26/10/2017 Victoria Derbyshire

Good morning, it's Thursday,

it's 9am, I'm Matt Barbet,

welcome to the programme.

People could be offered up to £1,000

a month to rent their spare rooms

to those being discharged

from hospital in a scheme

being considered by the NHS.

The Airbnb-style plan is aimed

at tackling the chronic bed shortage

in the health service.

Thousands more families are needed

to foster children and there is more

pressure to find carers

from different religious

backgrounds than ever.

We have a special report

on the people who foster

and the care leavers,

as they share their

experiences, good and bad.

The principle of fostering which

makes it a success is not because

you put two together because they

are the same religion, if you are

foster care, you have to have it in

new, nature, nurture, you have to

look after this child, no matter

what race, religion, but becomes

secondary.

And at 10, we are talking to former

Towie stars, mum and daughter

Debbie Douglas and Lydia Bright.

The chat that goes with

gaming can be offensive,

intimidating, but is it

just part of the territory?

An anti-bullying charity says

gamers and sports fans

are amongst the worst offenders

for their attitudes to mental health

and the language they use around it.

We are talking to a group of gamers

in the next half hour.

Hello.

Welcome to the programme,

we're live until 11 this morning.

We are interested in what you think

about the scheme of opening up

people's homes to patients to free

up beds in hospital. The latest on

the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Do get in touch on all the stories

we're talking about this morning.

Use the hashtag #Victorialive.

And if you text, you will be charged

at the standard network rate.

NHS patients recovering

after an operation could be moved

from a hospital bed to a stranger's

spare room under radical

plans being considered

by health trusts in Essex.

Talks are at an early stage,

but the company behind

the idea has already started

recruiting potential carers.

Our correspondent, Alice Hutton,

has been following the story.

Good to see you. It is an intriguing

idea. Certainly caught the eye of

some of the newspapers. Tell us

where it came from.

This is about

easing the problem of ad blocking,

huge problem in NHS England, last

year they lost 2.2 million beds

through patients possibly through no

fault of their own, not too sick to

stay in hospital, but not quite well

enough to go home if they had to

live alone. And emergency services

doctor in Essex has thought, why not

ease the shortage by getting

households who can provide a private

room and bed and three meals a day

to earn about £50 a day, £1000 a

month, caring for them at home?

Inevitably, a reaction which we will

get in a second, very early days,

this is still an idea, not happening

at the moment.

The pilot scheme has

not even been signed off yet, they

are hoping to have it in Essex of

about 30 people and they are looking

for carers at the moment. We have

already heard voices who are

anxious, including the Association

of directors for adult social

services, they have said they

worried that if you put patients in

the care of carers who are not

professionals, they

could be neglected or perhaps

abused.

We heard earlier in the week

about better efficiency in the

health services to do with operating

times and operating theatres not

being used well enough, busiest time

of the year, winter, these ideas

will crop up more, what has been the

response from the health service?

The health service have said today

that while they welcome innovation,

they think it is still a long way

off. But it is worth noting that

today the emergency admission

figures came through and they said

they are up by a fifth for the first

time in five years which could be

some people say down to a doctor is

trying to clear beds too early.

Thank you.

Annita is in the BBC

Newsroom with a summary

of the rest of the day's news.

Good morning.

More than 300,000 people are leaving

the workforce every year

because of insufficient support

for mental health problems.

A report, commissioned

by the Government, says the human

cost of this is huge

and that the loss to

the economy runs into tens

of billions of pounds.

Now the Prime Minister has

instructed the NHS and the civil

service to do more to help promote

the mental wellbeing of their staff,

as Rob Sissons reports.

At this insurance company,

they are proud of their record

of supporting workers.

Today's report recommends more

places should be like this.

Aviva in Sheffield says it's tried

to change the way people think

about mental health,

training managers and

encouraging openness.

James Tringham has a history

of mental health problems,

something the firm was aware

of when they took him on.

When I started working

here, I was terrified.

I had to be coaxed in

and the support team that

were training me at this stage

weren't sure if I'd make it

through or not, although they could

see that there was potential there.

And work has a great benefit.

It has a normalising effect.

The government-ordered review

which covers the whole of UK

suggests what is being held up

as good practice is yet to catch on.

It concludes poor mental health

costs businesses £42 billion

a year in lost work days

and low productivity.

The costs to the UK economy is put

even higher at £99 billion.

That takes in NHS costs

of caring for people,

the payment of benefits

and lost taxes.

The Government says it welcomes

the report and says big employers

like NHS England and the civil

service, who have two million

workers, will now be

guaranteed tailored in-house

mental health support.

And it will encourage small

businesses to implement

the recommendations.

Rob Sissons, BBC News.

Polls have opened in Kenya

for the re-run of the disputed

presidential election,

which is being boycotted by the main

opposition.

President Uhuru Kenyatta

won the August election

by 1.4 million votes,

but the Supreme Court annulled

the election, citing irregularities.

The numbers of disadvantaged pupils

gaining places at top universities

could be significantly raised

if entry requirements for those

students were lowered by two grades,

according to research.

A study by the Sutton Trust showed

that if a student's background

is taken into account when making

offers, what it calls

contextual admissions,

the numbers of students from less

well off families could rise by 50 %

at those universities.

Youth workers have been told

they should consider monitoring

the social media used by young

people who are at risk

of being involved in crime.

The recommendation's been made

by Her Majesty's Inspectorate

of Probation, which has warned that

a quarter of the crimes it

studied were directly

linked to social media.

Here's our Home Affairs

Correspondent, Tom Symonds.

Violent crime is increasing after

years of decline. This report

reveals increasingly the way young

people communicate is making the

problem worse. Aggressive messages

online have resulted in physical

assaults on the streets. Gangs make

videos which can raise tensions with

rivals. Social media is used to

blackmail and intimidate, especially

sexually. Out of more than 100

cases, studied by the inspectors,

one in four were directly linked to

something put on social media. The

report concludes... The internet is

not the only trigger. Three out of

four involved in youth crime had

suffered some sort of previous

emotional trauma, making it more

likely they would offend.

