28/01/2013 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Our top story:

Annual tests for seven to 14-year- olds for the first time in a major

change for schools. The government says it'll drive up low standards,

unions say they'll strike over the Our other headlines tonight:

Dumped in a corridor for all to read, the confidential medical

records left on top of a bin. Homes and busineses ruined as

flooding wreaks havok, with a warning of more bad weather to come.

Changes to our planning laws to make our houses cheaper to heat and

greener. And Wales get ready for the Six

Nations. Good evening. Tests for 7 to 14-

year-old pupils in literacy and numeracy will be introduced next

year. They are part of plans announced by the Education Minister

Leighton Andrews to drive up standards. Reading, writing and

arithmetic work will be included in all subjects.

Children will also be tested on an annual basis. One of Wales' largest

teaching unions say the new tests will increase the workload and is

warning they may go on strike. Here's Our Education Correspondent

Arwyn Jones. You need to put it all together and

use these figures to create a problem, create aback story. That

is what the Welsh government wants to see across Wales, teachers

mixing in a bit of literacy while discussing maths. At this primary

school literacy and numeracy are incorporated into every aspect of

every lesson and they have seen improvements to results. These

children have not that any formal tests since they have been in

school, no child in Wales has since 2004 but as of next year that will

change. Next September every child in Wales between 7 and 14 will said

a national annual test. As well as the tests the Welsh government want

to see reading incorporated into every lesson along with writing and

maths. By doing that the aim is to reverse the gap in results between

Wales and England where they still set tests. The Welsh government has

set aside �7 million to run the programme. This is numeracy and it

is monitoring the amount of work that children are doing through the

school. Schools and Wales already keep track of the progress of their

pupils but there is not won successive -- consistent Test

throughout Wales. As for incorporating maths into every

lesson, the head says it just takes imagination. A might be recording

how far they jumped MP or some athletics activity or whether it is

to do with blood pressure or pulse. Children in Wales should and see

much difference but what do parents make of annual testing? I like to

know what standard my child is at and what age they are at and if

they have to improve when they have to improve the lot stop adding

tests would show that. It is important to know, you want to

build on that ability. One of mine is not good at reading so it would

be good for her. For teaching unions more tests mean a higher

workload for already overstretched teachers and they say the

Government has not discuss that with them. That is why Wales's

biggest union says they will go on strike if concerns are not

addressed. Our members are interested in raising standards and

improving the lot of pupils generally. There is no doubt as

regards to that. They are already overstretched in the work they have

to undertake so something has to give. We have to make sure that our

members are not overburdened and teachers are not overburdened and

as a result of this. Launching a scheme to promote reading at the

Senate today the education minister dismiss those claims. There has

been a full public consultation and five meetings in which the unions

are discussed these issues. I do believe of for a minute teachers

will want to strike over literacy and numeracy and I think parents

would think it ridiculous if they did. That is not going to happen.

Nobody would argue with a drive to push up standards of weighing up

how they go about it is always more tricky.

Professor David Reynolds is an education expert and advises the

Welsh Government, Professor Reynolds, we know that standards

need to be improved in wales, but how will testing improve things?

think by having won a national test that replaces lot of the kind of it

to be detests that schools use, actually the amount of testing time

will be reduced and it will be easier for teachers with one Test

purring year in English and maths. The hope is that the tests will be

sufficiently good, better than many of the present ones, that they will

diagnose who needs help and schools will be able to see who needs the

help. If you are a parent or teacher or a pupil, a previous

minister scrapped testing so now it is akin, you pity the poor pupils

and one being fiddled around with in a guinea pig experiment to see

what works. In fairness to the minister who abolished the tests,

it may well have been the training in their terms of quantity and

quality may not have been appropriate. Maybe we expected to

much too quickly of teachers. Having said all that if things are

not working you have to acknowledge it and move on. The problem is the

currency of the current test is not high so a lot of secondary schools

are spending the first few years testing primary pupils because they

don't believe the teacher ratings that they gave. Parents will be

concerned of the News tonight of the possibility of strike action.

That will affect a lot of children's education of the goes

ahead. I cannot believe that when are they look at what is being

proposed they will want to strike. The testing is not the most

important part of this. The most important part is that for the

first time Welsh teachers will have access to a knowledge base of how

to teach literacy and numeracy. The best teachers will have the chance

of being bought out of their schools to take their wares to

other schools. Thank you very much. BBC Wales has been told that bag

full of confidential patients' records was dumped in a corridor at

Wales' biggest hospital and left there for four days. The problem at

the University Hospital of Wales was brought to light by a worker

there. The hospital says it investigating. Caroline Evans has

more. We know about this because a number

of staff -- a member of staff was so concerned they contacted us to

tell us about it. According to that person, who wants to remain

anonymous, these documents were left in a public corridor and they

included confidential patient reports, details of medical history,

and treatment plants. That person says they should have been shed --

they should have been taken away and shredded. I spoke to the

medical director responsible for the University Hospital of Wales.

