07/10/2013 Inside Out West Midlands

Tonight I'm at Severn Valley Railway in Bridgnorth asking, how will they

find the apprentices of the future to keep them on track? We are at a

crucial point in our history on the railway. This is about getting young

people in to replace our ageing workforce.

Also on the show — is £8 a week enough to feed an elderly resident

in a care home? We know of people who have lost huge amounts of weight

in homes because their weight has not been noted.

That's all coming up on tonight's Inside Out — with me, Mary Rhodes.

But first — the pain of losing a loved one never goes away. Nickki

Reid knows this only too well — her sister Gemma was murdered three

years ago. What makes it even more difficult is that Gemma, who had

special needs, was killed by her so—called "friends". Tonight Nikki

wants to find out what's being done to help the victims of "mate crime".

It's August 2010. Gemma Hayter is out with five so—called friends in

Rugby. She's the one with the cap, they're the ones getting in her

face. They befriended her but I don't really know what they got from

it. A whipping boy, maybe? I don't know. But she kept the abuse to

herself. A classic case of mate crime — victims are chosen because

they have learning disabilities, by people pretending to be their

friends. Gemma, being like she was, they thought maybe dash—macro she

thought maybe they were nice people. Fair enough, they are going out for

drinks with her and having her around the flat. You would never

have thought it would end up like that. We're in Rugby with Gemma's

sister Nikki Reid. By retracing this final fatal journey, she hopes to

find out if lessons have been learned. At one point she literally

does look at the camera. She was holding a tissue to her nose.

Apparently it was already bleeding, it had already been broken. She must

have been in a hell of a lot of pain, having trouble breathing.

Mopping up blood. Even after taking a beating, she follows obediently

behind, trusting them to take her home. This is where it happened,

this is where her body was found. Yes, she was there. Her feet were

there, her head was there, face down. Naked. 55 separate injuries

were found on Gemma's body. A full inquiry into her care found 22

missed opportunities to protect her. Warwickshire's entire safeguarding

system has since been overhauled. That must give you shivers? It does.

We knew what was going on with Gemma, my mum has boxes of

paperwork, it has driven her insane, the phone calls she has had to make

and the brick walls she has hit. The five were jailed for a total of 85

years between them. While there was no evidence it could have been

predicted or prevented, the case raised wider national concerns about

community safety for vulnerable adults. Three years on, Nikki wants

to know what's changed. We have been assured that lessons have been

learned. As far as I'm concerned, they are lessons that were so

obvious, they shouldn't really need learning. But apparently they have

learned lessons. What they have put in place I don't know. Does anybody

know what a mate crime is? The OK cards are for "yes" and the question

marks are "don't knows". It's a new day in a new town. We're in

Stoke—on—Trent to see what's being done to help people find out who

their real friends are, and speak up about those who aren't. Would you go

to the police about your friends? I would do, yes. It is rather

difficult, but yes. Mostly it is important that you speak to

somebody. The Staffordshire advocacy charity REACH is all about giving

its members a voice and ensuring those making decisions that affect

them are listening. I sit indoors all the time sometimes because if I

have my light on, they are on me, they are kicking my door. Mary had

to moved away from her tormentors. Not all of the abuse is that obvious

— but it's just as shameless. Every Tuesday they are always round.

Asking me to buy them this and that. I have reported them to social

services and they are looking into it. I have also reported it to the

police. The police say, if you are soft enough to give your money away,

it is your problem. There is a big difference between helping others

and being taken advantage of, though. Yes, I think I have been

taken advantage of. Other people are out and about and have seen this

happen. They have said, why are you doing it? I have said, I am scared

of what the circumstances would have been if I didn't. They were waiting

for me to pay for the round on Saturday. It came to £25. I had £5

on me. Somebody turned around and said, can I have a word? She said,

if you want to take a walk, we will leave your drink behind the bar.

Take a walk, come back in ten minutes, I will get rid of your

friends. So—called friends. She got rid of them for me and I went back

and finished my drink. Nikki can see her sister in a lot of people around

the room. With Gemma, she was getting knocked about, money stolen

and everything. I believe if she had a group like this who she could have

sat with and had more confidence, she would have spoken up. They

rarely —— she rarely spoke up about anything, they were her friends.