We found a

range of things, sometimes simple

exchanges could escalate into

violence when people met,

particularly if there is a knife

involved. People were using social

media to plan crime. And sometimes

people were using social media to

commit crime, soap, for example,

blackmailing people who put

unfortunate images of themselves on

that media.

Youth offending teams

struggle to keep up with the jargon

used online. As one youth worker put

it, they used to hang around on

street corners, now they get into

arguments or plan offences on the

internet.

Another woman has accused

the Hollywood producer,

Harvey Weinstein, of raping her.

The Norwegian actress

Natassia Malthe said

he assaulted her after

the Bafta Awards ceremony in 2008.

Mr Weinstein insists all his sexual

relations were consensual.

Meanwhile, the BBC understands

that the Government's

Honours Forfeiture Committee

is actively considering removing

the producer's CBE.

A car designed to travel at up

to 1,000 miles an hour will make

its first public runs later today.

The British designed Bloodhound

will be conducting trials

at a mere 200 miles an hour

in Cornwall ahead of

an attempt to break the land

speed record in 2019.

Just a little Sunday drive today

then! That is a summary of the

latest BBC News. More at 9:30am. We

are discussing loads of stories

including this one about interracial

foster care, with a shortage of

foster carers in the country, more

people need to do that and perhaps

kids will be placed with those of a

different background or faith.

Plenty of tweets on this. One says,

a lovely story about interracial

foster care but I am angry the

integrity and trust of UK Muslim

foster parents has even been

questioned. Another says, these

assumptions are clear indication of

the lack of faith education in

schools, essential to learn and

understand. Patrick has tweeted, it

does not just depend... It does not

depend on the religion, it depends

on foster parents and how they will

care for the kids.

Do get in touch with us

throughout the morning -

use the hashtag Victoria live

and if you text, you will be charged

at the standard network rate.

Let's get some sport with Katherine.

England's women haven't had the best

start to the Ashes series,

and they have their work cut

out again today.

What's the latest?

It is not looking good for England

again. Already done the series after

losing the first ODI, set a record

run chase if they want to level the

series in the second, but it has

looked like they might be saved by

the weather. Not looking great in

Australia. England have started the

innings badly. Australia made the

start, progress briefly halted by

the fine catching from the captain

Heather Knight. That brought the

Australian skipper took the crease

and she smashed 89 from 56 balls. A

terrible start to the reply from

England. Out, third ball. England

3-1 after an over. Not looking good

for England in the second ODI of the

Ashes Series.

Spurs have been on

fantastic form, getting a result

against real Madrid, Liverpool. Last

night, it was all about West Ham.

It

was. Finally, good news for West Ham

fans after miserable form in the

league, hovering just above the

relegation zone. Maybe the League

Cup will be their salvation. They

came back from 2-0 to beat Tottenham

3-2 in the League Cup. Two goals

down, Moussa Sissoko scored for

Tottenham after five minutes. Dele

Alli with the second. But West Ham

turned it around, three goals.

Slaven Bilic celebrating the result.

Giving Mauricio Pochettino a big

hug. Slaven Bilic is under huge

pressure after their league form,

but he said his side reacted in the

most brilliant way. A glimmer of

light the West Ham. In the other

League Cup match last night, Chelsea

beat Everton who sacked their

manager Ronald Koeman earlier this

week, 2-1 the score, Chelsea beating

Everton.

I do not play golf, but I

certainly understand the value of a

hole in one. Two parameters in

Berkshire Hathaway managed an even

more incredible feat.

-- amateurs. I

have never managed a hole in one! It

is a combination of skill, luck,

being in the right place at the

right time. What are the chances...

I am about to tell you! Two

consecutive holes in one. Never

previously played together, they

play in Berkshire, on the 13th, one

hit a hole in one, celebrations,

then the other one steps up to the

tee and she hits a hole in one too.

According to the national hole in

one registry, who knew that existed?

The chances of hitting two

consecutive holes in one in the same

round of 70 million to one.

Completely amazed I have got a hole

in one before it dawned on us we had

both done it and that must be pretty

rare.

It was so exciting. We did

high fives, probably a little dance,

I cannot remember, so lovely.

I

imagine an astronomical drinks bill.

Tradition is, after you have scored

a hole in one, you have to buy a

drink for everyone in the clubhouse.

Two drinks for everyone!

I'm amazed

they never played together before,

they will have to play together from

now on, so good.

Firm friends for

life after the stroke of luck, I am

sure.

Thanks. See you later.

You may remember the recent row that

hit the headlines, about a little

girl who was originally reported

to have been removed

from her Christian mother and placed

with Muslim foster carers.

The story turned out not to be

what it first seemed,

but it still highlighted the fact

that it's not unusual for children

in care to be moved to new foster

carers dozens of times

in their childhood,

often living with people

from different backgrounds.

The UK's leading charity

in the area, the Fostering

Network, has recently launched

a project to recruit more

Muslim foster carers.

They say that thousands more foster

families are needed each year,

with a need for foster carers

from all sectors of

society, including from

the Muslim community.

Our reporter, Ashley John-Baptiste,

has been to meet some foster carers

and care leavers who have been

sharing their own,

varied experiences.

The story of a child who was removed

from her Christian mother and placed

with Muslim foster carers recently

gained significant media attention.

The Government say interracial

and interfaith fostering

should be a last resort,

but for some councils,

it's a choice between leaving

a child in a care home or moving

them to a different family.

We've been to meet some

of those families.

I was talking to one of my friends

on Facebook and he was like,

"So where are you living?"

I was like, with my family,

and he was like, "You're

living with terrorists."

I was like, excuse me.

The first family I lived with,

they were an Indian family

and they were Muslim as well.

It was just a massive culture shock

because my mum's white.

Over 72,000 children

in the UK are in care.

According to latest figures,

over 53,000 of these are fostered.

We've come to Nottingham to meet

an interracial foster family,

the carers are Pakistani Muslim.

They look after 18-year-old Rebecca,

who is white British and doesn't

hold a religious faith.

Rebecca was fostered

by the Arshad family six years

ago, when she was 12.