We need to look at this and do an investigation to see whether Bailey

has occurred. We admit this should not have happened. We should be

looking to make sure that personal data is a Jew and when it needs to

be disposed of it is disposed of in and have paid -- a -- an

appropriate way. -- data should be secured. There is no excuse for

this. Organisations need to have the policies and procedures in

place and have staff trained so people know what to do. It is the

basic things that go wrong sometimes so there is no excuse.

The Community Health Council for the area says they are disappointed

by this. They too are waiting for a report from the hospital.

Thank you very much. A drug addict, who murdered a

disabled pensioner on his doorstep in Cardiff, has been told he'll

serve at least 22 years in jail. Peter Lewis was killed after

answering the front door of his flat in Roath in the early hours of

the morning last April. Today the judge told his killer, 32-year-old

William Jones, that this was an unprovoked attack for which he had

shown no remorse. A British Airways jet made an

emergency landing at Cardiff Airport this morning, after the

pilot noticed a potential problem with the cockpit controls. The

Boeing 747 was checked by engineers and all 138 passengers moved to the

terminal after the pilot was forced to divert. Fire crews were

scrambled to meet the aircraft, which was travelling from Houston

in Texas to Heathrow, and other aircraft were put in a holding

pattern while it landed. No fault was found with the plane and it

continued its journey three hours later.

Wherever you live in Wales big changes are planned for health care.

The Betsi Cadawaladr University Health Board which covers north

Wales was among the first to come up with proposals. As we've

reported, they haven't gone down well with some patients. Today the

board even faced the prospect of a no-confidence vote by councillors

in Conwy and tonight in Blaenau Ffestiniog campaigners there are

gathering. Roger Pinney is there. When it via Betsi Cadawaladr board

announced their proposals for the future 10 days ago one of the

headlines was a plan to close for community hospitals including the

one here. A defence committee is already up and running and you can

see it is meeting here tonight to plot the way ahead and how it can

overturn the that proposal. Overall this probably wasn't much of the

day the members of the health board were looking forward to. There was

a proposal for a vote of no confidence and also the community

health council was looking at the plans. They have the power to refer

them to put the Welsh government in Cardiff. As it turned out they took

pause for thought and will not reach decisions for a couple of

weeks. Tonight this meeting is going on and one of the members has

come out. Are you going to let them off the hook? No, I think there are

many unanswered questions still for this community, especially the

services that are to take place. I don't feel negotiations are mature

enough for that to happen yet. were a member of the county council,

it would be unprecedented if another local authority took a vote

of no confidence? Last Thursday I put a motion to the council in

Caernarfon that the council should go into a negotiation with a Betsi

Cadawaladr as to how it is going to affect them financially and what is

needed from the Test side of the Council and also to refer the

matter up for Leslie Griffiths thoughts. They have to make tough

decisions, things cannot stay the same. No, I appreciate about from

my point of view any change has to be for the better and it has to be

a change for changing needs of the population and is a involves care

and him of help and -- health and those negotiations on a late yet

the -- are not yet mature enough. You get a sense of the feeling here

in North Wales that people know things have to change and the

financial constraints but the story does not go away. Tomorrow the

Royal College of Nurses and the Royal College of Midwives will be

say what they think of another part of this land which is to refer the

neonatal care for newborn babies to a hospital on the May -- and

hospital on the Wirral. We may not have seen the worst of

the flooding, that's the warning tonight from the Environment Agency

as more heavy rain is expected tomorrow. Many homes and businesses

in west Wales are still clearing up from the weekend. Abigail Neal

reports. It's business as usual today, but

Josh Phillips knows there could be more to come. On Friday night five

feet of water swept down Solva's main street and flooded his pub on

all sides. It is the worst I have ever seen it and it, as my dad said,

he has been here for 40 years and that is the worst the Athenian.

This time it was the road and a reverse so we were Pinsent in

between them both. On just one night, fire crews in

west wales received 300 calls for help. This village of Llandowror in

Carmarthenshire was one of the worst affected villages. More heavy

rain is expected tomorrow and rescue crews say flood call outs

are now becoming more common. weather fronts seem to come in and

stay longer over a certain area and we are getting a lot of water in

specific areas. It is getting more prevalent for art's to attend

floods and flood rescues. As well as torrential rain, the

weekend's weather brought unusual cloud formations and heavy

thunderstorms. Then came hail the size of marbles causing a four car

pile up on the M4. Tonight the environment agency

issued an amber warning, this time for the east and north of wales,

and warned there's more to come. This is not the heaviest rain we

will experience. This will charge our rivers again but we are more

worried about tomorrow's rain and the extent that it will cover the

whole of Wales and it will last all day.

