THE mother of a toddler who drowned at a private nursery is to feature in a hard-hitting Panorama programme tonight calling for changes in the law.

Catriona Rae's life was devastated when her 20-month-old son Alexander, of Withnell Fold, drowned in rainwater on a tarpaulin covering an ornamental pond at the Hilltop Bunnies nursery, Belmont, last July.

Nursery owner Carolyn Brown was later fined £4,000 for breaching safety regulations, looking after too many children and failing to have enough qualified staff.

Mrs Rae, of Withnell Fold, has already appealed for changes in childcare laws to prevent similar tragedies and has the backing of Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle.

Tonight, Panorama, on BBC 1 at 10pm, investigates "Childcare On The Cheap" and looks at the quality of care on offer to working parents who cannot afford very high fees.

As Ministers prepare to announce the country's first national childcare strategy, the programme looks at whether this will do anything to improve the standards of care in the country's booming private nursery industry.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.