27/10/2016 Spotlight

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Tonight care providers in Cornwall are warning of a recruitment crisis,

saying there are just not enough workers to look after elderly

One relative called every c`re agency in the county

but couldn't get weekend help for her grandfather.

South West councils pay the highest average hourly rate in the country

but its still not enough to attract carers.

This is the second of four visits a day which Susan Robins relies on,

after a stroke a year ago left her partially paralysed.

Sheena Cooper is her care worker, she is making lunch.

She has been a care worker for five years and she likes it.

I think you have got to be the sort of person who enjoys doing the work.

There you go, it looks lovely and it smells lovely.

Sheena works every other wedkend but her boss is finding it lore

and more difficult to recruit staff to cover

I would say the last six months have been our hardest in 25

years for recruiting, especially staff at the weekends,

it is just getting really, really difficult.

There was a lady trying to find care for her grandfather and she must've

contacted 30 or 40 agencies in Cornwall and not

one agency could help and neither could we.

Is this a crisis? Yeah, definitely.

A few weeks ago, they were so short-staffed,

I started at 7am and I was still doing morning calls

Because the clients were that hard, basically.

One reason for the shortage is low pay.

Agencies say councils need to pay them more

But there is also a long list of other factors -

A growing demand from an increasingly old populathon,

the perceived lack of value of care workers, competition from other jobs

which don't require weekend working on the geography of our penhnsula -

it is not so easy for care workers to travel from other

In a report earlier this wedk, the UK Home Care Association

which represents care companies said that more money was nedded

but it acknowledged that south-west councils do pay

Cornwall Council is one of the best at ?16.15 an hotr.

The Council says it is workhng with the industry on a joint

recruitment campaign and as part of that,

they will be giving awards to the best care workers

and a special ceremony at the Eden Project on Frid`y.

She has another six clients to see before her shift ends at 9.30pm

Meanwhile the Prime Minister has told BBC Spotlight that health

services in the South West will receive more money.

Theresa May's government has faced criticism from its own Mps,

following severe cuts proposed in Devon.

They argue the county doesn't receive a fair slice of funding

The NHS has been promised more money across the country,

but the Prime Minister says it's up to local health provider to decide

We also believe that it is hmportant that the health service itsdlf

determines the configuration of and the provision

of services in local areas and that is about what we are going

to see over the next few ye`rs, up to 2020, is a significant amount

of extra money being put into the south-west...

What the health service is now doing is talking to local areas about how

that is going to be spent and what services are going to be

provided in the different areas It is important that

we get the local voice in making these decisions.

"I wish it had been me" that's what a jury was today told

was the reaction of a man accused of causing the death of a mdmber

of the Cornish shanty group Fishermen's Friends

The revelation came at the start of the defence case of David Naylor

whose company supplied the door which fell on the two men

However he's decided not to give evidence himself.

Hamish Marshall reports from Guildford Crown Court.

For three weeks, David Naylor has come to court to

case that he was responsibld for the deaths of two men.

Mr Naylor's barrister told the jury that his client wouldn't be

Instead, he read five statelents from former clients, employdes and

In one, Mr Naylor's brother Jonathan said that on

hearing of the tragedy here in Guildford, his brother,

with tears in his eyes, said, "I wish it had

This was the scene at the GLive centre in February 2013 aftdr

the door collapsed, just hotrs before the Cornish group were due to

Singer 54-year-old Trevor Grills from Port Isaac suffered he`d

Promoter Paul McMullen who was 44 and from

In a statement read out, a client who made repeat orders with Mr

Naylor's company, described him as honest and fair.

While a former employee said she never took any

complaints about the quality of their doors.

Mr Naylor denies two counts of manslaughter by gross

The judge, Mrs Justice Whipple, told the jury that the

defence and the prosecution will make their closing spedches on

She will then sum up the case and she expects thd

jury to retire to consider its verdict next Wednesday.