The flood defences in Solva remain tonight, with high winds and high

tides, coastal areas are also being told to stay alert.

Two Welsh RNLI volunteers will receive gallantry medals for

helping to rescue a woman who was clinging to a tree in fast flowing

flood water. These dramatic pictures show the moment Vanessa

Glover was pulled out of the water in Devon just before Christmas.

Paul Eastment and Chris Missen, from Porthcawl RNLI, were in the

rescue boat. Penarth volunteer Jason Dunlop, who was part of the

shore crew team, will also be recognised.

Much more to come before 7:00pm: Why, when it comes to access to the

arts, there's not much to sing about if you live in a rural area.

And many more happy landings for the air ambulance and the Welsh

rugby union. If yours -- if you fuel bills have been sky-high there

are changes to planning laws on the horizon to allow more homeowners to

insulate the outside of their houses in a UK wide scheme to

encourage energy efficiency. It has been a hard few weeks and

the cold weather means we have all needed extra heating. The UK

government's Green Deal launch today means loans and a cashback

scheme for improving your home and reducing energy bills. The purpose

of the Green Deal is to encourage businesses and householders to

improve energy efficiency and cut costs. That can be done through

external insulation on outside walls, it could be new boilers and

possibly windows and even insulation inside houses, and all

of that with no upfront costs. those that private finance does not

make sense for there is �1.3 billion of subsidy every year over

the next decade to help people who are either in fuel poverty or who

have hard to treat homes, and many of those homes are in Wales. This

company installs insulation, boilers and solar panels. It also

trains its staff to fit insulation panels on outside walls -- outside

walls. In Wales this type of word usually needs the agreement of

planning officers. One of the issues, particularly for external

wall insulation which goes outside the house, is planning permission.

In the last couple of weeks it was permitted development in England

but in Wales we are not there yet. We have a disadvantage. This rented

terrace house has just had five inches of insulation placed on the

outside. It has made a noticeable difference. It is a really big

difference because our heaters are on at most for six years whereas

before they won for 11 hours in the winter. In the summer in actually

wasn't a lot. It is a vast improvement. Roof insulation and

draught-proofing can be installed without planning permission and

some changes have been made to allow solar panels and wind

turbines as well that outside insulation still requires some

consent. We are looking to tweak our planning laws in the spring of

this year and next year but at the moment most external wall cladding

cannot take place without planning permission. We will look at it

reached -- tweaking it as necessary. England has -- in contrast to

England planning consent is currently still needed here.

Budget cuts and our rural landscape are limiting the opportunities for

people to get involved with the arts in Wales, according to a

committee of Assembly members. They want the Welsh government to create

an action plan that will increase participation in things like

theatre and dance groups. Our arts and media correspondent Huw Thomas

reports. Only kids allowed has given young

people from across Wales the chance to sing and be seen. It is those

kinds of opportunities that need to increase according to assembly

members. Organisations that receive public money are often obliged to

do more to get the public involved in the work that they do. Opera

companies and theatre groups stage workshops for budding professionals,

or take their shows to places and people that would not normally

consider it their kind of fame. Just as businesses and individuals

have had to tighten their belts in recent years, the money available

to these arts organisations has fallen as well. A number of

organisations has lost significant funding and finding funding from

other directions has proved a difficult so we are calling on the

Welsh government to work with the Arts Council to help these groups

and ensure that everybody in Wales has the opportunity to participate

in the arts. This theatre group provides opportunities for people

with learning disabilities to gain new skills and confidence. Funding

cuts mean it is run on a skeleton staff but there has also been an

impact on the tour as they made to other parts of Wales. We talk to

real -- rural venues and many of them are finding it very difficult

and we are seeing closures all over the country, Wales and England

included, and that has an air immediate effect on our touring

income and a knock-on to our income as a company as a whole.

Government cannot print more cash to fund the arts but it is being

urged to draw up an action plan to increase participation and monitor

how many of us get involved. Responding to the report the Arts

Council said it welcomed the emphasis on ensuring the widest

possible audience can enjoy and take part in the arts. The Welsh

government said it would study the findings and respond in due course.

