27/11/2015 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Tonight's headlines:

The Welsh Government suspends payments to

a further education college after a BBC Wales investigation

No problems for this mum-to-be, but maternity services across

North Wales are at breaking point with units forced

This is for safety. If our unit is at capacity or we have had a

catastrophic event we have to close because we cant give patients safe

care. The teacher struck off

after she pretended to be a 13-year-old girl and made false sex

abuse claims about a head teacher. We're in Labour heartlands to gauge

reaction to the leader's opposition Good evening.

In tonight's sport: After just one win in nine league

games, Swansea City manager Garry Monk insists he has the ''full

backing'' of the Club's chairman. The Wales Roller Derby side

preparing to take on It's emerged tonight that the

Welsh Government has suspended payments to a further education

college in the capital. It follows a BBC Wales investigation

by 'Week in Week Out' into allegations of fraud

at the Cardiff campus of the West Tim Rogers joins me now with

the latest. What have you been finding out? We

have been investigating allegations of the regularities in the way this

college is being operated and the way students have been recruited for

the college by a local agent. This is a newly opened privately run

college in Cardiff which has its headquarters in Wembley in London.

It has been operating there for almost a decade. But the Cardiff

branch runs various IT courses and business courses and has been

designated as a suitable to offer huge end the business courses which

attract tuition fees of ?6,000 per student. That is funded by the Welsh

Government. The students on those courses can also apply for student

Finance Wales loans and grants. Our programme has been investigating

some of the offers made by that recruiter to students who have told

him they can use fake documents to get onto the course and access those

loans and grants. And that they don't have to attend to get the

money. He also says that if they don't go on to earn over ?21,000

they won't have to repay the money. Of course, that is true. What has

been the response to this? The college deny any knowledge of the

scam and says all its students are genuine. We contacted the Welsh

Government with our concerns and we have been pressing the Minister Hugh

Lewis to give us an interview. He has refused to do that up to this

point but this afternoon 's statement came from the Welsh

Government and they said they had some concerns about the college

although I am not clearly understand all the file evidence that we have

available and he has asked student Finance Wales to suspend all

payments to the college and its students for further investigations

continue. And there's more on this story

in 'Week In Week Out' next Tuesday at 10:35pm

here on BBC One Wales. Maternity departments in North Wales

have had to close suddenly on 16 separate occasions

in just 12 months. BBC Wales understands that

a shortage of maternity doctors has meant all three units in the region

at Bangor, Bodelwyddan and Wrexham have been unable, on occasions,

to admit patients safely. Our Health Correspondent,

Owain Clarke, reports. Few things can be more important

than the moment the woman Anna Lloyd is waiting patiently

at Wrexham's maternity ward. Because she has a higher risk pregnancy she

has been a frequent visitor here. It's been busy but the staff

have been absolutely fantastic. I can't praise the staff

at the assessment unit enough. But sometimes the pressure on staff

can become so intense the entire If our unit is at capacity

or we've had a catastrophic event we have to close because we can't

give the patient safety. So we have two redirect them to

our next available unit where they This is a problem that goes

far beyond this unit. Emergency closes have also occurred

all too often recently here at Ysbyty Gwynedd and anger and at

Glan Clwyd Hospital in Bodelwyddan. In the last 12 months we've

had to those 16 times. This is

a service currently being run as it No other maternity services within

Wales or any of the other countries are currently

being monitored to this level. She blames a shortage of doctors

and despite several recruitment drives, 14 out

of 30 middle grade maternity doctors It means lots of temporary doctors

have been brought in to fill the gaps and managers say that is far

from ideal. For example a middle grade locum doctor who had worked

with the spuriously was booked to work night shift in one of our

hospitals and did not turn up. The staff working that night did not

know he wasn't coming until he didn't turn up. Previously the

health board said its preferred solution would be to move maternity

doctors from Glan Clwyd Hospital to strengthen teams at Andorra and

Wrexham. But Glan Clwyd Hospital would then only be left with a

midwife unit. High-risk mothers would have to travel east or west to

give birth. Campaigners have argued those mothers could be put at risk.

