Sunderland City Council has apologised ‘strongly and unreservedly' after an independent review discovered it failed two teenage girls who died in 2013.

An independent study looking at issues emerging from a number of serious case reviews between 2013 to 2015 found the safeguarding workforce was under considerable pressure, a problem made worse by insufficient leadership direction and the lack of an integrated approach.

The study said this led to inconsistencies and the opportunity for human error.

Jane Held, the independent chair of Sunderland's safeguarding children board, said: ‘It is a great sadness for all involved, especially for their families and those providing care to the girls, that despite very intensive levels of professional care and intervention, their deaths were not prevented.

‘We want to apologise strongly and unreservedly to everyone for letting them down and failing to protect them.'

‘We owe it to the girls to learn from what happened in their lives to help improve services to other young people in similar circumstances and try to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.

‘We completely accept that the agencies involved in the girls' care acting as their corporate parents did not do enough to support them, which is something I deeply regret.'