28/10/2013 Inside Out North West

Welcome to Inside Out North West. This week we are at MediaCity in

Salford. Some of the most popular TV and radio shows come from here, but

the studios are also home to the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. They have

been drafted in to give some help with a special performance.

Tonight, as the last Remploy factory closes in the region, we investigate

if the policy to find the workers madestream jobs is working. The

Government's work programme is failing disabled people, the failure

rate is at least 88%. We reveal a unique way of helping recovering

addicts. We don't need that stuff to get on a stage. The buzz I get now

is better than any drug. And we meet Cumbria's Community

Orchestra as they perform with the BBC Philharmonic after just six

months of training. There is only one thing better, was when my wife

was having a baby, that is the only thing better than that, the only

thing. If After almost 70 years Remploy's

presence in the North West will end later this week when the last

remaining factory for disabled workers closes in Blackburn. Nine

other sites have already been shut down with the loss of around 35

jobs. The government insists the money saved will be used to help

them find new work in mainstream industry. But is that policy

working? Paresh Patel has been following their plight for the last

14 months. From Blackburn to Barrow in Furness,

Birkenhead to Bolton, across the North West the government has closed

nine Remploy factories. 350 disabled workers have been laid off.

Struggling on my own with two kids. It is not fair.

26 years and this is what they do. Sorry. Before because I was disabled

I was doing nothing. I was putting something into society.

This and other factories in the Remploy group are part of a

nonprofit making organisation. It was set up after the Second World

War by the Labour government, state subsidised factories provided jobs

to disabled servicemen. It developed over the employing thousands. ``

over the years. But disability groups say there is no place in the

21st century for segregation. For every one person that is funded

by subsidising a loss`making factory, we can get at least eight

people into employment. What this is about is more jobs for more disabled

people. That was 18 months ago when she

advised the government to close all loss`making Remploy sites, and this

is what the head of Disability Rights UK now says.

The government's work programme is failing disabled people. The failure

rate is 88%, this is a really serious failure in relation to

disabled people. And admission that the policy didn't

work. What is going wrong? This is Remploy in Blackburn, the last

factory in the North West that since 1950 has provided jobs to people

with physical and learning difficulties, but this week it will

close as well. Its workforce of 19 has been expecting this for more

than a year. Nonetheless, they say they feel betrayed and are angry at

the government for a policy that is cruel and callous.

We have just been sacked, nobody has been put through any process to help

them in another job anywhere else. Vulnerable workers like Tim Murdoch

who has been here for 26 years are now being forced to find new work in

mainstream industry. I am willing to go out and find a

job suitable for me, after it has gone. But I think, are there going

to be any jobs out there? Worried workers are bracing

themselves for the dole queue. They are holding a final union meeting.

GMB Union shop steward Brian Davies has come to offer support. You know

what you have to do. Go and sign on and all that. It is a sad day. Sad

day for all of us. Brian knows how they feel. He lost

his Remploy job 14 months ago when the Wigan factory closed. His union

position is also due to finish when Blackburn is gone. Every job that

comes up, you go for it. Do your best. And they see you, instead of

your disability. You will be fine. I wonder if he is putting on a brave

face. I have followed him since he lost his Remploy job. He has battled

self`doubt, depression and even thoughts of suicide. BBC Radio

Manchester. 34 workers with disabilities have lost their jobs at

the Remploy factory in Wigan today. Most of those workers like Brian had

worked for Remploy for decades. All 33 years every year has been

different. I let my wife here, I have three beautiful boys. It has

been fantastic, the best 33 years of anybody's life. He filmed the last

day. This was more than a job. It was a home from home where an

extended family cared for each other. Brian was born with brittle

bone disease and they were his life`support unit. When I break a

bone, I have broken a leg, and I came into work, my colleagues around

me just chipped in, help me to get work out. Elaine and Jeffrey Wright

also met and married, but now they have lost both incomes. It will be a

big loss. We have a mortgage. And other bills have to be paid as well.

It will be a very big loss. How worried are you? Very worried. But

will they ever work again? Cuts, job losses, money for the

bosses. The closure of factories across the North West provokes

widespread protest against the government.