Having just turned 18,

she's now a care leaver,

but continues to live

with the family under

an arrangement called 'staying put'.

Legislation that allows care leavers

to stay with their foster parents

if both parties agree to it.

We're looking after one Afghani boy,

one African girl from Kenya.

Rebecca has just moved out

of the foster carer.

Now she is staying with us

under 'staying put'.

Rebecca, why have you chosen

to stay with this family?

I'm literally a part of the family.

If I had left, I wouldn't have

anyone else to call family.

What does this family mean to you?

Everything.

Literally everything.

As Rebecca can tell you,

she considers us as her family

and she wants to continue to stay

with us for the rest of her life.

You are obviously white British.

Yes.

And you're not a Muslim.

Were there any cultural changes

moving into this home?

I'm not a spicy person,

so a lot of the food,

they have to make it so mild.

So obviously, they make

separate dishes.

Religion-wise, obviously,

there's certain things

you need to know about it,

like you can't walk in front

of someone if they're praying.

I didn't know that when I first came

in, but you told me.

At my old foster carers,

we used to go away a lot

so I was used to adopting

to different cultures

from different countries.

Actually living in it

on a regular basis, I think

was kind of like a hard bit.

Mum and dad pray.

You call them mum and dad?

Yeah, I've always called

them mum and dad.

After three months, she decided

to call us mum and dad.

She says, "Can I stay, please?"

We feel like she's

our daughter, yeah.

I have children from

my previous marriage.

He has got children

from his previous marriage

and she is our child.

Have you ever wanted to see

Rebecca become a Muslim?

We've discussed it with her,

how she would feel, but we never

imposed saying, Rebecca you should

become a Muslim because

you're in our household.

Rebecca has got her own identity.

Rebecca is going to be Rebecca.

And it's like the clothes,

the dress, the food,

the religion is significant

to individual choice.

We celebrate every culture

and religion in this household

and we also celebrate Christmas

because it's the holiday

and all the family gets together,

it's festival time,

but when Rebecca came along,

the first Christmas she had with us,

we bought a Christmas tree,

but we haven't done that before.

I asked Rebecca, do

you want a Christmas tree?

She goes, don't buy a real one,

just get me a little artificial one

and she wanted a pink one.

I think the principle of fostering

and which makes a success is not

because you put two together

who are the same religion,

the same religion people

could have problems as well.

If you're a foster carer,

you've got to have within

you the nurture nature.

You've got to look after this child

regardless of race, religion -

that comes secondary.

First is, you have got to love that

child and protect them

and got to make them

safe and secure.

Do you think that

Muslim foster carers

are stigmatised in our society?

They are because if the girl goes

in a Muslim household,

she is going to forget her identity.

She is going to forget her religion

and forget her culture

and she is going to wear

a hijab when she walks out.

People normally stereotype that.

A lot people, a lot of white

people question, oh,

is she going to become one of you?

Is she going to have

an arranged marriage?

Is she going to do this?

No, she is a child

with her own identity.

We are her parents and that does not

mean we control her life.

When I first went to Pakistan,

I was talking to one of my friends

on Facebook and he was like,

"What are you doing?"

And I was, oh, I'm on holiday.

Where are you?

I was like, Pakistan.

So where are you living?

I was with my family.

And he said, you're

living with terrorists.

I was like, excuse me?

When I tell them I'm in a Muslim

family, they will start making

sudden assumptions like...

They haven't said it to me directly,

but they've said it behind my back,

"Ah, I bet her parents have got

explosives or bombs or whatever

in their house!, and I'm

just like, I live there.

In my spare time, I don't like,

I don't learn how to make a bomb.

I live in a family,

as any other person would.

It makes us feel hurt sometimes

because we're trying to give this

child the best care of the world.

The Government doesn't

have figures on how many

interracial placements exist.

We do know, however,

that last year saw a rise

in the number of children in care

from ethnic minority backgrounds.

And whilst it's estimated that 3,000

Muslim children are put

into foster care every year,

only a quarter of long-term foster

carers are from an ethnic minority.

We understand what God

wants us to do.

We understand who God

is and how he feels about us.

Krish Kandiah is a Christian

theologian who has fostered children

from a broad range of religious

and cultural backgrounds.

He currently has three

foster children.

We pray that you'd open our eyes

to those that are in need

around us every day.

We started fostering 11 years ago.

We had three birth kids

already and, to be honest,

I was a little bit reticent

about getting started.

Just reading the Bible,

it has so much to say about God's

concern for vulnerable people.

And in our society, kids

in care have often come

from very a vulnerable context.

If your religious faith is a key

motivator for you being a foster

carer, how do you then not

enforce your faith on the foster

kids that you look after?

The important thing for me

as a foster parent - and we have

looked after children who have

Christian faiths, some

have no faith, some came

from Muslim backgrounds -

I guess it is a principle

of reciprocity.

I would like to think if my children

had to be in care for some reason,

their faith would be respected

and they would be allowed to go

to church, they would be allowed

to read the Bible or pray

as they saw fit.

So when kids come into my care,

I want to offer that same kind

of care to the parents and

the children that are in my care.

So when Muslim children have come

into my household, I have asked

through the social workers,

what does being Muslim mean for you?

How can we honour that, how can

we show hospitality for that?

So sometimes that's meant

we've had halal food,

or sometimes we have been

vegetarians because we couldn't get

hold of the food

that would be halal.

Sometimes that meant making a Koran

available to a child or offering

to take them to a mosque.

So I would hope that what I do

for these children would be the same

as what someone would do for my kids

in a similar circumstance.

One time, four children came

in a police van at 2am

in the morning and two lovely police

officers came and kind of helped

them get into our house

and we knew immediately

that they were from a Muslim

background because the little girl

had a head covering.

Did you feel ill-equipped to meet

the religious, the cultural

needs of those children?

At that moment, in my lounge at 2am,

these children just need to know

they are safe and secure.

We want to offer them

some hospitality.

We got milk and cookies.

And that's the most important thing.

And then

we had a little bit of time

until the next morning

to kind of figure out,

OK, what does this mean?

How do we make this work?

