News Article 25

THREE CHILDREN DIE IN LANCASHIRE'S CARE SYSTEM



This is how BBC News represented the story:

Three children died during an inspection into a council's "inadequate" children's services, an Ofsted report has revealed.

An investigation into the deaths is ongoing, after "serious failures" were found in Lancashire County Council's child care services. The report said it was "too soon" to establish if the children's unrelated deaths could have been prevented. The council said it was addressing the concerns "quickly and effectively".

The report said all the council's child care services had "significantly deteriorated" since the last inspection in 2012, when the authority was found to be good overall. It said: "During the inspection, three children tragically died in unrelated incidents. "Their families were open cases to children's social care and they were receiving services as children in need."

The report said an investigation into the children's circumstances were at an early stage, but noted that records connected to the children showed inadequacies. "Some of this poor practice was seen in a much larger number of cases where children had not been harmed," the report continued.

The inspectors' widespread concerns include:

• A lack of effective management oversight
• A failure to involve key agencies in discussions at all stages of child protection
• Complex work allocated to staff with insufficient qualifications or experience
• Failure to give some children leaving care the level of support they need to enter adult life successfully

The report praised the council for the way children are listened to, and the way the risks of child sexual exploitation were tackled. The authority said it had begun implementing a number of changes, backed by a new £5m investment.

Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "The children and young people who need these services deserve the best care and support, and we are very sorry that in some cases they have clearly not been receiving it. "The council must now act quickly and effectively to resolve the problems identified during the inspection."

My opinion on the story:

I personally feel that BBC News represented this story well because they have included as much information as they can at this moment in time and the use of quotations and statistics means the viewer is gaining factual and important knowledge. It is also clear to read with the use of bullet points. My opinion on the actual story is that I was firstly very shocked when I read it because the fact that three children died in one care system shows that something is definitely very wrong and changes need to be made. It is a sad news story to read and to the three children that died, RIP.