A woman who's originally from Cardiff has become the second ever

black woman to be appointed as a US Marshall. Louise Kelton was

nominated by President Obama personally and was sworn in last

week. Back home in Butetown her relatives say they're proud of her

achievements over the decades. Nashville, Tennessee, in the

Southern States of the US. Unusually the commander of this

city's tough Police department is a woman, even more unusual for the

deep south is that she's black, but most unusual of all is that she

hails from Cardiff. But last week Louise Kelton handed in hers cop's

uniform as she was promoted once more. Nominated by President Obama

she's just been appointed the US Marshall for Tennessee. Louise I

was brought and brought up her -- and Louise was born and brought up

here but in 1978 when she was 23 she gave up her job as a

physiotherapist and decided to four sec -- for safe the south of

Cardiff for the deep south of the USA and live with her father's

family. He had been a GI stationed here during the war. My dad is an

American citizen and I just wanted to see where he was from. Basically

my idea was to come over here for a year and, round and then come back

home and I ran out of money in National so I got a job.

Her brother and mother still live in the home she grew up in and are

in constant touch. They're immensely proud her achievements

over the decades. I think she is the second black female US marshal

in the history of the States so she is a very high achiever. I have

always been proud of my sister, she is my big sister and I am the baby!

Bo Jackson's a former FBI agent living in Cardiff. He was a special

agent for 24 years and says the Marshalls are America's oldest

federal law enforcers. I have, on occasion, worked with the US

marshals services for fugitive apprehension and court protection.

It is, indeed, an honour for her to receive a nomination from the

President and to be appointed as a US marshal. This is a photograph of

a wheeze when we performed a play Mary Poppins in the school. She

must have been 10 years old. Betty Campbell taught Louise in

Junior School, but is also a friend and neighbour of her family here in

Cardiff. She has made us feel really, really proud. She has

always been proud of her Welsh ancestry but also proud of her

American ancestry as well. Now 57, Louise begins her new role this

week. The once glamorous Cardiff teenager now one of the most

powerful law enforcers in America. Rugby, and it's just five days to

the start of this year's Six Nations championship, with Wales,

of course, going in as defending Grand Slam champions. With fitness

doubts still over certain key players, the Welsh team to face

Ireland in Saturday's opening game is still up in the air, which is

quite apt given a special visit to the team's training base in the

Vale today. More from our rugby correspondent Gareth Charles.

Given the incredible number of injuries Wales have suffered

recently, they could have been excused for thinking the new air

ambulance was exclusively at their disposal. In fact it was at the

base to note a new partnership with other Welsh Rugby Union. We need at

least 250 landing sites so the partnership is to reach out to

clubs and communities to identify rugby clubs around Wales as safe

landing sites for us. Also on show today the entire squad, assembled

for the pre-tournament photo, including the latest edition. Wales

hope they could be good news with Ryan Jones and Ian Evans both

training today. The next 24 hours will be vital to see if they are

fit or not. No one will be looking forward to facing Ireland more than

John Davies whose two tries last year put Wales on the road to the

Grand Slam. We are defending champions and we want to defend

Akram. We have confidence in our own ability and we want to make

sure we go out there and put the performance that we know can put

together. There is no Georgette of repeating the Grand Slam success,

especially in light of the poor autumn performances. It took us two

and a half games to get going in the autumn, to get up to the speed

of international rugby. In all- action -- in all aspects of the

game, the scrum, the defence, we cannot afford to do that this time.

One thing is for sure, Wales have to get off to a flying start on

Saturday. The scores on the doors weatherwise,

more bad weather to come Derek? more bad weather to come Derek?

That is right. The snow and ice have gone but the wind is back with

a vengeance. Look how fast the wind has been a today. There is more

heavy rain and gales to come tomorrow. It brings warnings of

more disruption. Met Office warnings are in force with a yellow

warning covering most of the country and in amber warning for

parts of the South. Up to 30 mm of rain expected. There are two flood

warnings in force and nine flood alerts. There is also a risk of

flooding on parts of the coast. This evening very windy but dry.

The strong wind will ease after midnight with more rain moving into

the south and south-west towards the end of the night. The lowest

temperatures around five Celsius. No frost tonight. A deep area of

low pressure over the Atlantic with fronts moving towards the UK with a

lot of isobars. They could be gale- force winds. The farm North East

stars of dry that it will not last. Much of the country looks damp, if

not wet. Not to Wendy at this stage but that will change. During the

day tomorrow further outbreaks of rain and drizzle heading away with

low cloud and mist and hill fog. Most of the rain in the south and

west and it's a Viana eye ground. The air tomorrow is coming from the

tropics so it will be mild. Gales on many coasts and hills and

mountains. Tomorrow windy with more rain, eventually clearing to

showers. When state promises to be a better day, windy but dry and

writer with shops and was mixed in with some sunshine. -- dry and

brighter with sharp showers mixed in. The cold snap at the end of the

week will be short lived. In the meantime unsettled with heavy rain

and gales and the risk of more flooding and travel disruption. The

thunderstorms and hail we had over the weekend can happen at any time

of the year and you can read more about them on my latest blot on our