Some doctors are also worried. When pregnancy and labour go wrong it

goes wrong pretty quickly. Sometimes the need to do a Caesarean section

can be immediate. The shortage of doctors is a problem that is

unlikely to be solved quickly. Yet it is hoped a new baby intensive

care unit due to open up Glan Clwyd Hospital in a few years could act as

a magnet. In the meantime the Royal of speakers gynaecologists has been

looking at longer-term solutions which could see consultants taking

over the responsibility of middle grade doctors for certain periods.

We are used to consultants providing care. That is undoubtedly the future

direction for much of the health service. We have seen it for

neonatal care and for other specialties. Can you switch into

that system quite easily? Yes. If any downgrade happens they will be

anger and disappointment but bosses argue the risk of doing nothing is

much higher. The challenge for them is to convince mothers of that. The

reassurance that somebody was at the end of the line to talk to and that

we were only ten minutes try the way, that makes everything a lot

easier. It keeps you can't. Few things can stir up more emotions

than the care of the very youngest patients. Sis will make their

recommendations early next week and the final decision will come a week

later. A 16-year-old has been sentenced to

three years in custody for manslaughter,

after killing a pensioner he thought Cardiff Crown Court heard the school

boy stabbed 67-year-old Michael No formal complaint had ever

been made about the pensioner. The judge described it

as a tragedy for the boy's family. The organisation that will collect

Welsh taxes for the first time needs to be completely separate

from the Welsh Government, according From 2018, The Welsh Revenue

Authority will collect Stamp Duty But the Assembly's Finance Committee

says its independence needs to be The Welsh Government says it's

pleased the Committee has agreed There's been a rise in the confirmed

number of cases of flu, but fewer people are taking up the vaccine,

according to Public Health Wales. They've described it

as a very worrying combination, urging the public to protect

themselves as soon as possible. So far, there have been 17 cases,

compared to six A teacher has been struck off for

pretending to be a 13-year-old girl and making false sexual abuse claims

against her former head teacher. Eleri Edwards contacted

the charity Childline and made 10 allegations against her former boss

after she was dismissed in 2012. Our reporter, Kate Morgan,

has been following the story. The 32-year old was dismissed

as a maths teacher at Ysgol Ardudwy She started another job at

a school in Powys, but it was while she was there that she made false

accusations about her former boss. She posed as a 13-year-old pupil

at her former school and claimed on the Childline website that she

was being sexually abused The police investigated, interviewed

Mr Williams and found it was a hoax. They traced the accusations back

to Eleri Edwards' computer. She was arrested

and cautioned last year. Today,

the Education Workforce Council found her guilty of unacceptable

professional misconduct. Members said her behaviour

was fundamentally incompatible Has there been any reaction

following the decision? Well, Mr Williams said that what

Ms Edwards did was inexcusable and could have had a devastating effect

on him personally and on his career. It's worth noting that

during the hearing, the 32-year-old, who has already left her teaching

job in Powys, pleaded with the panel She said it had been more than

a career for her, The disciplinary council said she

showed a lack of regard to the seriousness of

abuse of pupils, and to Childline. But it also decided that given her

previous good history and her potential, she'll have the

right to apply to be restored to the The Labour Party is

in a terrible mess and Jeremy Corbyn That's according to a senior Welsh

backbencher, as the row Jeremy Corbyn is facing resignations

from his front bench, after he made it clear he opposed air strikes

against so-called Islamic State. Now, Paul Flynn says Mr Corbyn may

have to go if things don't improve. A day after Labour MPs lined up

to question the Prime Minister. Today, some

in the party have questioned their own leader's handling of the party's

stance on air strikes in Syria. With claims of rifts and divisions,

a senior backbencher says the situation

in the party is now terrible. There are serious problem in the

Labour Party 's, riffs between the leadership on the front bench and

they're not in a happy place at the moment. Things have to change

radically. There are a range of views on the parties MPs.

One shadow minister told me the Prime Minister made a strong

case in favour of action, but he hasn't decided how he'll vote yet.

The Prime Minister gave a strong statement yesterday. We have set out

a key series of tests and principles over the last weeks that we wanted

the government to answer and in terms of some of the key arguments

about the legality and nature of the action being proposed and the focus

on the political and non-military action as well as any military

action, they were strong answers to those questions. This is my

decision. It's got nothing to do with party affiliation, it is what I

believe. I believe it is politically immoral and it cannot happen. We

cannot bomb people who are already living in war-torn areas.

