12/04/2017

Download Subtitles

Transcript

:00:10. > :00:16.Tonight, failed by school authorities. A woman abused by her

:00:17. > :00:20.teacher for years is awarded compensation. Kettering General

:00:21. > :00:25.Hospital goes into special measures over concerns about safety and

:00:26. > :00:26.management. The latest on the Easter weekend weather is coming up later

:00:27. > :00:30.at the end of the programme. A woman groomed and abused

:00:31. > :00:35.by her teacher from the age of 15 has been awarded more than half

:00:36. > :00:39.a million pounds in compensation. Cambridgeshire County Council,

:00:40. > :00:43.who ran the school she attended, had allowed her abuser to carry

:00:44. > :00:45.on teaching despite previous allegations against him,

:00:46. > :00:52.and warnings from social workers. Noel Phillips has her story

:00:53. > :00:55.and a warning, the report does contains some graphic descriptions

:00:56. > :00:59.of the abuse. Abigail, which is not her real name,

:01:00. > :01:02.was just 15 when she says she was A man who she claimed used his

:01:03. > :01:09.profession as a cover to sexually On several occasions,

:01:10. > :01:15.you tied me to a radiator with a dog collar and

:01:16. > :01:19.told me not to move, For the first three years,

:01:20. > :01:33.it would happen in the classroom. After five months,

:01:34. > :01:35.he started getting me to go He could get me in the back

:01:36. > :01:39.of the car, sit behind the seat and be covered by a blanket,

:01:40. > :01:43.so when we got to his house, He would drive into the garage,

:01:44. > :01:48.and them I would have to For legal reasons, we cannot

:01:49. > :01:51.name the teacher, but documents show he was

:01:52. > :01:54.arrested in the early 80s after being accused

:01:55. > :01:57.of sexually abusing girls

:01:58. > :02:03.in a school in Cambridge. Afterwards, in the early 90s,

:02:04. > :02:06.a number of chances were missed by the county council

:02:07. > :02:09.to monitor him before he went on to There was sufficient evidence

:02:10. > :02:19.for him to be charged. The most serious offences against

:02:20. > :02:22.children and he's in a position of He is then moved to the school

:02:23. > :02:29.where Abigail is, and if that had been in place,

:02:30. > :02:31.this would have never happened. A social worker had

:02:32. > :02:37.previously written with concerns about the teacher,

:02:38. > :02:40.but despite this, he was still It is either a conspiracy

:02:41. > :02:54.or a cock up. Colin was a Labour

:02:55. > :02:55.county council at the If you look at all

:02:56. > :03:01.the evidence that was around at the time, I cannot see how

:03:02. > :03:05.somebody would have missed it. I just don't know what on earth

:03:06. > :03:09.they were thinking about. Nobody here from Cambridge

:03:10. > :03:12.county council would talk to me on camera,

:03:13. > :03:14.but in a statement they have apologised

:03:15. > :03:25.and have agreed an out-of-court

:03:26. > :03:28.settlement of over ?500,000. The teacher has been banned

:03:29. > :03:31.from teaching for life, but Abigail hopes her story

:03:32. > :03:33.will encourage other Well Abigail's abuse

:03:34. > :03:39.took place in the 1990s and there are now calls to make it

:03:40. > :03:41.compulsory for teachers to report any suspicion

:03:42. > :03:43.of abuse within schools. I spoke to Jonathan West

:03:44. > :03:46.from the group Mandate Now, and asked if things had improved

:03:47. > :03:53.enough in two decades. The law hasn't changed

:03:54. > :03:57.in that time and it's still possible for a teacher to know that

:03:58. > :04:01.someone is being abused and has no legal obligation to report

:04:02. > :04:07.anything to anyone. In addition, I've taken a look

:04:08. > :04:11.at the school's child protection policy and it doesn't

:04:12. > :04:16.clearly say how you should be I believe they have a designated

:04:17. > :04:19.member of staff and there There are guidelines

:04:20. > :04:25.but there aren't any actual procedures clearly stated

:04:26. > :04:28.in the school's policy as to how a teacher would report concerns

:04:29. > :04:31.and how the designated safeguard

:04:32. > :04:35.lead would pass them on. So what would you

:04:36. > :04:37.like to see happen? I understand you are

:04:38. > :04:39.calling for some sort of In just the same way

:04:40. > :04:44.that seat belt laws persuade more people to wear seat

:04:45. > :04:47.belts in cars, we are looking for something called mandatory reporting

:04:48. > :04:49.where those who work with children have a legal obligation to report

:04:50. > :04:52.their reasonable suspicions of abuse so that they get into the hands of

:04:53. > :04:58.social services and can be acted on. Do you think a lack of reporting

:04:59. > :05:01.is down to bad systems and bad procedures or is it down to people

:05:02. > :05:04.being terrified of smearing their colleagues in case

:05:05. > :05:10.it's a false allegation? It is a combination

:05:11. > :05:12.of both but certainly lots of people are concerned with

:05:13. > :05:18.the questions of what if I'm wrong? Because evidence is not terribly

:05:19. > :05:23.clear at the time of an initial report, they think there

:05:24. > :05:25.must be an innocent explanation and In Australia, which does

:05:26. > :05:29.have mandatory reporting there was some very fine research

:05:30. > :05:32.conducted recently which showed introducing mandatory reporting

:05:33. > :05:34.nearly tripled the number of reports and more than doubled the number

