17/02/2014 Inside Out North East and Cumbria

In the next half an hour, meet the millionaire car dealer whose new

mission is to keep kids out of care. What we're looking at is what is

best for the child, and the mother and the family. We are trying to

keep families together. Travel the route that inspired

Cumbria's very own Lowry. He drew everything in sight all his

life. He was compulsive. He couldn't not paint or draw.

Discover how a passion for singing has given a new voice to people who

were once homeless. When I sing, I'm just in my own zone. I forget all my

problems, all my stresses of normal life.

Stories from the heart of the North East Cumbria. This is Inside Out.

He made millions selling cars. Then he built schools. Now Sir Peter

Vardy wants to halve the number of children being taken into care. For

the last year, I've had exclusive access to his most ambitious and

potentially most controversial project to date.

Gateshead. Could this be the genesis of a new movement which will

transform the care system? He's child psychologist. He is not a

car salesman. He is a child psychologist. Sir Peter Vardy has

brought them to hear this man. Dave Anderson. Where our society is

going, we need to do something around this issue of generosity and

empathy. He's the founder of a Christian movement sweeping America.

It's called Safe Families For Children. Together, Dave Anderson

and Sir Peter plan to revolutionise the care system. And they're

starting here in the North East. If you are moved by what you've

heard tonight, get signed up. Don't go away and think you will do it

another day. Get signed up. We will shut the door. LAUGHTER. CHEERING.

It is not about judging people. It is about loving and caring for

people in a practical way. Are you staking your reputation to

that promise? I am. I see this as a tremendous last effort for me in my

life is So what is Safe Families? It started a decade ago in Chicago. And

It's a really simple idea. Church volunteers are given basic training

to help families in crisis. They take in their children for a few

days, or weeks, while the family sort themselves out. Early

intervention before problems spiral out of control. But how might it be

viewed outside the church? I think people would be suspicious

understandably. I think people will perhaps wonder what people's motives

are? People are sceptical. Especially when the church comes

alongside and says, we want to do something. Because I think the

question would be why? Why? Because there is a crisis in care. Numbers

are soaring as council budgets shrink. There are nearly 70,000

children in care in the UK. Up 12% in four years. But in the North

East, numbers are rising even faster. There are now more than 4200

looked after children here. That's up nearly a quarter in four years.

In Cumbria, there's been a 30% rise over the same time.

Sir Peter has wanted to fix the care system since he started projects to

help ex`prisoners, like this furniture workshop in Hexham.

I've got 30 odd guys in here. There are 7000 guys leaving Durham Prison

every year. So, from a business perspective, you wonder the cause of

this. And the cause, with a lot of it, is the breakdown of the family.

Children being taken into care. So could we stop that? It's a big ask.

By intervening early, before social services get involved, he reckons he

can save the state millions. Especially as the volunteers don't

get paid. And Sir Peter knows about the bottom line. Having left school

in Durham with just one O`level, he transformed his father's car

dealership into one of the most successful motor groups in Europe.

Selling it in 2006 for ?506 million. I've been invited to a Safe Families

training session to find out how volunteers prepared to look after

someone else's child and how they are vetted. Just have a little bit

of the discussion about, actually, these are some of the things that I

am concerned about if I am going to embark on this volunteer process.

I suppose the real question people will wonder about is are you sure

you're not going to end up having a scandal on your own hands? Where

something goes badly wrong? We will put sufficient checks in place and

also processes in place to ensure that that doesn't happen. You would,

if you felt it necessary, say to somebody this was not for you?

Definitely. In fact, I'm told later that one person in the training

session was barred when vetting picked up information serious enough

to stop him working with families. He does not feature in this film.

The project is focused on helping mums with young children, isolated

with nowhere else to turn. Once my husband had gone to prison, at

first, you're left grieving in a way. And you just feel like you are

at the end of your tether. You don't know which way to turn. Kate was one

of the first to get help. Safe Families looked after her children

when she went into hospital to give birth. Before they came, I thought

it was going to be really difficult. I thought I wasn't a good mum. I

blamed my husband for putting us in this situation. And then, when they

came, instantly I felt, you know, it was the right thing to do. They were

a fantastic couple. Straightaway, my sons, both sons, just took to them

instantly. And I just knew it was the right thing. Volunteers are

ready. But there's a spanner in the works. Local authorities are slow to

refer people to Safe Families, despite the obvious appeal.