They said there was going to be help out there for us, support, there has

been nothing, not a phone call, letter to meet anybody, nothing It

has all been a pack of lies. But some former Remploy workers have

found new jobs from a government sponsored work programme. Identical

twins Gary and Neil Parsons are affectionately known on the shop

floor as 118 and 118. Made redundant at Remploy Oldham they now make PVC

windows. UI doing to bring different all the time. Despite learning

difficulties they have adapted well to mainstream industry. Plenty of

overtime, dayshift, night shifts. There are less breaks. I feel proud

of working here. They are among nine former Remploy workers out of 8 .

Remploy implement services, not to be confused with the factories that

have been closed down, this is a separate business to help people

with disabilities get new jobs in mainstream employment. We do that by

helping them with any barriers they perceive, and addressing those

barriers. That could be interview technique, making sure they have got

an excellent CV, helping them with Peter skills. `` computer skills.

This is one of nine government funded learning centres opened to

all disabled people. It is tough at the moment, tough for everybody but

the figures speak for themselves. Last year we placed in the Northwest

3200 people. In addition four of the Remploy factories that have closed

have been restarted as new businesses by private investors

They are rehiring former workers. When the site closed 34 people lost

their jobs. But if there former managers have taken over the site

and launched a new company will stop they have taken on 17 people with

disabilities and they say as they were more contract they will

increase the workforce. `` win more contract. But they do not include

Elaine and Jeffrey, or Brian. Many deployment experts say the plan is

not working for Remploy workers because the majority of workers or

older. It is tough for workers in their 50s. Any added his advantage

like a learning difficulty will make you at the end of the list ``

disadvantage. Elaine and Jeffrey are now spending

their first Christmas on the dole. Have you got your key? They are

trying to find jobs but they say the world outside Remploy is harsh and

prejudging them. I go for a job interview, tell them I have got

learning difficulties, they look at you as though you are not there you

don't matter. It is the way I am. The government promised them help to

make the transition into mainstream industry. But is that working? Not

really. I could do with a bit more help filling in forms, and help on

the computer. To the present day they have not had

a single interview in the 14 months since they lost their jobs.

Brian has spent four months helping workers get redundancy payments but

his union has told him his contract could end in the New Year. He once

to find a new job but he says employers cannot see past one thing

`` he wants to. You go in, the first thing they see, in a wheelchair

What have I got to live for, I am stuck in this house watching the

clock around? Watching for the life the way I had, and I will not have

it again. I know what it is like to live in these four walls, the telly,

the bed, the couch, that is my life will stop `` that is my life. He

continues to work for the union but when Blackburn closes on Thursday

his job will be reviewed again. For the workers, only one out of ten is

likely to find a new job in the near future. It also means that after

almost two thirds of a century in the Northwest a way of life has

gone. Coming up: We join the Cumbrian locals preparing to perform

as an orchestra for the first time. My bottom note, which is a D, sounds

like I've sat on an elephant and it goes... A dance studio is probably

the last place you'd expect to come across a group of recovering

addicts, whether it be from drink, drugs or gambling, but here in the

North West dance is being used to rebuild the lives of former addicts

with the help of a former ballet star. Good... At a studio in the

Lowry Theatre, Paul Bayes Kitcher puts some young students through

their movements, preparing for auditions at the country's top

ballet schools. Paul was one of the greatest dancers of his generation.

Was that all right? Yeah? I was a first artist for four years and that

I was a soloist for four years and I worked with some amazing

choreographers and danced all over the world I worked for the director

of the Kirov so I had a really, really blinding career. But when

Paul retired at the age of 30, reality hit hard. I started dancing

when I was four went to the Royal Ballet School when I was ten, and

then right up to the age of 30, that's quite a long. And then all of

a sudden, nothing. Do you know what I mean? And that really, it broke

me. I hit the depths of despair they call it like the jumping off

point. It was like the gates of hell clamped around me and I felt

desperation, I felt loneliness, like few do. Do you know what I mean I

was just isolated. I couldn't go out of the house. I was dying basically.