I'm sure you have come across recent

headlines about the Christian girl

in Tower Hamlets who was put

in the care of Muslim

foster parents.

How do you think that story has

informed the public's

view of interracial

and interfaith foster care?

I think it's had quite

negative ramifications.

I have met fantastic Muslim foster

carers who have made space

for Christian children

or Muslim children.

Despite the rise in the number

of children in care from ethnic

minority backgrounds,

latest figures show that

84% of long-term foster

carers are white British.

I just think we need to do better

at making all types of carers

welcoming to the system and we do

need more Muslim carers.

We need more people from black

and ethnic minority backgrounds.

We need more Christians,

there is a deficit of

carers across the UK.

What does it take to

make an interracial

foster placement work?

You just need to think your way

into their shoes and emphasise

as best you can, and try and imagine

what this trauma feels like and then

find a way to kind of meet that.

I think if foster carers were able

to receive more training on becoming

faith literate, I think that

would be a great gift.

Jerome is a 26-year-old care leaver

who was put in care at the age

of four and recalls the strong

cultural barriers in

his first foster home.

The first family I lived with,

they were an Indian family

and they were Muslim as well

and it was just a massive culture

shock because my mum

is white and they were

shock because my mum is white

and they were Asian,

and it was like, OK,

what's going on here, in a sense?

So, the first thing that stood out

for me really was the food.

We didn't like the food

because we didn't recognise it.

We were used to what my mum used

to cook, like corned beef and rice

and English breakfast,

and that just disappeared.

They would cook like what they call

biryani, which is rice with chicken

and chapatis and different curries

and things like that, but the stuff

that I didn't recognise it,

so we didn't eat it.

But eventually, over time,

there was little things we ate,

but they kind of forced us

to eat it basically.

And so, it got

to the point where they would just

give us jam sandwiches.

To be fair, they lost us.

Your carer's job is to find you,

but they actually lost us as kids

because they weren't interested

in who we were before we got there.

So...

So they didn't take time

to understand your background,

your cultural identity?

Not at all.

Not at all, if anything,

they damaged us further

because they didn't

want to understand.

So, one, they didn't want us

to understand who we were,

but at the same time, they also

excluded us from who they were.

We would watch them pray,

but not really understand

why they're doing it

or what it is and just copy.

We would model it and copy it,

but we didn't understand

any of the process.

We weren't brought

into their family unit.

They weren't given the right

training to understand that.

Children come with an identity

and your job is to help to help them

to understand who they are,

but also, you can introduce them

to your cultural identity.

And the way we were treated,

we were like second-class citizens.

I mean, I used to cry myself

to sleep and always wished

to be away from there.

The Fostering Network,

a leading charity in foster care,

says thousands more carers

are needed each year

from all sectors of society.

And despite Jerome's experience,

they recognise the need for more

Muslim foster parents.

They have recently launched

a project to recruit more of them.

Have a conversation with them.

Who said that?

Not me.

What would you say to people

who have a negative view

of Muslim foster parents?

Basically, it's like,

don't judge a book by its cover.

You can't believe everything that's

on the news or what's

been told about Islam.

You actually have to, I don't know

what the word is for it,

you actually have to be

there and understand it.

Great smiles at the end. And a great

response to that report on social

media. And said, brilliant story.

Heart warming, life affirming and

true unlike other platforms

reporting falsehood. Some people

have been getting the reporting of

this wrong.

Peter said, sorry, you are moulded

to the people you live with and if

they follow a religion can you

experience it every day and you have

to abide by it if you live in a

house.

Soo e-mails, you can do all of these

if you want to get involved...

Society is a metropolis of

multi-race beliefs and we truly find

our place as young adults in the

world by being free to choose ad

live by our own values. Thank you

for those messages and I will

discuss those after ten o'clock with

a group of people with first-hand

experience of this.

Still to come...

First Scotland, then Catalonia, now

independence fever has reached...

Canvey Island.

We find out why.

An anti-bullying campaign has found

that there high levels of offensive

language in the gaming community

when discussing

mental health issues.

We'll be speaking to

gamers to find out why.

Time for the latest news.

Here's Annita.

The headlines now on BBC News.

NHS patients recovering

after an operation could be moved

from a hospital bed to a stranger's

spare room under radical

plans being considered

by health trusts in Essex.

Talks are at an early stage,

but the company behind

the idea has already started

recruiting potential carers.

More than 300,000 people are leaving

the workforce every year

because of insufficient support

for mental health problems.

A report,

commissioned by the Government,

says the human cost of this is huge

and that the loss to

the economy runs into tens

of billions of pounds.

Now the Prime Minister has

instructed the NHS and the civil

service to do more to help promote

the mental wellbeing of their staff

Polls have opened in Kenya

for the re-run of the disputed

presidential election,

which is being boycotted

by the main opposition.

by 1.4 million votes,

but the Supreme Court

annulled the election,

citing irregularities.

The numbers of disadvantaged pupils

gaining places at top universities

could be significantly raised

if entry requirements for those

students were lowered by two grades,

according to research.

A study by the Sutton Trust showed

that if a student's background

is taken into account when making

offers - what it calls

contextual admissions -

the numbers of students from less

well-off families could rise by 50%

at those universities.

A car designed to travel

at up to 1,000 miles an hour

will make its first

public runs later today.

The British-designed Bloodhound

will be conducting trials

at a mere 200 miles

an hour in Cornwall,

ahead of an attempt

to break the land speed

record in 2019.

That's a summary of

the latest BBC News.

Here's some sport now.

England have been set huge target by

Australia. Chasing 296-6. Terrible

start, losing a batter for just two.

It is currently raining, no play at

the moment. We will keep you

up-to-date. West Ham thought --

fought back to win. Chelsea also

beat Everton to one. Celtic beat

Aberdeen 3-0 to move three points

clear at the top of the Scottish

Premiership. That is the headlines.

Back to you.

Speak to you later. Thank you.

A committee of MPs has called

for the waiting time before

claimants receive their first

Universal Credit payment to be cut.

