:00:10. > :00:14.Good evening. The death of an Oxfordshire teenager, who was being
:00:15. > :00:16.cared for at Slade House in Headington, was "preventable".
:00:17. > :00:19.That's the finding of an independent report into his care. 18`year`old
:00:20. > :00:23.Connor Sparrowhawk died after being found unconscious in the bath at
:00:24. > :00:27.Slade House last July. His mother says its been a long and distressing
:00:28. > :00:33.fight to get the facts out in the open. Adina Campbell reports. Connor
:00:34. > :00:38.had autism and epilepsy which meant he often suffered with seizures and
:00:39. > :00:41.also had problems learning. He was initially admitted to Slade House as
:00:42. > :00:45.an emergency case, but was later sectioned under the Mental Health
:00:46. > :00:49.Act. On one occasion, when his mother went to visit him at the
:00:50. > :00:54.unit, she thought he'd had a seizure. From then on, his
:00:55. > :00:57.night`time checks were increased. In June last year though his team
:00:58. > :01:01.agreed that hourly checks were enough because Connor was showing no
:01:02. > :01:04.signs of having a seizure. But a few weeks later, on the 4th July, Connor
:01:05. > :01:11.was found dead, 15`minutes after he'd been checked by staff. He was
:01:12. > :01:23.found submerged in the bath. He died later the same day. The findings of
:01:24. > :01:27.this new report outlines staffs' poor decisions around his care, in
:01:28. > :01:29.particular the agreement to make 15`minute observations of his baths.
:01:30. > :01:32.It also found the level of observations failed to safeguard
:01:33. > :01:35.Connor. There were concerns too about the lack of somebody having
:01:36. > :01:38.overall responsibility for his care. The report also discovered that
:01:39. > :01:43.Connor's parents were not spoken to enough by staff. This isn't the
:01:44. > :01:47.first time Slade House has been in the spotlight. A report last autumn
:01:48. > :01:49.criticised its facilities saying there were dirty toilets, outdated
:01:50. > :01:57.equipment and medicines weren't given out safely. An emergency team
:01:58. > :02:02.has been brought in to run the unit after that inspection by the Care
:02:03. > :02:05.Quality Commission. Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust says they are
:02:06. > :02:09."deeply sorry" that Connor died whilst in their care and they failed
:02:10. > :02:14.to undertake the necessary actions required to keep him safe. They say
:02:15. > :02:15.they are wholly committed to learning from this tragedy in order
:02:16. > :02:25.to prevent it from happening again. Helen McCormack is from Southern
:02:26. > :02:28.Health NHS Foundation Trust, I asked her what lessons have been learnt.
:02:29. > :02:31.We want to be able to use the findings of this report to improve
:02:32. > :02:35.our services, right across the Trust, so that we can be confident
:02:36. > :02:39.that we learn from this, not only in that unit, but for all of our
:02:40. > :02:43.services. Quality care commission review happened, as I understand it,
:02:44. > :02:46.eight weeks after Connor Sparrowhawk's death, wasn't his
:02:47. > :02:51.death enough for you to put these procedures into place? Yes. We've
:02:52. > :02:58.asked ourselves that question too, why was it that the CQC found things
:02:59. > :03:02.in our services that we should have found for ourselves. The what we did
:03:03. > :03:06.in the immediate period, as you might understand, is report the
:03:07. > :03:10.incident to the police. We then waited for a period of time while
:03:11. > :03:14.the police decided whether they needed to proceed with any
:03:15. > :03:19.inquiries. I think what that did was to put in a delay, which meant that
:03:20. > :03:24.we had waited for that before starting on our investigations. With
:03:25. > :03:28.hindsight, there were things that we needed to be addressing
:03:29. > :03:31.straightaway. Those were the things that CQC highlighted when they came
:03:32. > :03:35.into the use. Connor's mother said she had to fight to get this far. Do
:03:36. > :03:41.you think that is vieth and do you think that is fair? I can sympathies
:03:42. > :03:44.with her position. This is a very distressing situation for which
:03:45. > :03:49.we're deeply sorry that this happened, but also that this process
:03:50. > :03:52.has been so protracted. We have commissioned an independent
:03:53. > :03:55.investigation in order to try and make sure that for her she feels
:03:56. > :04:00.that we have looked at this thoroughly and we haven't put any
:04:01. > :04:05.bias into place. I do understand it's been a very protracted process.
