30/01/2014 East Midlands Today

extended interview with her. But now on BBC One, it's time for the

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Dominic Heale.

The former partner of a pregnant woman killed by a mentally ill man

says he believes her death could have been prevented. Robert Barlow's

comments follow the publication of a Serious Case Review into the deaths

of Rachael Slack and her young son, who were killed in their Derbyshire

cottage. On June two, 2010, police called to this cottage in Holbrooke

in Derbyshire found inside the stabbed bodies of Rachael Slack and

her young son, Auden and that of Andrew Cairns, Auden's father. An

inquest concluded last year that Cairns, who had mental health

problems, had killed Auden then Rachael, then himself. A report

published today by the Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Board says all

three deaths were unpredictable and unpreventable. But Rachael's partner

at the time of the killings said the deaths were preventable. He says the

police should have told Rachael she was specifically at high risk of

being killed by Andrew. If you get a phone call from the

police and they see that your partner is at high risk of homicide,

it definitely would make you sit up and take notice of what you have

then got to do. A victim at high risk, and therefore

at high risk of homicide, we make that absolutely explicit. We go

through a protective form with them, and look at what measures they can

adopt and we can adopt with them. And they sign that to say that they

understand. The health service, criticised for

concentrating on Cairns and not those close to him, has also made

changes. They have been improved through the

adoption of a process called Think Family, which allows the wider

understanding of the family and the child around an individual.

The police, the health service and the Safeguarding Children Board all

say lessons have been learnt since the tragedy.

Two of our emergency services could move in together to save costs. The

police force and Fire Service in Derbyshire are looking at the

possibility of having a new shared headquarters. It would be built on

the site of the current police HQ in Ripley.

This is Derbyshire Police Headquarters but could it soon also

be home to Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service? That's the plan said

to be at a very early stage and it would need planning permission. The

police want to replace two buildings on the site and Derbyshire Fire

Service headquarters are also said to be outdated. That would be sold

off, as part of the plan. The man in charge of the police purse strings

says it is a matter of good timing. Both of us have rather old

headquarters buildings that will either need a lot of money spent on

them or would need to be replaced. It was quite fortunate that both of

us had a similar need at the same time.

Both the police and fire need to make savings. The FBU will be hoping

that the number of fire stations proposed to be closed may be

reduced. There is concern that this could lead to the loss of

background, administrative job staff. We could have a new joint

Police and Fire headquarters here within three years.

140,000 patients in Nottingham failed to show up for their GP

appointments or at hospital outpatient clinics last year. The

problem of absentee patients is now the focus of a big campaign in the

city. Our Health Correspondent Rob Sissons reports.

This baby has a bad chest. This winter the doctors are busy at this

practice. But not everyone shows up. If people cannot make it then we

should be able to cancel it so that somebody else who needs it can get

an appointment. People are cancelling appointments when they

don't need to. A survey revealed that the scale of

missed appointments varies and ranges from one in a hundred at one

GP practice to one in five not showing up at another smaller one.

Here, the manager told me they are trying to improve things by text in

patients. We're been working at this for a

considerable time now. Our percentage is fairly low, at around

5%. If you costed this staffing for

missed appointments, it is five and a half million pounds per year. That

could pay for 261 nurses. It could also pay for MRI scanners.

A star Nottingham rugby player, who was forced to retire because of a

head injury, is supporting a campaign to get the sport to take

concussion more seriously. New figures have revealed that on

average in professional rugby there's a concussion injury in every

six games. In the past Nottingham's David Jackson played on even after

being knocked out. Now the risks of playing at all are too high.

Luke Griggs is from Headway ` the brain injury association. I asked

Luke if things are changing in rugby.

There is certainly a large momentum building and people are becoming

aware of the risks of concussion, and more importantly how to spot it

when people are concussed and that is really good. It is important that

players like David Jackson come out and talk about things like this.

We are ending January on a very soggy note. An unusual sight today,

some of us had wintry showers. Those showers will start to clear away as

we go through the night. It will be a cloudy night. We may see a touch

of frost. A chilly, cold start tomorrow. Then it all changes as the

Reagan pushes through from the West. `` as the rain pushes through from

the West. Thank you. Goodbye. very good night.

Good evening. As we have seen, it has been an exceptionally wet month

and it is not even over yet. The final day of January promises even

more heavy rain and that is not the only hazard. There could be some

snow and strong winds over the next 48 hours. We have seen too many of

these weather systems steaming in from the Atlantic. It is not with

this yet, however. Some snow over the hills in northern England and

eastern Scotland. Some mist and fog patches in the south. Many of us

will start Friday Drive, however the rain is on its way and it will

gradually spread its