history of self harm, substance misuse, problems at school, unresolved emotional issues and neglect.

Child D had moved with his carer to Swansea in 2002 and died in his bedroom in January 2008 due to bronchopneumonia and the taking of a lethal mix of morphine-based drugs.