:04:06. > :04:08.I can see for her it's incredibly frustrating and distressing. We want
:04:09. > :04:13.to be able to do anything we can to work with her and try and move
:04:14. > :04:20.forward and to help her to move on. OK. Thank you very much for joining
:04:21. > :04:22.us. Thank you. You can hear Connor Sparrowhawk's mothere giving her
:04:23. > :04:24.first broadcast interview with Phil Gayle on BBC Radio Oxford tomorrow
:04:25. > :04:32.morning on 95.2FM. More needs to be done to tackle
:04:33. > :04:35.loneliness amongst rural communities in our region. That's the finding of
:04:36. > :04:38.a new study in the Cotswolds which claims better transport and better
:04:39. > :04:43.access to services are needed to help an aging population. Charlotte
:04:44. > :04:48.Stacey reports. Audrey is 87, she lost her husband two years ago and
:04:49. > :04:51.now lives on her own. She is still active and makes an effort to have
:04:52. > :04:56.something to do each day. I think you can get very depressed if you're
:04:57. > :05:01.not careful. Everybody said to me, when I lost your husband ` you must
:05:02. > :05:05.now get on with your life. The it sounds terrible, but it's true. You
:05:06. > :05:13.can't sit at home and mope. I still want to go to the WI and Youth 3A
:05:14. > :05:23.and things like that. Getting around in rural areas like the Cotswolds
:05:24. > :05:27.can be a problem. There are more than 24,000 people passed retirement
:05:28. > :05:32.age in the Cotswolds, that is nearly a third of the local population. The
:05:33. > :05:36.area has an older Popp layings with a longer life span than the national
:05:37. > :05:39.average. GPs do say people are actually coming to them, they are
:05:40. > :05:44.not actually ill, they are lonely and like to talk to somebody about
:05:45. > :05:50.their problems. A visit costs ?25. If we send in a village agent or one
:05:51. > :05:55.of the people who befriend you, it's ?5 per visit. The person doesn't pay
:05:56. > :05:59.that, we have funding to do that. For little cost it has huge
:06:00. > :06:04.benefits. Has been shown to be worse for your health than smoking 15
:06:05. > :06:08.cigarettes a day. Tackling it makes financial sense too. With an older
:06:09. > :06:15.population growing year`by`year, the council is looking at ways to combat
:06:16. > :06:19.loneliness in the long`term. A crocodile, seized by police in
:06:20. > :06:21.Sweden, has been given a new home in Oxfordshire. The two`and`a`half
:06:22. > :06:27.metre reptile was found by police in a green house in Sweden during a
:06:28. > :06:30.raid. At the moment its being held in quarantine in Witney, but will
:06:31. > :06:33.eventually be moved to the Crocodiles of the World attraction
:06:34. > :06:36.at Brize Norton. In tonight's League One football, MK Dons won 2`1 at
:06:37. > :06:39.Oldham, but a late equaliser denied Swindon a win over Crawley,it
:06:40. > :06:43.finished 1`1 at the County Ground. That's it from us for now. The
:06:44. > :06:46.weather is coming up, starting with the regional forecast from Alexis.
:06:47. > :06:50.From the late news team here, goodnight. Goth goth A really quiet
:06:51. > :06:56.night tonight. There is a risk we could have the odd shower. It will
:06:57. > :07:03.be mainly dry for most places and a chance of patchy frost The. Will be
:07:04. > :07:07.fairly light with that risk of a frost first thing tomorrow morning.
:07:08. > :07:12.A dry start to the day for most. We will see increasing cloud through
:07:13. > :07:17.the day tomorrow bringing the chance of an isolated shower. They will be
:07:18. > :07:21.very isolated. Temperatures up to nine or ten Celsius. The winds light
:07:22. > :07:25.to moderate from the South West. Showers is the regime really for the
:07:26. > :07:30.rest of the week. There will be a band of rain tomorrow night. Stay
:07:31. > :07:32.tuned, coming up next is the national weather forecast.
:07:33. > :07:36.showers, Buster once. Then it is more difficult. Susan Powell is here
:07:37. > :07:45.to explain more international focus. Take a glimpse out of the window and
:07:46. > :07:49.the chances they will be starry skies where you are. The showers we
:07:50. > :07:53.have today are dying back to the coast. The breeze is also easing and
:07:54. > :07:58.reclaiming skies and light winds, it will be chilly overnight tonight.
:07:59. > :08:06.The wind will remain keen enough to hold the frost that bay and in the
:08:07. > :08:07.far north-west, bringing in some showers, if going down to