There was a lot of addiction around me. I was surrounded by it, I was in

the middle of it. It almost took my life. Paul is now using his dance

training and life experience to help others. He's formed a dance company

called Fallen Angels which is made up of recovering addicts. There is a

thing in recovery, it says no matter how far down the scale we've gone

we'll see how our experience can benefit others, so no matter what

has happened in the past, what you have done, this can be used to help

somebody. Fallen Angels is a nonprofit organisation. With the

help of grants, a core of dancers go into prisons and rehab centres,

helping others face their demons and find a voice through movement. In

the same room you'll get a guy that was 60 years of age, dying of

alcoholism, that was detoxing, and then you get a girl 17 years of age

who was on the street from shooting up heroin, so it was quite diverse

range of people that were in there but they were all in there for the

same thing, that they couldn't stop drinking and using and the process I

started to use was I started with creative writing and exploring

people's stories and then picking out key words from those stories to

see how I could generate choreographic material through

emotion. You help me see it as a warning. Today the group are meeting

in Liverpool to try some movement inspired by a poem written by one of

the members, Rebecca Finch. There was so much pain and it wasn't in

vain. A frightened child stood alone. Basically, what we are going

to do today is we're going to work from Becky's poem because I think it

is so powerful and it means so much about a person's journey in recovery

and the struggles that they come up against as well. So, some key words

that kind of came out of that. One of the words was, I could feel

myself falling. Yes? So, if you were to put an image on me as falling,

like an emotion, to try connect with the emotion inside and then how

would that come out as a movement? There was so much pain, so, how

would you describe pain? Brilliant. OK. So, the first one we have got is

falling, which is Lisa's. Falling. And then this one, trying to contain

something, which could be your addiction, bringing it into your

heart and then here,... If I didn't have a drink or drug inside me you

would not have got me doing anything really. All of the dancers were

addicted to drugs or drink and introduced to Paul and the Fallen

Angels when they were in rehab. They say dance is helping them to stay in

recovery. I'm dancing from my addiction, I'm dancing from my past

and now it is kind of like I'm letting go of it. All that, and I

can feel that, that's the energy flowing through me and the energy

from the group and the energy from Paul. OK, just find some space. Face

front. It helped me a lot. I have a lot of pain. Pain, even when I was

using and all the sadness but also pain when I'm ill. I express that

and it helps me deal with it, expressing all that pain. You know

when you are angry and you want to lash out? You just want to lash out.

And this, you don't have to get angry, it just eases my anger and

all my emotions and it takes it away in dance. With the support of the

other Fallen Angels, they are rebuilding their lives. I now have a

little part`time job and also, the big, big thing in my life is I'm

going to go to college. It's an HNC which is like a first`year degree,

to study dance. Obviously my technical ability is not amazing but

they kind of, they said my passion and my heart, you know, it's all

there. So it's going to be a really hard year but I can't wait. I cannot

wait for that year. You know, I ve got friends, true friends now who

are not just introducing me to drugs, I've got proper, true friends

who are there for me, loving me and don't want nothing in return. I m

there for them and that's proper friendship. We're like a little

family. After practising all afternoon, the dancers are ready to

try out their latest piece on a stage. I could feel myself falling.

But a new day is dawning. There was so much pain but it wasn't

in vain. Like a risen fallen angel, I'm

flying again. My chains are broken.

Now I'm free. To help someone, like you helped me.

You don't need that stuff to get on stage and, to be honest, the buzz

that I get now is better than any drug. When you're on that stage and

you come off and your heart's pounding and it's just like, people

are clapping, oh, I love it, I really love it. Despite his past

glory, Paul says it is the happiest and most fulfilled he has ever been.

I never thought something that I'd done for years and years, and with

all that destruction that happened as well, could be used as a

beautiful tool to inspire and motivate people. It seems to have

gone from strength to strength, so it's pretty, it is pretty powerful,

it blows me away. It can take years to master a musical instrument, just

ask the musicians here at the home of the BBC Philharmonic in Salford.

But imagine trying to learn an instrument in just two months and

then performing in front of 600 people. That is the challenge that

80 volunteers in Cumbria signed up for to help celebrate a very special

birthday, as Chris Jackson reports. Cumbria's towns and hills are alive

with the sound of music. Excuse me. While we are tuning it is not very

helpful if you are playing in a different key. Brass and wind, you

do not have to play all of the time. OK... Come on! You should have been

in ten bars ago. I can't read music. I have never played a musical

instrument before. Keep the momentum. It is slowing down. If you

don't know what you are doing, you just play a note and I am sure it

will all blend in. That was wrong. Absolute rubbish. Is this the most

stressful job in Cumbria? In just two weeks Barry has to turn this

bunch of enthusiastic musical amateurs into Cumbria's Community

Orchestra, performing in front of 600 people. Some people have played

years ago and they have suddenly found that they have a dusty

instrument in the cupboard and thought they would have a go. Some

people have only been learning for a few months so the challenge has been

to try and make a piece where everybody can contribute the

maximum. The orchestra is the idea of BBC Radio Cumbria, created to

celebrate the station's 40th birthday. Adam took up the double

bass in January but help is at hand. We'll just do the first, you and

just do the E, the open E. Members of the prestigious BBC Philharmonic

Orchestra are mentoring the volunteers. On the double bass is

Alice. It's going pretty well so far. Early days. I have got bad

habits from a punk band so I have been doing all of the finger

movements but she's keeping more organised but bad habits die hard.

