35 new qualified social workers are to be recruited by Swansea Council to help deal with heavy caseloads in the area.

The recruitment drive was announced by Chris Maggs, chair of Swansea Safeguarding Children Board, on the day that executive summaries of serious case reviews into the deaths of the three Swansea teenagers were released. Maggs said that social work jobs in the area needed to be filled as "caseloads have to be addressed.''

"We had approximately 15 vacancies and we're planning to create 20 additional positions on top of that to fill this need" he said.

The serious case reviews have emphasised the need for Swansea Council to improve child protection services, as well as how different agencies share information and work together. It has also highlighted the need to train people in social work jobs to protect adolescents effectively; all three subjects were 16 year olds.

David Spicer, who authored two of the reports, said that the cases "highlighted the particular difficulties for staff working to safeguard adolescents who either refuse to accept involvement or actively undermine attempts to improve their lives."

"This calls for good training and well coordinated involvement from all agencies," said Spicer. He said that adolescents had become more at risk in recent years due to the prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse among the age group, which "wasn't an issue before.'' He added that Swansea council had introduced specific training to address this issue.