A girl who fell more than 100ft to her death from a bridge with a friend was considered to be making good progress one week before she was placed in a care home's secure unit.

Niamh Lafferty, 15, and Georgia Rowe, 14, died after falling from the Erskine Bridge on October 4, 2009, in an apparent suicide pact.

They were both residents at the Good Shepherd Centre in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.

An inquiry into the girls' deaths at Paisley Sheriff Court heard yesterday that Niamh was placed in the Good Shepherd secure unit on March 16, 2009, after her 16-year-old boyfriend, Jonny McKernan, died of an drug overdose.

But one week before, on March 9, an audit of Niamh's file carried out by a senior social worker had marked her as having shown "good" evidence of progress.

Joy Daniels, who works for Argyll and Bute Council as children's manager for Helensburgh and Lomond, completed the audit, also referred to as a management review.

Ms Daniels told the fatal accident inquiry the "progress" being evaluated was that of the teenager's entire time in the care system, which began on June 19 2008.

Niamh had been released into the care of her father, Paul Lafferty, in Helensburgh in February 2009 but this lasted only six days.

The inquiry has been told that a proposed support package was never put in place.

Niamh had later written a letter which pointed out that her father had no money for food or hot water while she was living with him.

Ms Daniels said: "There was good progress made in terms of the young person having been able to move on from a residential unit and back into the community."

But Sheriff Ruth Anderson QC said Niamh had "obviously not" been able to move back into the community because the placement lasted only a short time.

Sheriff Anderson said: "Six days later and she was back in care. Is that progress?"

Ms Daniels replied: "No."

The audit was completed less than a week after the funeral of Niamh's boyfriend who died on February 21, 2009.

Ms Daniels also told the hearing there was a "breakdown in communication" when it came to sending Niamh back to live with her father without proper support being put in place for the pair.

The inquiry continues today.