Social services are onto Carl's problems and the police have offered

to talk to him again, but Nikki's still worried. Stop giving your

money to people. We're on our way to meet another Karl. Karl Evans is 20

and about to leave the protective environment of his college in

Stoke—on—Trent. Just the sort of person Sergeant Rob Bateman and PC

Teresa Fodden want to hear from. Getting people to report any kind of

disability hate crime is the hardest part of the job. Yes, massively

underreported. I suppose it is one of the few crimes that we want to

see an increase off, particularly first—time reports. Me and Nikki are

dropping in to see how they could help Karl keep safe. He's had

problems in the past. Are you all right? People were bullying me

because I was fat. As I walked back down the corridor, they would say

here comes fatty, he can't fit through the door. The next minute,

somebody was punching me like that. Rob and to Reza want more people to

report stuff like this. —— and to Reza. But Nikki's sister didn't like

talking to the police about her friends, so she's wondering

But Nikki's sister didn't like talking to the police about her

friends, so she's wondering how they would deal with that.

She was known to the police, they would be like, Gemma, again. They

looked after her brilliantly but there was no follow—up from the

other agencies that needed to do their bit. We have a fortnightly

meeting with mental services, alcohol awareness, drug services so

that the most vulnerable people are being brought to the table and we

say, what are you going to do? Something like that seems so obvious

and that would have been fantastic when Gemma was alive. We've heard

mate crime is massively under—reported, but have a guess how

many cases the police get to hear about? 50,000. That will be way off.

I will say more like 20,000. 25,000. They're all way off. 1744. And that

is all disabilities. Across the West Midlands forces, you're talking

about 143 reports to the police a year. In Warwickshire, where you

live, it was eight. What? Eight. I can name more than eight. And so can

the charity Mencap. Of the 1.5 million people with learning

disabilities in Britain, it believes 90%have experienced hate crime. But

is Karl feeling any safer? If something does happen I can have the

confidence to talk to the police about the things that have

happened. Whereas before, I felt a bit cautious. I feel safe doing it

now. Losing Gemma was devastating. Nikki's heard the reassurances, but

does she now believe the police and social services are listening to

disability campaigners who say they must up their game? I am still

concerned about people with special needs being thrown back into society

once they reach adult hood. It is like throwing a rabbit to the wolves

come EU would not do it. If they ——, you would not do it. If they needed

support before the age of 18, they need it afterwards.

Maybe you're in a similar situation to some of the people in our film —

or a family member is suffering. If you need help then go to our

website, bbc.co.uk/insideout, for advice. Or maybe you'd like to tell

me your story. If so, e—mail me — [email protected].

You're watching Inside Out for the Midlands and next we're asking, is

£8 a week enough to feed someone old and frail? Apparently some care

homes think it is. We've found evidence that one in six nursing

home residents sometimes don't get enough food or drink, and that the

quality is often poor. Jon Cuthill investigates.

# Bring me sunshine. You may have seen them on the X

Factor. Many of the people here belong to The Nostalgics — the

surprise group of pensioners from Coventry voted through on the talent

show. # So much joy you can bring...

Although they were thrilled, they decided to bow out of the

competition and stick to singing for charity and at their weekly

get—togethers. But what an inspiration they are. Sadly, though,

not all of us will stay this active. # Bring me sunshine... About one in

six people aged over 85 will end up in a care or nursing home. And when

we get there we'll be paying hundreds of pounds a week for the

privilege. So you'd think the least they could do is make sure we get a

good meal. But that's not what's happening in many homes up and down

the country. It's estimated one in three residents right now is

suffering from malnutrition. For the group set up to inspect homes, the

Care Quality Commission, that's a huge concern. One man from Dudley

found things had got so bad he actually checked himself out of his

residential home and is now catering for himself.