Pontypridd Market is a long way from Westminster and from Syria.

Here, shoppers are on the hunt for Christmas bargains on Black Friday.

But with dark clouds over the Labour Party, do people in this

Something needs to be done urgently. But it's all right to say something

needs to be done as long as innocent people don't get hurt. It will only

bring more trouble back to Britain. They will bomb different places. If

we don't make a stand against them, we will end up being afraid of going

out of our doors. I don't think we should inflame the situation. For

Britain to go in there as well, the airspace is pretty crowded.

Another new MP is consulting her voters online to see

I have had hundreds of people get in touch through the website. Over

99.8% of the responses so far are clear that they don't support a in

Syria. People have followed it up with e-mails. With detailed

explanations. With a vote possibly as soon as next

week, there could be air strikes in For Labour, and for all Welsh MPs,

there are big decisions ahead. It originated in Chicago back

in the 1930s, but now it's enjoying a resurgence

and the Welsh roller derby team is And a yellow warning tonight

for strong to gale force winds over I'll have the full details

in a few minutes. A Welsh teaching union has told

BBC Wales that many councils have warned schools to prepare for cuts

to their budget in the region UCAC claims

the move would be devastating for schools and the standard

of education they could provide. Here's our Political Correspondent,

Arwyn Jones. Here at Ysgol Dewi Sant in Llanelli

year four is learning about how castles used to be used to

defend towns and cities. But the wider concern for schools

across Wales is that their What we're hearing

from local authorities is that they are preparing their schools

for cuts in the region If that's true,

it would be really devastating for schools and the standard

of education that they can provide Ysgol Dewi Sant has been told

its budget will be cut by 5% in the next financial year, that it will

have to cut another 5% the following Some schools have money held

in reserve but nowhere near enough What that means to us is that we

will have to look at a cut back For a school of about 450 pupils

that would mean about ?85,000. If we look over the next three

years, we're going to be cutting our Redundancy is obviously something

we will have to focus on. Fewer teachers may well lead to

larger class sizes but that should not necessarily mean

that pupils suffer. It's not necessarily

the case that we should see a decrease standards simply

because we have larger class sizes. The key to providing high standard

and high quality education is the quality of the teachers we put in

front of the pupils, not the number. The Welsh Government says more

information will be available after Schools across Wales will be

waiting eagerly to see what With the loss of over 300 jobs

at the oil refinery Murco, Pembrokeshire's business enterprise

zone has been hit badly in the last few years, but there are

now signs of growth in the Haven. A boatbuilding company

which went into administration nearly two years ago is back afloat,

as Abigail Neal reports. At ?1.5 million, this shed was

the first major investment But it risked being mothballed

when Mustang Marine went Fast forward nearly two years

and it's in use again. Under a new name, the firm is back,

crafting the port's new generation What has changed is

the rigour around the business There is a lot more discipline

around the contracts, around the way we approach dealing with contracts,

getting customers, ensuring that we have a disciplined project planning

in place and that we don't bite The company hit the rocks after

this specialist vessel servicing offshore wind farms proved to be

overengineered and under costed. 66 jobs were lost and many local

companies were owed money. Now the workforce is building

back up in numbers. For 200 years they have been

building boats here on the dockyard, You can't learn the skills

of boat-building in college any more and in fact this

is the last company still building The area suffered another hammer

blow last November when nearly 300 This pipe engineering firm had to

lay off a third of its workforce as a result,

but now there is enough confidence to invest in this eye-catching new

building to improve productivity. Since the closure of Murco we have

managed to find employment They are all mixed trades

including office staff Next year we envisage we will

increase our employment by at least another 10 to 20 personnel

and the markets we are looking for is national

and some work over in Ireland. With a busy order book going into

the New Year, this Christmas is There's a busy weekend

of sport ahead. He's been under pressure for many

weeks and tonight the Swansea City manager, Garry Monk, has insisted he

has the "full backing" of After just one win in nine league

games, there are reports that Monk says just one win could spark

a turnaround in the club's fortunes and is looking forward to taking

on Liverpool on Sunday. It's about getting through this

period. He is very supportive and has shown nothing but support to the

players and the staff. He has seen that what I've brought to the club

has worked in the past and he knows we can get through this period. We

are all united. Cardiff City,

who are ninth in the Championship and three points away from the

play-off places, take on Burnley. Manager Russell Slade says he'd like

the team to play a more attractive brand of football, having scored

just 17 goals in 17 league games. Elsewhere, Newport County,

who are on an eight game unbeaten And Wrexham, two points off

the play-off places in the National The Football Association

of Wales is facing disciplinary action after failing to play

Kazakhstan's anthem before The stadium announcer said there

were technical problems in playing the anthem before Wales'