The Work and Pensions Select

Committee said reducing the waiting

time from six weeks to one month

would remove a major obstacle

to the success of the policy.

Let us have a chat with Eleanor

Garnier at Westminster. The

Government has not gone with this

idea so far, will they now?

They are

under a significant amount of

pressure for the flagship welfare

policy. Universal Credit is

something that rolls six working age

benefits into one, designed to make

the system simpler and to make sure

no one is better off claiming

benefits than in work. It is being

rolled out gradually across the UK,

currently just over 600,000 people

on it. This Work and Pensions

Committee is a group of cross-party

MPs and it says that where the

Universal Credit has been rolled out

in its full form, the evidence

compellingly shows it leads to

achieve financial difficulty, people

are ending up in debt and in some

cases they are ending up dependent

on foodbanks. It says if you could

just remove the six-week delay

designed to mimic waiting for your

first pay cheque in a new job, if

you remove that, it would remove a

massive barrier to this policy

succeeding. Labour has already

called for this Universal Credit to

be paused. It says the system needs

to be revised. That is what Jeremy

Corbyn was pushing Theresa May on at

Prime Minister's Questions

yesterday, challenging the Prime

Minister to say, look, will this

roll-out finally be paused?

Perhaps

I could update the House on where we

are on the roll-out of Universal

Credit. Currently of people claiming

benefits, 8% are on Universal

Credit, by January of next year,

that will rise to 10%. The roll-out

is being conducted in three phases

and in the intention of it being

completed by 2022. It is being done

in a measured way and I am pleased

to say that four out of five people

are satisfied or very satisfied with

the service they are receiving.

Significantly, several Tory MPs have

also voiced concerns about the

Universal Credit roll-out and with

parliamentary arithmetic as it is,

Theresa May's very slim majority,

causing the pram and a step at a

headache. Privately, it is

understood ministers are looking at

opsin is -- looking at options --

causing the Prime Minister a

headache. The advance payment system

for people who need help has been

improved. The Tory critics who are

critical of the scheme are hoping

there might be an announcement from

the Government ahead of the budget

next month.

Thank you. Still to

come...

An anti-bullying campaign has found

that there high levels of offensive

language in the gaming community

when discussing

mental health issues.

We'll be speaking to

gamers to find out why.

First, there was the Scottish

referendum, then the UK's

vote on leaving the EU,

then Catalonia voted

for independence in a disputed

referendum, and now...

Canvey Island.

OK, it may not quite have the same

ramifications as those other

pushes for independence,

but the island in the Thames Estuary

wants to separate from the Essex

council that runs it.

Until 1974, the 40,000

people who lived there

had their own district council,

but since then, it's been part

of Castle Point Borough Council.

The island has its own independence

party with councillors,

who sit on the borough council,

but they say they're consistently

outvoted and feel like the poor

relations to the mainland.

Now we can speak to Danielle Low,

who wants Canvey Island

to become independent.

Of the council, at least.

Colin Riley is the leader

of the council that she wants

independence from.

And Chris Fenwick is manager of

Canvey Island's most famous export -

the band Dr Feelgood.

And he thinks the independence

argument will all blow over.

Really good to see you all. Tell me,

Danielle Kang on what is Canvey

Island like to live in?

A lovely

community. -- Dani

Island like to live in?

A lovely

community. -- Dani. If there is

anything to be done, they get it

sorted. In good times, sad times,

lovely community. Charities, all

sorts, they step up and do things

together, lovely living on Canvey

Island, I liked.

It is not that hard

to get to the mainland, as islands

go, separated by a creek and a

couple of bridges.

The main road and

the little bridge.

You are pretty

well attached to the mainland. You

think there was a feeling still of

independence on Canvey Island?

It

would be nice to have our own

independence.

Why?

And sometimes the

council, you feel let down by the

council. When you put it to them or

people put it to them, it always

gets backfired, they pull it off on

other people, not their fault,

always an excuse. It would be nice

to look after ourselves, like they

did a few years ago.

Is that true?

And I firstly thank you for allowing

me to come on to the programme?

You

are welcome.

I have been a

councillor for nearly 18 years, when

we took over the administration from

the Labour council, we have worked

through this, providing all we can

for Canvey Island.

There are Canvey

Island independence councillors

there, but they feel they are being

overlooked, do you listen to them as

part of the discussion around the

place?

The leader of the Canvey

independent party, he regularly

meets, he attends my Cabinet

meeting, we have introduced open

questions as well and we have a

policy and scrutiny committee

looking at everything we do. We do

not ignore them and we tried to

include them all the time in what

decisions we are making. We have to

bear in mind our decisions are made

for the whole of Castle Ponit which

is what I represent. We do not look

down on Canvey Island. We want to

make sure they get their share of

what funds are available. Let us

cross to the island itself and

possibly one of its most famous

residents.

He is moving around! What

do you think?

Good morning.

Good

morning. What is your take on it,

being on the island yourself? You

are one of the better-known people

living on Canvey, are you sitting on

the fence on this issue?

It crops up

every ten years, Canvey claiming

some kind of broad independence. We

are on the tip of Essex and I have

always regarded Canvey Island as

more of an overseas protectorate

because we are so different from the

rest of certainly Essex and indeed

from other communities in the UK.

Why? What makes it different?

Settled by the Dutch originally,

reclaim from the sea.

Reclaim land

from the Dutch in the 16th century

when the UK had a Dutch king for a

while, William of orange. It has

grown very organically, which people

have moved from the East End of

London to Canvey since, basically,

the Second World War. Canvey, since

the old administration was shut

down, and we joined in making Castle

Point, Canvey has a 40% increasing

growth of people. Argument, quite

honestly, of there being 17

councillors the Canvey and 24 for

the mainland, it is an imbalance.

Is

this an immigration issue, is that

what you are saying?

No, it is

purely on a voting side of things

and they are looking at ways, I am

informed by various councillors I

know, of rejigging the boundaries of

the awards to give Canvey a bit more

balance. At the moment, there is an

imbalance, purely on the amount of

councillors that represent Canvey as

opposed to Benfleet.