Some of the food we had was perhaps one fish finger fatigue, with two or

three waffles, and a spoonful of baked beans. Perhaps Gerry Anderson

Green. Not very nutritious for people. —— perhaps some jelly and

green. Or maybe they pieced together some cheese on toast. It was not

very nice feeling. I used to have some fish and chips brought in at

night and so did one or two other residents. He was very unhappy in

the home, he was short of food. And what he was given was not very

appetising. It is obviously cheap food. And he became very unhappy. So

I used to take food in virtually every day. Colin Parkes is now

managing well at home with the support of visits three times a day

to help him get up and go to bed. I am pleased to be able to look after

myself and cook my meals as I wish and how I want them. It is quite an

interesting thing. We've been speaking to families across the

country concerned about relatives. Many have watched mothers or fathers

dramatically lose weight once they go into care. The first year

everything was OK. The second year, he started to lose face. —— lose

weight. I noticed his clothes were loose, so I mentioned it several

times and people would say, "weight loss goes hand in hand with

dementia." I am sure it does, but when he was with me, he would always

eat everything. He needed a lot of support with eating. If you gave him

a sandwich, you would need to say, put it in your hand, put it in your

mouth, then he would eat plateful. Eventually when his clothes fell

off, I took on to the doctor. He said we should put him on to

supplements. That seemed crazy when he had recently been to my house for

Christmas dinner and eating the same amount of everything as everyone

else. Bill Francis lost so much weight in his previous care home

that his daughter thought the Care Quality Commission should take

action. I reported thing to the sea QC —— the CTC and they did an

inspection. It is then that the penny dropped. They felt the home on

three out of five outcomes, one that the nutrition and hydration was not

being recorded properly. —— they failed the home. The staff were just

unable to cope. Although weight loss can frequently be related to health,

groups such as the Relatives and Residents Association says the sheer

scale of malnutrition picked up in a Care Quality Commission report is

tantamount to abuse. The care quality commission study found that

one in six care homes were not helping people enough to eat and

drink. That is a huge number. We are talking about something like 17% of

care homes. And we do not really know what is happening to those

people. We know of people who have lost huge amounts of weight in homes

because their weight has not been noted, there nutrition and hydration

intake has not been measured. It has been up to the relative to point

this out. But we know that something like 20,000 people in care homes

have no kiss or kin and no visitors, and who was looking after their

welfare? Who am I? Isabel. Well done, yes! Some families have become

so concerned they want to start a nationwide campaign to force

improvements on the whole sector. Isabel Brown moved her mother Rita

three times, the latest move just the previous day to somewhere with

excellent food. She didn't see why the previous homes should charge

nearly £600 a week and serve her mum the sort of food she had never eaten

before, and didn't want to start eating now. This was just yesterday

lunchtime. Just a random shot of some plates they were being served

out. It all looked the same, everything looked orange and brown.

Ravioli on toast was an option, baked beans on toast. Mum had the

same every day, what did you have for lunch? Two eggs. To poached egg

every lunchtime and you have high cholesterol as well which doesn't

help. Many homes are ignoring the rules when it comes to providing

food for residents, sometimes for financial reasons and sometimes

through lack of care. We were shocked to discover from a chef in a

care home that his budget had been reduced to £8 per week per resident.

And he left because he said he could not do a decent job on that kind of

budget. With 151 homes currently recorded as failing on nutrition by

the Care Quality Commission, the regulator told us they'd like people

to contact them if they have concerns. We would hope that people

would be able to talk to the provider and say this is not good

enough. We know that he sometimes not easy for people so we would

invite people to tell us about their experiences. They can do that with

an inspector on site at all the time they can contact us through our

website where people can leave comments about the services they are

using. We do want to hear from people. That is how we decide and

how we know where we need to focus our attention and go. Although some

of the homes featured have managed to turn things around, together they

paint a worrying picture of staff unable to help and budgets cut to

the bone. The disturbing picture there. And if

you have got a similar experience you would like to share and me with

the team, drop me an e—mail. Thousands of visitors come here

every year to get up close to the steam trains of old. But keeping all

of this moving is a huge job. And the Severn Valley Railway realised

that there is a problem looming on the horizon which could mean that

the wheels on this railway stop turning forever.