The community of Salcombe in South Devon has been remdmbering

the loss of 13 lifeboat crew, who died 100 years ago todax.

The RNLI flag flew at half last outside Holy Trinity Church -

while inside the congregation paid their respects to the len who'd

died trying to save lives at sea. Out on the water wreaths were laid

The Salcombe lifeboat lead a flotilla of RNLI vessels,

accompanied by a coastguard search and rescue helicopter.

Just two members of the crew survived 100 years ago

and the family of one of thdm, Eddie Distin, have shared

a recording of his memories of that night.

We were called out in the morning at about 5am to a schooner `shore,

We got to the wreck and then we decided that we couldn't see any

life aboard so we started to come home.

And of course, on the way home, we met this disaster.

I am James Cooper, I'm one the crew members of Salcombe lifeboat.

He was my great grandfather, a very lucky man to have survived

and to carry on in the Lifeboat Institution after the disaster

and he went on to have medals as well, so he was made

Where we are at the moment hs pretty much where they capsized and he made

a couple of attempts to comd in but because it was so rough,

We wouldn't attempt to come in over the bar, the big sea caught us

All 15 got back on the bottom but then we couldn't stay

13 drowned and luckily two survived and I am one of the descend`nts

If I could have met him now, and had a chat with him,

it would be interesting to sit down and talk to him.

Obviously, you could say to him, you were lucky,

But then, we probably would have gone on to how much it has changed

and what we have got now colpared to what we had and he would have

said we are all soft compared to them.

They were brave men. Brave men.

Well, there was lovely weather in Dorset for today's Royal Visit.

Her Majesty the Queen accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh,

the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall has arrived in Poundbury

She has unveiled a statue of the late Queen Mother

in the new town which has bden built on Duchy of Cornwall land.

Some grey skies, but not too bad. How is it looking? Hello, good

evening. Normally, at this time of year, weak spec to have low pressure

in charge, but now we have high pressure. It is here to stax as

well. What we have will not change very much at the moment. We've still

got some fog forming overnight tonight. Rather cloudy tomorrow And

also staying generally mild. Most of the activity, most of the rdally

poor weather is actually tr`velling up towards Iceland, almost `ll of

the areas of low pressure are being steered around this area of high

pressure and heading up tow`rds Iceland. So we stick with this area

of high pressure. Relativelx warm air. No real change in the weather

patterns as we move into thd weekend. Mild air and we can expect

temperatures of 14-15dC through Saturday and Sunday. Perhaps

slightly cooler as we move through next week. At the moment, wd have a

fair blanket of cloud and that means supporters will not fall

particularly low overnight tonight. Some fog patches forming here and

there but not like we're sedn recently and night-time temperatures

between 9- relevance is all CS. Tomorrow is very similar to what we

have seen today. A lot of cloud around. Capable of breaking in the

few places, but not much. Wd do keep a lot of cloud for most of the day.

Briefly, some glimpses of stnshine. But than dwell on that, let's try to

find some sunshine. Plenty `cross Spain and Portugal and other parts

of France. Once you get into northern France, and partictlarly

across the eastern side of Durope, not only is it cloudy, it is also

rather cold. I think we will thank our blessings because even though it

is cloudy for the weekend, ht is still relatively mild. Have a good

night. Before we say goodbye -

some will be hoping Bodmin was the epicentre

of an earthquake in the early It was around about

quarter past three. I woke up and then next mintte

I know I heard this noise as I describe it

and I will tell you what thd noise It was boom, boom,

boom, boom, boom, boom. Well, I hope you have a bool free

night tonight. From all of ts, sleep well. Good night.

fine and dry and on the mild side. My colleague Helen Willetts has with

the national picture. Good evening. The dry October

weather is set to continue into the weekend. It's been kind if you've

been on half term. Not that I'm promising this sort of weather for

all. Isn't it lovely, taken on the Isle of