When Peter came to see me about this project, I recall it very well.

Because I almost leapt across the desk and said, when do we start?

Middlesbrough looks after 369 children at a cost of ?16.5million.

That's ?43,000 per child per year. It's just getting the confidence of

the children's services people. So that they feel confident in

referring them to us. Leave that with me. Thanks very much.

Middlesbrough Council has now referred 40 cases to Safe Families.

Ray Mallon's a fan. But not everyone is. Sir Peter came under personal

fire for setting up the Emmanuel Schools Foundation. City academies

in Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Doncaster and Blyth bound by a

strong Christian ethos. I suppose the suspicion might be

that, by getting involved in this, in some way, you are trying to

indoctrinate people? No, well, that is not the case. I mean, the

children that we are working with are generally under three. So you're

not doing much indoctrination with a one or two`year`old child. You know,

what we are trying to do is provide the support to a broken community.

Do you have families from other religious groups away from just

Christianity at the moment? no, we are... I've seen the head of the

Muslim Council of Great Britain. We will work with the imams in

Middlesbrough, which is where we started to provide care. How open

are you really to people from the gay community? From different ethnic

backgrounds? Religious backgrounds? We are not barring anybody. Right.

What we are looking at is what is best for the child and the mother

and the family. We are trying to keep families together. We are

trying to stop them going into care. Losing children to the care system

when she was in the grip of heroin addiction, another mum's story. For

me, it was, you know, it was like a downward spiral that happen very,

very fast. And did for the children too. And it's taken six long years,

you know, for me to find myself again. Now she's clean and she's got

a toddler. Safe Families took him in as she fought to get custody of her

two eldest boys. The stress, the emotional kind of turmoil. All that

kind of stuff of six years came to a head. So, you know, I really needed

to reach out and get help. And that's what's Safe Families did. My

son has been looked after for nights. He's been away for two

nights, three days. I'll get him back tonight. And this couple is

absolutely amazing. I mean, and she's Scottish, so... LAUGHTER.

She did also say you look like granny, didn't she? So that was very

nice. What actually possessed you to get involved with this? Two of us

knocking around in a largish house. When we heard that at church, I just

thought, we've got quite a lot of time. Maybe I could do something?

Maybe we could get involved in some sort of thing. I was not quite sure

what it would entail. It is not a difficult thing, though. No. I mean,

you are just showing normal human kindness, hopefully, to people that

need it. To date, Safe Families has trained 268 volunteers, helped 70

families and Sir Peter's got his foot to the floor. in Chicago, where

it started, they have half the number of children going into care.

Our idea is that we will be initially in about 60 cities with

25,000 volunteers. And then, in ten years, numbers of 100,000 volunteers

working across the UK. The problem is getting worse, not better. So

there's a bigger and bigger need for this sort of action.

Wordsworth, Ruskin, Wainwright. All inspired by the Cumbrian

landscape. But have you heard of Percy Kelly? If not, you might soon.

Jacey Normand has been following Percy's tail. A troubled and

eccentric artist who only now after his death is getting wider

recognition for his work. He drew everything in sight, all his

life. It was compulsive he couldn't not paint or draw. An amazing man.

He was a one`off. I don't know what it is. But it's something that makes

people think, I want that and I like it. This is the landscape that Percy

Kelly loved. So I've come to find out more about a prolific artist

with an equally incredible life story. He wasn't interested in the

chocolate box Lake District. But of the down to earth beauty of West

Cumbria. So that's where I'm headed. I'm meeting up with Chris, a former

art gallery owner. She's researched and written about Percy's life and

work. So when did Percy first come to Allonby? He and his first wife

Audrey moved here in 1958. They gave up the sub`post office in Great

Broughton and bought Glen Cottage just round the corner. What was his

early life like? The family were very poor. He was born into a family

of seven in a very small house in Workington. A very religious family.

And he was a twin. Really? Mm`hm. He used the back room as his studio,

which is quite a tiny room. And he had a huge printing press in there.

And Percy, who was always short of cash, is still remembered in the

village shop today. When he used to come in, he used to want to exchange

for groceries, you know, for his paintings. And did you take any of

them? No, we didn't, no. But we wish we had now. But his time in Allonby

came to a swift end one night, when he revealed a secret to his wife.