The Severn Valley Railway. A 16 mile stretch which between Bridgnorth and

Kidderminster where steam engines run and thousands of people come to

step appalled. Keeping it running in the future could be difficult. The

traditional engineering skills to maintain one of these are no longer

being taught in modern—day classrooms and there is a real risk

that those skills could be lost forever. We are at a crucial point

in our history. This is about getting young people into replace

our ageing workforce, and we have still got the workforce with the

skills to hang on a younger generation so we need to do that

now. They need young people like Anu, a sixth form student in

Coventry who wants to be an engineer. But Anu has differed ideas

about his future. I probably want to do error not a court engineering,

and go to F1 or the European space agency. —— error nautical

engineering. It sounds exciting but can the Severn Valley Railway change

his mind and get him to consider a career here? I have been so stuck on

doing F1 or space, I have never thought about steam engines. I do

not know what they will do to convince me. I think it could be a

tough job. I am 100% certain that we can convince him that the railway

can offer more exciting and engaging prospects than modern industry. It

is such an emotional experience working on a railway. Anu has never

really seen engines like this before. This is his chance to get up

close and take a look. That is unbelievable, isn't it? Next stop is

the locomotive works. It is a bit different to Formula one! Here,

manager Ian Walker shows Anu the sort of things he will be working

on. We have had new tyres on all of the wheels that you can see. If you

go further towards the back, we have had new frames on the back of the

locomotive. The whole of the cab is new and the substructure that the

cab sit on is new. I have got a real challenge for you. What would you

say to him to commit to his future lies in steam engines? This is a

similar trade to Formula one, this is heavy duty, it is not light

works, every single day is different, every job is different

and no two days are the same every year. It is completely different.

Formula one, it is the same engine block and wheel nuts, it gets

boring. Here, you have seen the size of the loco, the bits that are

involved. Every day is different. Even if they do convince him, the

Severn Valley Railway will need a small army of engineers to keep all

of this up and running. So they have set up a heritage skills training

academy. We are going to imbue these young people with these traditional

skills. So that we have got the Red Cross in the future to maintain ——

the workforce in the future to maintain our boilers, charities and

track. Beyond the Severn Valley Railway, are there really any

prospects in heritage steam engineering? In this country there

are over 200 heritage railways. Not only are we recruiting but all of

these traditional heritage railways are looking for young people with

these skills, because we are all in the same boat. The railways

charitable trust says sales of shares has helped to run the economy

and it will —— Academy and it will work with Telford College. The first

apprentices have been recruited. The practical tests we put in with

carriage locks was fascinating in what it revealed with apprentices,

so I think you should have a go. No problem! So we have got to rebuild

an old carriage door lock. Does not sound too hard. Let's get cracking.

You need to follow the instructions, that is the key. If you missed a bit

out, you have got to take it all apart to put it back in. It is

actually harder than it looks. It is still wrong! Never mind, never mind.

It is all over, Sun! Quicks, mate, I am going to do you, I am going to

beat you! I think I have almost cracked it.

That has got to go in Flash. And it doesn't. What? I had him beaten as

well, I literally felt at the final hurdle. I am beaten! His is right,

yes. Yes, I am the winner! You happened to beat me at that which I

am not pleased about, but there you go. What you have seen so far, what

are your thoughts, have you managed to be convinced? It has been an

experience. They have both definitely told me how doing this

kind of engineering is very hands on, very mechanical. As we have just

seen. It is definitely appealing to be a lot more because of the hands

on. It has been really good so far. Has it surprised you in any way? I

think it was kind of what I was expecting but simple stuff like door

locks, doing a simple door lock was so difficult. Imagine how hard it

must be to build such an enormous train. The amount of engineering and

work that goes into it, it is incredible. But before we go, there

is one more person for Anu to meet. 16—year—old Max Green is one of the

first apprentices to join the heritage stills academy. What got

you interested in an apprenticeship in steam railway? I think since a

young child, I have been going into steam rallies and railways like this

and experiencing the nostalgia of them. The opportunity of getting a

job if it is amazing. Could you say anything to Anu who has got a

passion in modern engineering, how could you convince him to do what

you are doing? Wouldn't you just love to be stood up here knocking

about with a few hammers? You can see what you are doing here. With

computers, it is more artificial. You know where things are going

wrong, it is more hands—on. Young apprentices like Macs are the key to

ensuring the Severn Valley Railway will still be here in years to come.

Have they convinced Anu to join them? Not quite. It is been an

amazing experience, I have had such a good time. I have seen and learned

a lot more to the railway industry, the engineering side, stuff I did

not know existed will stop it has been really good. Even though they

have not really convinced me to do Railway engineering, it does not

mean that other people should not do it. It is really important that

other people, other students should come and join us apprentices. It is

a shame that Anu does not want a career in this kind of engineering

environment. Learning the traditional skills. But I am pleased

to hear that he is excepting that there are young people willing to

cumin and taking up the traditional skills, playing with the big

spanners. So, Ritchie did not quite managed to

persuade Anu that steam trains were for him, but nice try! That is it

for me, I will see you next week. Next week, it is an inside out

special, when all the teams across the country are investigating food

fraud, asking if the food we are eating is what it says on the tin.