I want to nail

down why you think Canvey is so

special. There are plenty of other

islands in the British Isles quite a

bit further away from the mainland,

dozens of them.

I totally agree.

Canvey is the seventh largest island

in the UK, but its close proximity

to London shapes it because our

travel time, thousands of people

commute to London on a daily basis,

London taxi drivers live on Canvey

Island and drive up there and do

their trade. We are very connected,

it is a very switched on in place.

On the eastern side of it, you sail

off from Canvey and you bump into

continental Europe. We have always

had a very close connection with

Europe. We are sailing community and

a boat building community. We are

extremely switched on, East and

west, and indeed, my band, Dr

Feelgood, before we played in London

in the 70s, we took the ferry to

Holland and did eight shows there

and decided it worked and we then

went to London to try our luck.

It

seems like when Canvey Island looks

out, it looks across the Channel and

not across the creek towards Essex.

Is there something in the number of

people having gone up to 40,000, I

think now.

It is only 30 8000.

Forgive me, close enough. It has

gone up thousands. Are they

underrepresented?

The council do not

set... This is why we offered the

councillors a couple of posts on the

Cabinet to be more involved. When I

took over three years ago, as the

leader of the council, identified

then, half the population of Castle

Point or on the island and half are.

And I said, come and join the

Cabinet.

Unfortunately, they decided

against that. He has put the offer

there, democracy being what it is,

if the whole of the island felt like

this, perhaps they could vote in

more independence councillors.

In

the last vote, did we not vote in

more then?

15 local independence...

Decent enough number. There could be

more of them. Perhaps it will stay

at this level, what do you think?

Maybe they need to do more, if they

are adamant about it, push forward

with it, if that's what he wants.

If

it comes to what you want, and

Canvey did get its own council, like

in the early 70s, what would it be

like them question not just as

lovely as now, just with our own

independent people.

-- what would it

be like then? We have, I was saying

to Colin, the Canvey clean-up team

who go around in their own time to

tidy up the beach. That is not the

job of the locals to do, it should

be the council. They go out every

day, every other day, in their own

time, to tidy up the beach. Little

things like that make us different

on the island.

You may have some

disagreements about the way the play

should be run, but it seems like

quite a special place. Decent sense

of community. Thanks to all three of

you for coming in or staying on the

island to talk about it!

Coming up...

Could inter-faith fostering be

the solution to getting more

vulnerable children out of care

and into foster families?

We'll be speaking to a foster carer

and a man who experienced

inter-faith fostering.

Online attitudes towards people

with mental health problems

are worst amongst the gaming

community, sports fans

and people working in IT.

That's according

to the anti-bullying

charity Ditch The Label.

They've analysed nearly 13 million

online conversations that have

something to do with mental health,

and they found video gamers were 10%

more likely to use offensive

or derogatory language

when discussing mental health.

Earlier this year, the world's

highest paid YouTuber,

PewDiePie, had to apologise

for using an offensive word

during a live-stream game play.

He claims it was just

a slip of the tongue.

But is the community taking

mental health seriously,

or is offensive language

and competitive bullying

an acceptable part of

the fun for some of them?

Let's talk now to Emma Slade.

She's an online gamer who says she's

faced more abuse from females

than males and thinks mental health

can be disrespected

on gaming platforms.

Bailey Mitchell is 17 years old.

He faced a lot of online bullying

over multiplayer games

when he was younger and says it

made his anxiety worse.

Also, Niki Bernard -

or Niki Trash as she's

called on gaming sites -

says the community needs to toughen

up and that abuse as

banter is commonplace.

It is good to have you here. Emma,

first, what kind of Bing have you

experienced and what games were

playing when you experienced it?

To

be honest, I have experienced it

more and console gaming, things like

my PlayStation and Xbox, then PC

gaming. I have been playing games

like grand theft auto or sports

games and that is where I have had

the majority of name-calling. I

think there is a great community out

there, it is just a bit hard binding

them.

When you say they are abusing

you and call you names, how does it

start? Is it just banter and part

and parcel of playing games online

and having a headset on and people

talking and getting into the moment?

I get what she is saying, but

especially with headset gaming, when

it comes to that, there needs to be

a line between banter and abuse.

Mainly, it happens if you don't play

very well in a video game. And I

think most people who play video

games have some sort of mental

health illness...

Most people,

really, have mental health illness

if they are playing video games?

I

would say nearly everyone I know in

the huge gaming community has some

sort of mental illness.

How'd you

know they have a mental health

problem?

I have spent the last two

years raising money for charity and

being very involved raising money

for mental health, so the sphere I

have around me of community have all

got mental health illnesses, or they

are very keen on supporting people.

Is this kind of thing you talk about

drawing playing a game, the mental

health issues you are dealing with?

Laying games on my PlayStation that

is not so much what happens because

people are more in the moment. If

you play a game where people can

leave comments on a live stream, it

is not really banter so much. People

do not really acts like that and

that is a space where you can talk

about mental health illnesses.

Bailey, you have suffered anxiety as

a result of the experiences you have

had playing games online, how did

that manifest itself?

When I was

about 11, I got my first console and

the main game I played was life.

When you play on that game, you can

talk to people on headsets. When I

was 11, if I had strangers telling

me to kill myself if I score a goal,

it really can, you take things more

literally. Over time, you develop

and it does not... For some people,

it is not affect them as badly as

others.

To clarify, we have spoken

to a 13-year-old who plays the game

you mentioned, Fifa, a football game

online, and has not experienced any

of this. How commonplace is it?

I

think it is pretty common. It sort

of depends. If you are playing

online, if you are playing in a big

game with lots of people. If you are

talking. And also, it is not only

over a headset, you can also get

sense direct messages.

A final

question, Bailey, if you have got

all these people in a room together

at a party, there will be a couple

you will avoid because they are

saying too many things you do not

agree with. Is it like that, or is

it more people than that and in a

way you cannot avoid it when you are

playing?

I think by saying just

avoid it, kind of like, it is kind

of not really solving any problems,

it is just hiding a big issue. I

think it really varies. Sometimes,

there will be times when you can

just avoid it, other times, you

cannot. Sometimes it can reach out

under The Times you can't. It really

depends. Again, I don't think

ignoring it is a good solution to

that problem.