She could see a fire flickering. And she thought, good, Percy is home.

There was a strange women sitting by the fire with her back to her. ``

woman. The woman turned round and it was Percy in her Jaeger dress. He

was asking for help with his make`up. And she threw him out and

locked him out and changed the locks. He never came and lived here

again. Throughout the rest of his life, he'd alternate between being

Percy and Roberta. My next stop is a short drive cross

country to Isel near Cockermouth. I've come to visit an old friend of

Percy's, who spotted the potential of his work. I thought it was very

good. Because it was so original. And the chief thing about it was it

belonged to Cumbria. And he adored Cumbria.

Mary was the director of the Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal and

exhibited his work in the 1960s. He was fixed on the Lake District. And

I think that's been the secret of his success. It was an area he loved

deeply. It wasn't only canvas Percy loved to

paint on, when Mary was in hospital he sent her painted letters. He used

to write to me everyday and the nurses used to rush up and say, can

I have the envelopes and I'd say no, I want to keep them altogether. He

had a great appeal in the hospital I can tell you.

I used to think if he did not spend all this time writing letters to

everyone he could have done so much more.

After the break up of his marriage, Percy came here to Levens Hall near

Kendal with his new partner Christine. He lived in one of these

cottages a few miles from the famous topiary. Mavis Aitchison remembers

visiting Percy. What was he like? He was very unusual, it was not

possible not to like him, he was very focused on his own work but

also conscious of what was going on around him, you'd think he was

paying attention and then he would come out with something really

personal and pertinent to what we were talking about. Mavis remembers

a prolific artist, who refused to cash in on his work. When we came to

visit them here in this cottage, we went into the hall and there was a

whole stack of paintings along the hall, I think they were the ones

that he had painted in Brittany they were very highly coloured and floral

and very attractive and I said "are you going to sell them?" and he said

"No. No." He was one of those artists who believed in their own

value, and want others to share their high opinion, but are not

prepared to sell their work to achieve this. Percy craved

recognition but couldn't part with his work. He was always sorry when a

painting went, and sometimes he asked for them back, he used to

write to people and put a nice illustration in and say I'm really

missing it can I have it back! He changed his mind? Yes.

In 1973 Percy and Christine moved to St David's in Wales and then onto

Norfolk. And after years of hardship and Percy refusing to sell his work,

Christine could take no more, she left him. I think she could not

stand being so poor, and the frustration of knowing there was

this wealth of beautiful art, really interesting paintings sitting there

not doing anything. So with Percy alone and in exile in Norfolk, how

did his work find it's way back to his home county? I'm heading to

Kendal in search of answers. "Dear Miss David, Thank you so much for

your letter which arrived today. Your very kind and appreciative

words about my work really touched me. It is so rare to hear such

compliments and since I am experiencing the darkest period of

my life I got quite a lift. Incidentally, there is a letter box

which we often use strapped to a short pole and covered in ivy. It is

a quite charming way to post ones letters!". Percy was replying to

Joan David, an art lover from Kendal. She'd been captivated by one

of Percy's pictures and wrote to him asking to buy some of his work. It

was the start of an enduring friendship. What was a tentative

early beginnings of a few letters going back and forward rapidly

developed into something that was almost on a daily basis, certainly

as far as Percy was concerned. Did you have any idea of the number? No

not until we opened the trunk after my mother's death and it tunrs out

there was something like 1500 letters in the trunk, it was amazing

as they only met three or four times during their lives. "Dear Mr Kelly,

What an amazingly generous person you are! I have been living on air

since your most beautiful painted letter arrived". There were times

when Percy was very short of money and mother was doing what she could

to help, the sort of things she did, she sent him stamps to keep the

correspondence going. And it was his good friend Joan and Chris who

rescued the artwork crammed into Percy's tiny Norfolk cottage after

his death in 1993. Finally his work would get a wider audience. In 1994

nobody really knew about him at all, and yet when the catalogue went out

I had a queue right down the hill for those paintings and then every

exhibition since then there has been a queen outside the door. Now he has

hit London, he hit London three or four years ago and last December one

of his pictures of Cornwall sold in Christies for ?4,000. I think he

would have been very startled by that now. It's now highly prized `

he's even been compared to LS Lowry. So Percy Kelly, "talented", "