:05:35. > :05:45.of children protected. Do you think teachers

:05:46. > :05:47.will take this idea of mandatory reporting well because it

:05:48. > :05:50.is kind of another layer of bureaucracy and what

:05:51. > :05:52.if they get it wrong? What would the repercussions

:05:53. > :05:55.be for them? I'm sure teachers may be concerned

:05:56. > :05:58.about this but the idea of the law would actually be

:05:59. > :06:01.to protect those teachers who do report so that is clear that

:06:02. > :06:03.what they are supposed to do, they are protected

:06:04. > :06:10.from legal repercussions from making reports in good faith, so it's

:06:11. > :06:17.actually a good thing for teachers. Kettering General Hospital has been

:06:18. > :06:20.rated inadequate in a report Their inspectors visited

:06:21. > :06:24.the hospital in October last year, and raised concerns

:06:25. > :06:28.about safety and leadership. The hospital was however rated

:06:29. > :06:32.as good for providing care, A hospital in special

:06:33. > :06:40.measures, its inspection Rated inadequate for

:06:41. > :06:46.being safe and well led. Services for children and young

:06:47. > :06:48.people needing urgent improvement, staff, struggling after growing

:06:49. > :06:56.demands on emergency care. Our A Department,

:06:57. > :06:58.we are seeing from the last CQC inspection in 2014 to now,

:06:59. > :07:00.an additional 1000 patients a month arriving in our

:07:01. > :07:04.emergency department. This is a department

:07:05. > :07:06.that was actually built Staffing, as everybody knows,

:07:07. > :07:14.is a national issue, so we've had to share staff

:07:15. > :07:16.across our escalation areas It is the latest in a line

:07:17. > :07:20.of reports criticising services In special measures,

:07:21. > :07:24.Kettering General will receive external support, its ability

:07:25. > :07:30.to make its own decisions, reduced. As a result of the inspection,

:07:31. > :07:33.they've gone into special measures and that means they'll now get

:07:34. > :07:37.additional support from NHS improvement which is a body that

:07:38. > :07:40.will provide expertise and support. We will go back in the coming months

:07:41. > :07:44.and see if the improvements that the trust is telling us that

:07:45. > :07:46.they've made, if they've Services here under pressure

:07:47. > :07:54.providing care to a catchment of 320,000 people with 600 beds

:07:55. > :08:02.and around 3000 staff. Having been adequate for well led,

:08:03. > :08:04.clearly clearly has This is about processes that have

:08:05. > :08:10.not been in place at ward level and department level

:08:11. > :08:14.and what we've got to make sure, processors are implemented

:08:15. > :08:18.as quickly as we can in accordance with the plan that we

:08:19. > :08:24.agree with the CQC. Despite the pressures

:08:25. > :08:25.that they face, the majority of staff here, inspectors

:08:26. > :08:28.said, are hard-working, What do you think of

:08:29. > :08:35.the hospital, good and bad? Yes, my husband is in there

:08:36. > :08:40.on the Lilford ward, on the cancer ward, and it's

:08:41. > :08:44.been absolutely brilliant. But apart from that, yeah,

:08:45. > :08:48.they are really good. It's a friendly hospital,

:08:49. > :08:53.the staff are very good. A report critical of the hospital

:08:54. > :08:59.for not learning lessons, but Kettering General say a recovery

:09:00. > :09:03.plan is in place. It is an old hospital

:09:04. > :09:07.with a growing population, trying to find a way out of special

:09:08. > :09:10.measures that despite the pressures they face,

:09:11. > :09:16.the majority of staff here, inspector said, are hard-working,

:09:17. > :09:18.passionate and caring. Mike Cartwright, BBC

:09:19. > :09:23.Look East, Kettering. A bank in Milton Keynes has been

:09:24. > :09:26.targeted by ramraiders. Four men wearing balaclavas used

:09:27. > :09:29.a dumper truck to smash into the Metro Bank in Oakgrove just

:09:30. > :09:33.before 4.30 this morning. They escaped with a cash machine,

:09:34. > :09:38.driving away in a dark The bank was targeted in May

:09:39. > :09:43.last year, when money was taken from a cash machine

:09:44. > :09:45.in an overnight raid. It follows a number of ramraids

:09:46. > :09:50.across the region, including one yesterday at a Co-op

:09:51. > :09:52.store in Cambridgeshire. Police are appealing

:09:53. > :09:54.for anyone with mobile phone I'll leave you with

:09:55. > :10:13.the weather from Alex. Hello there. Lots of dry weather for

:10:14. > :10:21.the Easter weekend but it will be much cooler than last weekend. We

:10:22. > :10:24.have clear skies tonight and temperatures expected to be lower

:10:25. > :10:31.than last nights. There could be some patchy frost around. These are

:10:32. > :10:36.the values we could expect in towns and cities. The dominant theme

:10:37. > :10:43.tomorrow is high pressure and this cool north-westerly breeze. A bright

:10:44. > :10:46.start to the day with some clear spells of sunshine. Increasing cloud

:10:47. > :10:51.coming in from the north-west and the chance of isolated shower but

:10:52. > :10:58.many places should have a dry day. Temperatures around 11 Celsius and I

:10:59. > :11:01.like to moderate north-westerly winds. Here is the outlook. Friday

:11:02. > :11:08.is Brighter on Saturday but cloud again

:11:09. > :11:12.on Sunday. Here is Tomasz. Good evening.

:11:13. > :11:13.The weather in