Listening to Bailey

and Emma, do you think they should

toughen up still?

Well, the whole

thing is so subjective to what game

you are playing. Grand theft auto,

questionable things, and how are you

supposed to turn on the mute button

and avoid it? It is an online

community and there will be

somebody, somewhere, ranting about

something and people get far too

easily triggered about stuff. In a

real-life situation, you cannot say

these things to a person committee

would not say that naturally.

What

you say online you would not say to

some body's base, within reason?

I

am not PewDiePie, we will just say

that.

I know one word you talked

about using which many people find

so offensive is regard, would you

use that to somebody's face?

Yes, if

they are being ridiculously

unintelligent and that is offensive,

I get it. But it is the 21st

century. I make it sound that I am a

terrible person here, but in the

heat of the moment, in a game, you

do not see these people, you are not

face-to-face. It is very easy to

freely say things you would not say

to them face-to-face. Does that

justify it? No, it does not.

Definitely not. There are people who

get triggered by things so you have

to be careful. At the same time, it

is the online world and no matter

harm hard you try to avoid it, if

you get triggered by things like

offensive language from people who

are gamers all the time playing,

avoid those games may be.

You are a

bit older than our other guests and

you have a nine-year-old yourself

and they play games and experience

this kind of language and you're

happy with that?

Well, I am not

happy with it, but at the same time,

I have taught him that there is a

difference between virtual reality

and the things these people say.

They are grown-ups, they are not the

nine-year-old kids. He notes the

difference between, you cannot talk

like that ever, not in my house, not

out in reality, but watching these

guys playing, he understands, OK,

they are having a rage moment and

they are going to say some

ridiculous stuff.

Thank you, back to

Bailey and Emma. Daily, have you

ever fallen into the trap of getting

so fired up during a game that you

have said things you regret and can

you appreciate white people might do

that?

I can, at the same time,

offensive language is not the issue.

It is what you say. So I don't think

swearing is going to trigger

somebody's mental health issues. I

think telling them that you are

going to find their parents or

whatever, it is really difficult to

find where it starts to become a

problem. But I do think, yes.

Very

briefly, Emma, it seems like there

is obviously still a big gap between

the real world and the online world,

do you think the online world will

grow up a bit or have to grow up to

cope with this kind of thing?

I

think that the online community is

self will grow up itself. What she

said that it is the 21st-century and

it is OK to call somebody a name is

completely wrong, in my opinion. I

don't think children should be

exposed to games with language like

that. It is not swear words that

trigger people, it is the name

calling and the threats.

Thank you

so much. Thank you, all.

There have been clashes in Kenya

this morning between police

and opposition protesters,

who want to disrupt a re-run

of the presidential vote.

But just why is Kenya

holding another election?

Here's the background.

And there will be updates

on the situation in Kenya,

as people go to the polls,

throughout the day on BBC News.

Let's get the latest

weather update, with Carol.

I am already thinking about the

weekend, it has been fairly mild of

late, but it will get colder.

It is too mild at the moment. The

temperatures almost where we would

expect the maximum temperature is to

be at this stage in October. London

would be 40 normally and at ten

a:m., it is 13. Cardiff, 11th,

spot-on more or less. So pretty good

temperatures. But it will change at

the weekend, what would you expect?

I will get my coat! Don't go just

yet! It is turning much colder

because of the wind direction. We

have high pressure dominating,

Friday and Saturday it slips to the

West. The isobars moved from the

North West to a northerly direction

and northerly direction is a cold

direction. In Scotland, temperatures

a bit below average on Sunday, but

with the wind and it feels pretty

chilly. England Wales and Northern

Ireland, temperatures again roughly

where they should be. You are right,

it get your coat, you will need it

by the weekend. And it is very nice

to see you.

We have got some rain across the

central part of the UK, Southern

parts of Ireland and Northern

England and North Wales. Fragmented

at the moment and it had South

through today. As it does so, it

becomes heavier across eastern

parts. Or the far North of England

and Scotland and Northern Ireland,

it brightens up with sunny spells.

In the North and North West of

Scotland, showers and windy. Showers

blowing through quickly. We still

have rain across parts of Northern

England and North Wales even into

the afternoon, heavy bursts possible

in Lincolnshire and cloud, with fog

this morning, lifting three this

morning. By the afternoon, we will

see the clouds break in places, not

everywhere, with a little sunshine

coming through. South Wales has

sunshine but with the weather front

across North Wales, we have light

rain and drizzle and for Northern

Ireland, a fine day in prospect with

sunny spells and highs of 13 in

Belfast. In Scotland, we hang onto

the showers in the North and North

West, a blustery wind. For the rest

of Scotland, dry with sunny spells.

This evening and overnight, the

weather front had South taking what

is left of the patchy rain with it.

Behind it and clearer skies, cooler

night. Frost in Northern Ireland and

Northern England. Bok forming across

Northern Ireland, Northern England

and the Northwest Midlands. -- fog.

When we lose the front from the

South into the Channel Islands, it

takes cloud with it. It will

brighten and we will see decent

sunshine. Windy in the North of

Scotland with the wind strengthening

and severe gales overnight. In the

Saturday, we have this weather front

across Scotland, heading South. A

westerly and north-westerly wind,

not as chilly as the northerly, and

that is the rain coming southwards.

A noticeable breeze if you are out

and about. Temperatures slipping in

the South, 15 is the maximum. Into

Sunday, we still have this northerly

coming down the East coast, so

across England, Wales and Northern

Ireland, temperatures more or less

spot-on but it feels cooler because

of the wind and as we move into

Scotland, temperatures a little bit

below par, especially in Glasgow and

Edinburgh, it should be 11-12, but

with the wind, it feels quite nippy

so get something woolly out to keep

warm.

Hello it's Thursday,

it's 10am, I'm Matt Barbet.

NHS patients could be put up

in people's homes under

an Airbnb-style scheme to relieve

pressure on hospital beds.

That's under a plan being considered

by a health trust in Essex.

