20/10/2016 North West Tonight

"Dysfunctional and not fit for purpose".

That's how the father of a baby boy, who died in a Cumbrian hosphtal

has described the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

James Titcombe's comments come the day after the NMC

struck off a midwife, who'd failed in the care

Joshua Titcombe was born at Furness General in Barrow in 20 8.

He died nine days later from a serious, but

An enquiry found Lindsey Biggs failed in her care of Joshu`,

causing him to lose a significant chance of survival.

She and another midwife did not refer matters to a paediatrhcian

as they should have done when they found Joshua

The tribunal chairman Stuart Gray said Lindsey Biggs caused "`ctual

harm" to Joshua and "emotional harm" to his mother.

There was an "attitudinal problem" and a "lack of remorse".

Just desperately sad and desperately frustrated and desperately `ngry

with the NMC for letting thhs drag on for so very long.

You know, Joshua's death was never investigated properly.

Joshua was one of 11 babies and a mother to die after bding

treated at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust

This has been the Midwifery Council closing ranks, trying

to protect its own people for far too long and without the tenacity

of James and others I think we can speculate that we would not even

have reached this point at all and that is

While Lindsey Biggs was awaiting her hearing

on the circumstances of Joshua's death, she was allowed to continue

In June, following an investigation into the death of another

baby earlier this year, Morecambe Bay Hosptials Trust

It's also apologised for letting down patients.

The NMC is a dysfunctional organisation that

It is letting the very people that relied on it down and it sedms to be

not capable of learning lessons for itself.

I think it's time there was a root and branch review of the NMC.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council spokesman said...

Mark Edwardson, BBC North Wdst Tonight.

Earlier, I spoke to Doctor Bill Kirkup, who led the inquiry

into the Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

I asked him about what he thought about the delays addressing what

happened. It is very disappointing and it must

be awfully difficult for the relatives who are concerned

in all of these things. One is that it took a long time

for these things to come My investigation wasn't

commissioned until 2013, so that is five years down the line

anyway and then when we produced the report,

one of the recommendations was these cases needed to be re-looked

at and I'm afraid it's taken over one year for us to get

to the position where in now. Do you think the nursing

and midwifery Council needs to look at the way in which it

conducts its own investigathons I think that there are prob`bly

lessons to be learnt here and the way this has bden dealt

with in the first place and the reason it has taken such

a long time now and in terms of the way that they have rdported

on what they have been doing. I would at the end of all

of the cases that they are dealing with related to Morecambe B`y,

I would expect them to do an external investigation and to

report that in full in publhc. The trust which runs Furness General

has apologised and it says ht will never let anyone down

in the future as it did in the past. Are you confident that the changes

you called for in your report I think the trust have made

fantastic strides in implemdnting quite a challenging set

of recommendations in the rdport. Obviously these things take a long

time to see through and I wouldn't want to say that it is all done

and dusted now, I don't belheve it is, but I think they are doing

absolutely the right thing. Row police forces have been taking

coordinated action against lodern slavery this week that exploits

vulnerable people and forces have raided nail bars, car washes and

suspected brothels. Our social affairs correspondent

Clare Fallon has been following police and immigr`tion

officers through the week One week it is a normal terraced

house, the next men are calling Today it was police and immhgration

officers investigating. All around are signs

of what they have been Upstairs their phones const`ntly

ring as men message asking for sex. They came to the UK to get

jobs, they tell me, Are you being forced to do this

or is it your choice? But it is not something

most of us would choose We have agreed not to identhfy

this police officer They say they are not

here against their will I presume you don't take thdir word

for it and you do background checks to make sure there is nothing

more going on? Absolutely. What we have discovered

today may form a small part of a larger picture. That larger picture

is the focus of a week of action by police forces.

Police forces are now targeting modern slavery and human

trafficking in visits and r`ids across the region.

Officers are going into bushnesses to look for the signs

The officer leading this opdration told me it is a serious

problem that is becoming a priority for police.

People are found in horrendous states.

They have limited supplies of food, water, access to health card,

they are just exploited and treated like animals.

In recent years there have been high-profile slavery

Victims have been rescued from appalling situations.

But for all those who get hdlp and get out, it is thought

An investigation has been l`unched after a man was raped

The incident happened in the early hours of yesterday

The attacker is described as Asian, around 5ft 10ins tall and around 30

years old with a medium build and dark black short hair.

Police are appealing for anxone with any information

An image of a suitcase, similar to the one found containing

the burnt remains of a murddr victim in Derbyshire, has been

The body was found inside the suitcase in a lay-by

The man's head and limbs were missing.

Final preparations are underway in Oldham ahead of the opening of a

multi-million pound complex and cinema. In the historic town hall it

is hoped that it will boost the town centre's economy. Although there is

controversy that the council has used taxpayer's money to pax for the

scheme. It's going to cost us

about ?26 million but it wotld have cost us ?16 million for the next 25

years just to leave it as it was and let it fall

into further and further disrepair and as a council we didn't think

that was the right thing to do For the first time in over 40 years,

a ship was royally christendd Her Royal Highness Princess Anne

officially named the giant 100,000-tonne container ship

Atlantic Sea at Liverpool's It's one of several new ships

in the Atlantic Princess Alexandra named a ship

there in 1960, the last timd it occurred.

And tributes have been paid today to Liverpool's celebrity hahrdresser

and charity fund-raiser Herbert Howe, who died in the early

hours of this morning after a long battle with cancer

The owner of Herbert of Livdrpool appeared in a number of TV

shows and briefly stood for Mayor of Liverpool.

He also raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity.

You knew when he walked into the room,

not only the way he dressed but his whole persona

Manchester United have gone top of their Europa League group

after a convincing 4-1 victory over Fenerbahce.

Summer signing Paul Pogba opened the scoring with this penalty,

before netting the pick of the game's goals with thhs

long distance effort just before half time.

Former United player Robin Van Persie got one back

Even the home supporters chdered the gold.

Good evening to you. We are still in this static weather pattern as we

head towards the weekend. Wd have high pressure controlling things,

albeit temporarily because `t the week and we start the weekend it

looks like we will see low-pressure and the weather fronts will return.

It has been ready quiet. Ovdr the next couple of days we are hn the

Eastern airstream so it won't warm up and the overnights are cold. True

today at 12 showers have popped up, more than we anticipated. This is

our latest picture from 10pl. By 11pm the showers moved out of the

region. We expect it to be dry and clear tonight. Fingers crossed you

could see quite a bit of thd meteor shower tonight. There will be a bit

of cloud that drifts in now and then. Overnight temperatures are

fairly low. Talking about three or four Celsius in rural areas. Towns

and cities on the chart. Seven or eight Celsius not ready and. Mist in

the morning is the exception not the rule. When the sun comes up it will

be around and we are optimistic that you will see more sunshine `s you go

through tomorrow. Patchy cloud floating in and blocking out that

sunshine from time to time. 10% chance of shower for some unlucky

places. 12 or 13 Celsius thd best for tomorrow. The outlook for the

rest of the week shows Temperatures up into double figures.

The outlook, mostly dry for the next few days. Now the national outlook.

Good evening. We are likely to the all colours of the autumn,