It is here at Salford at Media City that the BBC Philharmonic are based.

On the big night they will perform in Whitehaven alongside the

Community Orchestra. To get out to the wilds of Whitehaven is a new one

for us but great and, of course it is exactly the sort of places that

the orchestra should be going to and making some music in these places.

# Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly. # This is where Geoff

and his granddaughter Carenza get their practice in. Well, we normally

practice on the way to school, don't we? We do. They are part of the 22

strong chorus. We thought, let's give it a go, and here we are and

I'm glad I made the decision I have thoroughly enjoyed it. And so have

I. And I think you have. Yes, I have. Every time in rehearsal my

bottom note, which is a D, sounds like I've sat on an elephant. It's

sort of like... Nell and her mum, Helen, from Barrow In Furness have

been rehearsing in South Cumbria. She usually plays really quiet so

you can't hear her. Helen's son Isaac has Asperger's syndrome so

joining the orchestra was a chance for her and Nell to have quality

time together. Nell gets pushed out of the way sometimes because of

Isaac and his special needs, his Asperger's. It is just a nice way to

spend time together that is not autism related. At rehearsals the

orchestra's own take on The Sorcerer's Apprentice is coming

together. Yes, it is getting better, it is getting better. Back at work,

landscape gardener Adam is playing with his other instrument. And, with

less than a week to go, the magic of the orchestra is starting to show. A

lot of my friends have said it's just full of middle`class toffs and

people that are posh and stuff like that but when you actually go there,

it's a different feel. It can be old people, children and people from all

backgrounds. It is going to be an awesome day for Whitehaven. It is

the big day and the South Cumbrians are on their way to meet their

friends in Whitehaven. I am nervous but a bit excited as well. This is

what we have been working for. I'll be interested to see the orchestra

is actually going to sound like when we are all together. For me it is an

absolute honour to think that we can be part of that for a day. One

minute, everybody! So nervous. I am so anxious but so excited at the

same time. I just cannot wait. Bring it on!

Good evening, this is BBC Radio Cumbria, live from Whitehaven Sports

Centre with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cumbria Community

Orchestra and Chorus. Ivor's Fanfare For Cumbria gets the

evening off to a stirring start Now it's time for the locals to

shine. The first minute was so slow, I was

so scared, there was so much tension, everyone was watching you,

but after that it was surprising, it was really good.

I was always waiting for the da`das and oo`was because that was always

my favourite bit of it. Music for me is a bit of an escape

from my everyday life. This just gives me some thing else to talk

about other than autism. It just does, it is brilliant.

Absolutely fantastic. Better than I ever dreamed it would be.

It just felt weird because I don't normally do it in front of that many

people. There is only one thing better, was when my wife was having

a baby, that's the only thing better than that. The only thing and I have

done a lot of things in my time trust me.

Oh, dear. Sorry. Sorry, my sister, if she's watching on telly. You just

get such a buzz. You can tell that everybody is giving 110% and it s

just electric. Just working with them and making things happen, it's

just an amazing experience. Didn't they do great?! Well, that's

all from me for this week. We're back in January. I'll see you then,

bye. Hello, I'm Riz Lateef with your

90-second update. Four people are dead after the worst UK storm for

years. Hurricane-force conditions left almost half a million homes

without power. In some areas wind speeds reached up to 99

miles-per-hour. The weather caused travel chaos for many. Rail and road

services were disrupted because of fallen trees, while over a hundred

flights had to be cancelled at Heathrow. Get the latest updates on

BBC Local Radio. On trial over the phone-hacking

affair. Two former News of the World editors, Rebekah Brooks and Andy

Coulson. Both deny being involved in accessing voicemails.

The NHS in England must handle complaints better. That's according

to a new government report. It says there's a culture of delay and

denial which needs to change. Are our streets being lost under a

tide of litter? The charity Keep Britain Tidy thinks we're dropping

around thirty million tonnes every year. It estimates cleaning it up

costs more than a billion pounds. of the night in the mail that needs

to change.