08/07/2014 Look East - West

Good evening. That's all from us.

It has been twelve months since a damning report was published

into Children's Services in Northamptonshire.

And today the service admits it is still inadequate.

A year ago Ofsted found the service consistently poor with

staff at tipping point and systemic failures across the board.

The council insists improvements are underway.

But one ongoing problem is the shortage of social workdrs.

So the county has set up its own academy to recruit

Northamptonshire's Children's Services.

One of just 20 in the country rated as inadequate:

the worst possible rating that Ofsted can give.

I think it was a shock to some people the degree to

I think it was known but I think the depth was a bit

In March last year, Ofsted said Northamptonshire was inadeqtate in

Then, just five months later, a second inadequate report for

Then on 9 October the results of a special case review into thd death

of a four`week`old Northamptonshire girl, saying social workers were

The announcement of ?12 million to try and improve services.

But the real problem here at County Hall is not the shortage of cash, it

Up to half of the authority's social workers are temporary agencx staff,

so the authority is desperate to recruit and retain more perlanent

When we recruit newly qualified social workers who have gond to

university and got their degrees, we are putting in an academy where they

will be supported in their first year so that they have a highly

supportive environment in which to learn their profession

Northamptonshire currently has 82 social workers but needs to recruit

around 85 to reduce its relhance on agency staff.

We are carrying out a recruhtment campaign but the problem is so are

We are all searching for good quality social workers, so there

To give an indication of the scale of the problem,

Ofsted is due to carry out `nother inspection here later this xear

The council says, if it manages to move from

an inadequate rating to a rdquires improvement rating, then evdn that

The planned East`West rail line linking Oxford to Milton Kexnes and

Bedford could boost the reghonal economy by over ?70 million a year.

This latest figure by independent experts is more than

Funding for this line has already been agreed by Government.

But the date for completion has been pushed back to 2018.

Earlier I asked Iain Stewart the MP for Milton Keynes South

The new figures show a doubling of the economic benefits

of the project so I am very pleased that it has this further sort

I would not say there are huge delays.

There is work happening on the ground right now.

The first part of the project is the upgrade of the track

And they are clearing some of the vegetation in the middle

section so that is all going, but the end of the project has slipped

You admitted yourself there that there are some delays.

Do you think that, when research like this comds out,

that it forces those in charge to look at that time scale?

When the project got the go`ahead, the next phase was for Network Rail

to do some analysis work about what upgrades needed to take place, what

civil engineering projects, what crossings are needed and I think as

a result of that they found it was going to take a little longdr.

So when are we likely to sed the first trains up and running

The full project is looking like early 2019 that we will see

the full service running, btt you may see services on completdd parts

A Cambridge biotech company has won a big research grant to lead the

Growing resistance to antibhotics is a huge concern around the world

Without a breakthrough, millions of lives could be put at risk.

Superbugs are a growing men`ce and all because bacteria have

become immune to many antibhotics that save lives.

In some countries around thd world, key antibiotics no longer work

In Europe alone, it is estilated that 25,000 people die everx year

But here near Cambridge, a company is leading the fight back.

Phico Therapeutic is developing antibiotic technology to

It has just been given a ?1.6 million grant.

Its technology will fight hospital superbugs such as LRSA

Predominantly we are looking at those that affect patients

And there are many multidrug`resistant organisls in

intensive care units in hospitals which badly need new antibiotics.

The threat of microbial resistance is a big concern.

The Prime Minister has launched a global review of the crishs.

We are in danger of going back to the Dark Ages

of medicine to see infections that were treatable not be treat`ble

And the pharmaceutical industry has not been developing new classes

of antibiotics, so we need to fix that market failure,

The cost of developing new antibiotics is so high that many

pharmaceutical companies have pulled out of research

but smaller companies with lower overheads could provide the answer.

Phico hopes to carry out trhals on humans in a couple of ye`rs.

Time to get the weather now with Alex Dolan

We have just about seen the last of the showers so the rest

of the night looks dry with some clear spells developing..

For most of us, temperatures should remain in the mid tedns.

Tomorrow, there may be some bright spells first thing but

on the whole it is going to be quite cloudy through the day.

As we get into the afternoon there is the risk of some patchy rain

for most places it does look as though it will stay dry.

Temperatures of around 20 or 21 degrees.

But the main feature of the weather tomorrow is this

increasing wind coming from the north, so quite a blustery

There's going to be quite a lot of cloud around on Thursday

weekend. Hot on Saturday with thundery showers.

Good evening, the rain in Rio is matching the mood, I suspect, this

evening. Here, we will take a day off from the rain tomorrow, at least

most of us. There will be sunshine around. The showers will be back for

the end of the week. Dry over night virtually everywhere. Winds easing

down in many places except towards the North Sea coasts. The south west

will keep a breeze going. Not a cold night, temperatures holding 12- 4

degrees typically. A dry day virtually everywhere tomorrow. Cloud

breaking up to allow good spells of sunshine coming through,