troubled", "a genius". All descriptions made about him ` he's

certainly not been forgotten in his beloved Cumbria. Long after his

death interest continues to grow in his work` but then he always knew

that would be the case. "I cannot paint for monetary gain. I would

rather starve than sell one piece of my work but I know when I depart

this world people will stop and wonder at the beauty and truth that

I have portrayed". If I say opera ` who springs to

mind? Pavarotti? Glamorous divas? Probably not homeless people. Well,

here in the north, a group who've known the worst of times are now

staging and starring in their own ambitious productions, with the help

of a charity called Streetwise. And they say it's life changing. THEY

SING. We know saying I am in my own zone, I forget all my problems all

my stresses. # when I sing. I feel it lifts my spirits. You are saying,

this is who I am this is what I feel inside. You let it straight out. For

the members of Streetwise Opera it's been an extraordinary journey ` from

homelessness to opera star. The experience for many has changed

their lives. They have questions themselves about their own abilities

and achievements, but we are behind them always saying we believe you

can do this. When they prove that to themselves, it is very often a

turning point. Can we just have a re`capital the choreography? In

Newcastle and Middlesborough the groups meet and practise once a

week. Rehearsals today are at Changing Lives ` a homeless hostel

in Newcastle. THEY SING. Before coming to Streetwise, Peter

Harrison slept rough for several weeks. He then moved in to a hostel.

I was, I suppose what you would call a here and that, I never went out

the house. I suffered from alcohol addiction and streetwise has helped

me get over that. It has given me the ability to talk to strangers,

something I would never do. The North East has one of the worst

homelessness problems in the country. In our towns and cities

last year around 5,000 people were helped. Although Bridgette Foley was

homeless for just a few months in Newcastle, she knows exactly how it

feels. Her problems made worse by years of depression. It was a

horrible place to be. The depression, low self`esteem, low

confidence, I was panicking about everything. I would wake up in the

morning and it was like Groundhog Day. I would think, I am here again.

I would feel the same way. It was like being dragged into hell.

SHE SINGS. Today though Bridgette says

Streetwise Opera has helped transform her life. From singing in

the kitchen she's now one of their rising stars. In recent performances

she's even sung in German and Latin. I think it is about what you get out

of it. Music can change a lot of peoples' lives in totally different

ways, whether you can sing professionally or sing to a certain

standard, who cares as long as you get something out of it. That's what

it has done for me. It has changed my life. Without my singing, I don't

think I would have been here. So the whole thing with that coy... # And

all the progress we're bringing. Good. So you are kind of saying,

yes, I can show you a good time. Fearlessly, heads facing that way.

THEY SING. Streetwise Opera has ten centres

across the country and at the Sage in Gateshead rehearsals are underway

for one of their biggest productions yet. It's the opera's first regional

tour and for its members in the North East opening night is just a

few days away. I do a lot of performing as a musician but I

always enjoy Streetwise performances a little bit more because you're

working alongside extremely talented performers. But they are not so

experienced on the platform so you remember that thrill of performing

from the early days ` that you see in them and you can really feed on

that so a lot of performing on streetwise. # So forward we go,

we're firing our heart. A few days later the big night's

finally here. But backstage in makeup, does Bridgette have any last

minute nerves? I actually do but I hide it well. I just have a laugh

with people and try to forget what I am about to do. The opera is an

ambitious project that interlinks with an on screen film. It's set in

the world of corporate business. SHE SINGS.

EVERYONE SINGS. I am not a great opera buff, I must

be honest but you can see the passion and commitment there and

that's what counts. It was like nothing we've ever seen before. We

did not know what to expect. It was very different. Most people do not

want to join in but you have no choice. They all enjoyed it so it

was fantastic. It felt amazing. Everyone did

fantastic tonight and everyone said it was the best show we have done.

Getting the flowers, I could not believe it, I felt like such a star.

It was great. THEY SING. I just love it and I love singing

and performing. Everything that I do builds my confidence and I hope that

somebody, seeing somebody like me doing that, it can inspire them.

Everybody is worth something and they all have a life to live, they

just have to get out there and do it.

That's it for tonight. Next week, we reveal the map of a

WW1 battlefield that looks strangely like Teesside.

See you next Monday. Good night. Hello, I'm Sam Naz with your 90

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