4-0 victory. Uefa, European football's governing

body, has also opened disciplinary proceedings

because fans were standing Rugby and the Dragons are in

Murrayfield tonight in the Pro12. You can watch the game on Scrum V

Live over on BBC 2 Wales and online. Before then, it's

a Welsh derby between the Ospreys Wales and Ospreys wing Eli Walker

will start. He's just signed a one-year contract

extension , which will keep him Both regions have made poor starts

to their domestic season, each What we are focusing on at the

moment is a performance and there are elements of our performance that

are slowly improving but we are too inconsistent. We don't have a

problem scoring points but we have a problem stopping sides scoring

against us. It'll be a big game too at the

Big Blue Tent tomorrow when the Cardiff Devils welcome

the Nottingham Panthers. Both teams are tied for first

place in the Elite League. The Devils have won

their two previous home games a huge resurgence on this side

of the Atlantic. For the first time,

Europe's top four Roller Derby nations are competing against each

other with Wales taking on England, For those of you unfamiliar with

the sport, we sent our roving, or should that be rolling reporter,

Catrin Heledd, to have a look. When was the last time you put on a

pair of these I wonder. Yes, forget what you learnt in the playground or

in the park. This is serious skating. Intense, brutal,

hard-hitting, this sport is not for the faint-hearted. But how exactly

does it work? The game lasts an hour, split into two halves. Each

half is split into segments of two minutes. One of the players is the

points scorer. His job is to get out of the pack of bloggers made up of

both teams and start lapping the opposition team to score points. It

sounds confusing. It looks painful if not dangerous. And with many an

ex-rugby player, surely regular trips to the hospital are par for

the course. It can be quite physical and it is an aggressive game.

Injuries to happen but not that often. Everybody has respect for

each other and everybody is there for the love of the sport.

each other and everybody is there derbies started life in America and

was hugely popular during the 1930s. It is now enjoying a bit of a

resurgence. It won't be at the Olympics in 2020 but that is still

hope it will make its debut soon. It is you love's fastest growing female

sport. So let's add another player to that ever-increasing list. Time

for me to get my old skates on and join in. Only one problem, I can

hardly stand on four wheels. Let alone actually move on them. Wales'

campaign gets under way against Scotland tomorrow afternoon before

they face France and in and on Sunday and who knows, at this place,

I might get to burn by then. -- get to burning. -- get to Birmingham.

We have wet and very windy conditions heading our way. Tonight

the rain is clearing eastwards but we were hanging on to the strong

winds. There are coming in eastwards and we have a few showers rolling in

tomorrow morning. Much colder air behind that rain band so it will be

a chilly night. The bridges down to around two Celsius. Tomorrow, a

squeeze in the isobars and we have another weather system bringing more

rain. Strong winds and not surprisingly there is a yellow

warning for the wind for Saturday and Sunday. First thing tomorrow

some dry weather especially in the east. Pretty quickly the rain gets

going and the wind coming in from the south-westerly direction. Guests

of 50 mph but we could see the odd 70 mph gusts. Temperatures tomorrow

between seven and 10 Celsius. Tomorrow night in Melbourne night

compared to tonight and we do have more showers rolling in from the

west into the early hours of Sunday morning. Those temperatures on the

mild side and no lower than five Celsius. Still hanging onto strong

winds as we go into the early hours of Sunday morning. Again as we go

into Sunday another weather front which will bring more rain with it.

First thing on Sunday morning, not as cold and wet start to our

morning. It will clear south and eastwards. North Wales is the

favoured spot on Sunday the something drier. Temperatures in

double figures and not too bad for the time of year but we do have

strong winds through Sunday and more wet weather to come for the start of

next week. The Welsh Government has suspended

payments to a private college It follows

a BBC Wales investigation by Week in Week Out into allegations of fraud

at the Cardiff campus of the West The college denies any knowledge

of the scam and says all