POWYS County Council have made an unreserved apology after a 17 year old in their care, tragically died in 2015.

A report by the Mid and West Wales Safeguarding Children Board (CYSUR) concluded that the teenager, known throughout the report as, Child A, had taken his own life over concerns to what would happen to him in three months time when he turned 18 years old.

The review comes after a damning inspection report into Powys council's children's services in October 2017, which revealed missed opportunities to safeguard children, poor risk assessment and serious performance issues with frontline services.

A CYSUR spokesperson said: “Recommendations have been made as part of the Extended Child Practice Review.

"All partners of the Regional Safeguarding Board are committed to monitoring the progress of these recommendations and supporting Powys County Council in its improvement journey.”

Powys County Council's Interim Director of Social Services, Phil Evans, said: "This Council has accepted in full the findings and recommendations in the report, which is being used to improve the quality of the services available to children and young people who are or have been looked after.

"We have included these actions in the second iteration of the children’s services improvement plan which was submitted to the Inspectorate and to Welsh Government last week."

A spokesman for Powys County Council, said: "We apologises unreservedly for the way in which it failed to provide appropriate support for this young man.

"We can report that eligible young people are able to stay with foster carers beyond the age of 18.

"Also, we are working closely with our partners to ensure effective services for young people which help them to improve their emotional and mental well-being."

The independent report described Child A as "A very troubled child with an extremely poor start to life," and he had been taken into care at the age of two.

The report goes said that Child A, had: "Consistently told all the professionals around him of how scared he was about leaving care, how ill prepared. "He was highly anxious about the situation in which he was out of control and had no answer to."

"There was a significant amount of help and support provided to Child A by all professionals involved in his help, however, his journey through care and the significant events that were well documented were not effectively considered by professionals in care/pathway planning."

Part of the report includes learning lessons from the tragedy, one of those is that young people can now influence decisions abut their plan and day to day care which is essential in promoting independence.