We'd welcome your thoughts on this.

Get in touch in the usual ways.

We've a special report

on inter-racial and

inter-faith fostering.

Atheist Rebecca has lived with her

Muslim family since she was 12.

When I tell them I am in a Muslim

family, they start making sudden...

Assumptions.

Yeah. They have said it

behind my back, I bet her parents

have explosives in their house. I am

just, like, I live there!

We'll be speaking to former Towie

stars, mum and daughter,

Debbie Douglas and Lydia Bright

a little later in the programme.

And another woman has accused

the Hollywood producer

Harvey Weinstein of raping her.

The Norwegian actress

Natassia Malthe said

he assaulted her after

the Bafta Awards ceremony in 2008.

Good morning.

He said he could give me the movie

part in an upcoming film.

With the

implication being that I had to

sleep with him in order to get it.

Good morning.

Here's Annita in the BBC Newsroom

with a summary of todays news.

NHS patients recovering

after an operation could be moved

from a hospital bed to a stranger's

spare room under radical

plans being considered

by health trusts in Essex.

Talks are at an early stage

but the company behind

the idea has already started

recruiting potential carers.

The aerospace company

Bombardier is to cut 280 jobs

in Northern Ireland,

according to the Unite union.

It's the latest in a series

of job losses at the firm.

Last year, 1,000 staff were made

redundant as part of the company's

plan to cut costs and

increase profitability.

Four people have been killed

in Finland in a collision

between a train and an army truck

on a remote level crossing.

The defence ministry said three

of the dead were soldiers,

thought to be conscripts doing

compulsory military service.

Youth workers have been told

they should consider monitoring

the social media used by young

people who are at risk

of being involved in crime.

The recommendation's been made

by Her Majesty's Inspectorate

of Probation, which has warned that

a quarter of the crimes it

studied were directly

linked to social media.

We found a range of things,

sometimes simple exchanges

could escalate into violence

when people met, particularly

if there's a knife involved.

Secondly, people were using social

media to plan crime.

Thirdly, sometimes people

were using social media

to commit crime, so,

for example, blackmailing people

who put unfortunate images

of themselves on social media.

There have been clashes in Kenya

between police and opposition

protesters as polls open

in the re-run of the disputed

presidential election.

President Uhuru Kenyatta

won the August election

by 1.4 million votes,

but the Supreme Court annulled

the election, citing irregularities.

The main opposition leader has

described the election as a sham

and urged his supporters

to boycott it.

A car capable of travelling at up

to 1,000 miles an hour will make

its first public runs later today.

The British-designed Bloodhound

will be conducting trials

at a mere 200 miles an hour

in Cornwall ahead of

an attempt to break the land

speed record in 2019.

Later, we will be speaking to the

chief engineer of the Bloodhound to

find out how preparations are going.

Looking forward to that too! We have

had loads of messages already on the

foster care story, kids from

different backgrounds going to live

with foster carers from different

backgrounds to them. Claire tweeted,

love and nurture is not defined by

colour, race. A foster parent should

not be either. We saw that in the

report. The care and the child were

very happy in that relationship.

Another tweet, fabulous foster

parents doing a great thing, the

young lady seemed happy and cared

for in a balanced home. Adam

e-mailed, I watched not all of the

clip, you can watch it all if you

like! I found it very uplifting. It

does not matter about them being of

different faiths, as long as they

can provide a loving, stable home.

The children learn a bit about the

fate of their foster parents, they

come out wiser -- the faith. Get in

touch. If you text, you will be

charged a standard network rate.

Here is the sport.

England have a mammoth task on their

hands to win the second ODI of the

women's Ashes Series. Australia made

296 with the captain blasting a

quickfire 89. England have already

lost both openers. England currently

39-2. Not going particularly well

for England. You can listen to

commentary on Radio 5 Live Sports

Extra at the moment. See if they can

turn it around. Slaven Bilic has

said his side reacted in the most

brilliant weight after coming from

2-0 down to beat Tottenham. They

scored twice in five minutes for

West Ham and another nodded home the

winner. Slaven Bilic had been under

pressure following the drubbing by

Brighton on Friday. A bit of

breathing space for him. David

Unsworth first game in charge of

Everton, it ended in defeat. Beaten

2-1 byte Premier League champions

Chelsea. It is a massive 61 matches

unbeaten now the Celtic in the

Scottish Premiership. They beat

Aberdeen 3-0. Kieran Tierney gave

them the lead, Moussa Dembele scored

twice, his second from close range

coming up for you, Celtic went three

points clear at the top of the

table. Rugby Union, James Haskell

has been left out of 34 man England

squad. He has 75 England caps and

started the season with a hand

injury. He has been placed by

Samsung is from Exeter, his first

call-up. England play Argentina at

Twickenham on the 11th of November,

before facing Australia and Samoa on

successive weekends. The Rugby

League World Cup gets under way in

Australia in 24 hours. England

taking on the daunting task, the

hosts and champions. Sam Burgess

says they are looking forward to the

challenge.

Really excited. Since the

end of March in the NRL, good two

months until kick-off to the World

Cup. Plenty of time to think about

it and get fit for it. Really

excited. On the eve of the World

Cup, playing the Aussies in

Melbourne, does not get much better

than that.

We have been enjoying the

story. Two amateur golfers who have

defied astronomical odds by hitting

consecutive holes-in-one. They had

never played together before but

last Saturday, they both went from

tee to pin in one shot on the 13th

hole and according to the national

hole in one registry, the odds of

two players acing the same hole on

the same date on the same round are

17 million to one.

Completely amazed

I got a hole in one before it dawned

on us, we both felt like that, it

dawned on us we had both done it and

it must be pretty rare.

So exciting.

We did high fives and probably a

little dance, I cannot remember, so

lovely.

If I was them, I would have

gone straight out and bought a

lottery ticket! What are the

chances?

17 million to one! I wish I had put

a ten on it!

The UK's leading charity in foster

care, the Fostering Network,

has recently launched a project

to recruit more

Muslim foster carers.

They say that thousands more foster

families are needed each year,

with a need for foster carers

from all sectors of

society including from