13/04/2017 Look East (West)

Quality care - why Peterborough is leading the way on care homes

Plus, why one community in Milton Keynes is accusing police

And join me at the end of the programme

for the latest on the Easter weekend weather.

Our region has some of the best quality care homes in the country.

Research by Independent Age, the older people's charity,

reveals that 81% of our care homes are good or outstanding.

Peterborough and Bedford lead the way, where over

But in Luton and Central Bedfordshire, 21% of homes

Emma Baugh has been to a home in Peterborough, to see how

they manage to provide a good service in tight financial times.

Creating a home from home - letting people have pets to stroke

The home has been ranked as the best in the city,

by the relatives of those living here.

She has been at Philia Lodge for 17 years.

For her, it's the way she's looked after.

I'm treated properly, with respect, and

Many of our residents may have had to have left many of their personal

We've facilitated for them to be able to bring those

personal possessions here, to make it that home-from-home experience,

so that they haven't had to have gone without.

While the care system is facing financial pressures, this

home is helped by the economy of scale of being part of a

It pays above the living wage, with an emphasis on training and

It is the staff, as I said, the commitment,

Your staff are your most important asset

within a care home, because they are the people

that make the difference in delivering the care.

The home here has been rated as good for the

quality of care it gives its residents, along with 90%

But, with increasing pressure on funding and an ever

ageing population, how sustainable is that for the future?

Like many towns and cities across the UK, we

are a growing city - we have high growth targets

for Peterborough, so we have started to work now on the five-year

view for Peterborough, what that might look like, and what

So then we can start to commission new

services and different services now, so that they are ready to go from

the point at which the population needs them.

The City Council also has schemes to ease pressures

on the care system by modifying people's homes so they can stay

So now I can get in and out with my rollator,

and it's wonderful, it's really smashing.

But when it comes to care homes, Peterborough has one of the

highest number rated good or above and, overall,

this region fares better than the rest of the country.

Emma Baugh, BBC Look East, Peterborough.

People in Bedfordshire are not being well served

by their police force - that's the verdict of

Six weeks ago the constabulary received a rating of inadequate.

Now its yearly inspection has concluded plans to improve the Force

Mike Cartwright is here with the details.

It's called the annual Peel Assessment report -

it combines all of Her Majesty's inspectorate's findings and it tells

us that Bedfordshire remains one of the poorest

The report has serious concerns about its performance.

It says the Force doesn't have a neighbourhood police presence

across the whole of the county, so crime is not being

It's not identifying risks to vulnerable children -

particularly children who've gone missing from care homes.

The inspectors recognise Bedfordshire has limited

resources to work with, but they say they need to use

We spoke the Her Majesty's Inspector earlier, and you get

a sense of her frustration from about the lack

I don't see a Force Improvement Plan - I've not seen one yet.

I've asked the Force to provide me with a

plan that sets out exactly what policing across the whole of

Bedfordshire is going to look like next year and the next five

years, so that we can see whether or not it has enough police

officers in the right place to keep the public of Bedfordshire safe.

What do Bedfordshire Police have to say?

Bedfordshire Police say they are disappointed -

the inspection failed to acknowledge the huge amount

of work being carried out to restructure the Force.

They say they've invested heavily in teams -

tackling domestic abuse, sexual offences, cyber crime -

and improved how they protect vulnerable young people, working

Six weeks ago, at the last inspection, the Force received an

We spoke to the Chief Constable then - this what he told us.

This Force is literally being rebuilt, and that's been happening

I'm really looking forward to the HMIC

coming here later this year, because I have absolutely no doubt

the credit that the Force deserved, actually, in the last inspection

will definitely be provided in the next inspection because we're

We have to modernise in Bedfordshire, we have to be smarter

than other people, and the officers and staff of this Force do an

The inspection Chief Constable talking about there is in December.

The Force say it's important to recognise they're

Next tonight, the Chinese community in Milton Keynes is demanding police

do more to protect them, following the murder

64-year-old Hang Yin Leung died in hospital, after a gang

of men forced their way into her home in January.

But Thames Valley Police says there's no evidence the Chinese

Kate Bradbrook has been to met Hang Yin-Leung's son, Keith.

I at least accept what has happened now.

It is now two months since Keith Leung's mother,

Hang Yin, died following a burglary here at her home in Milton Keynes.

Dad has lost one of his closest friends, actually.

And there is no one for Dad to come home to any more.

The six men forced their way in, knocking Mrs Leung,

who was a retired Hong Kong police officer, to the ground.

No one has yet been charged with her murder.

The fact that these people are still at large, I really

hope that nobody has to go through the trauma that we had to go

through, or have their homes and houses ransacked.

The family run a takeaway restaurant and there is

concern within the Chinese community that criminals are targeting

Now three Chinese churches in the area have

written to the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, seeking

A lot of them, if they are in the catering trade, the

perception is that they are a cash community, they will have a lot

of cash at home or in the business - they can take advantage of that.

Do you feel that the police, the council are doing enough to

Because we feel that we have been let down by the authority,

and a lot of the time when incidents happen it seems we are only left

This is the letter outlining the community's concerns, and this

is the reply from Thames Valley Police.

They say only 4% of burglaries in Milton Keynes affect the

Both the council leader here and also police officers have

now spoken with members of the church.

The Force says it's doing all it can to bring the killers

Kate Bradbrook, BBC Look East, in Milton Keynes.

Free range poultry can finally roam outside once more

today, with the lifting of bird flu restrictions.

Producers were ordered to shut their birds inside in early

December, to try to protect them from the H5N8 strain of avian flu.

Poultry farmers are still being warned they must still stay on guard

and take precautions, and experts say the virus

We will find, I think, every year that there is some sort

of threat from avian flu, so we cannot ever not be alert.

If we are lucky, we will see a similar picture to this

year - where disease arises first in Europe and we can see what sort

of pattern is emerging and then work with our poultry sector to

understand that risk and consider our best options.

And that's all from the late news team.

We'll leave you with the weather for the Easter weekend.

Some sunshine breaking through the clouds in Cambridgeshire

this afternoon and we will see some sunshine over the weekend.

It is going to be a little on the cool

side at times, there will be some sunny spells around and also some

rain in the forecast, and there could be some for many of us

At the moment it's dry with increasing amounts of

cloud coming in from the north-west and as we go through the night it is

possible we could get the odd spot of light rain or drizzle.

But we start the day really on a rather

But it will be milder tonight with all that cloud cover,

so temperatures no lower than around 7 degrees with a light west to

So here is the pressure pattern for tomorrow.

We have this weather system coming in

from the Northwest and it will eventually bring us some rain and

increase the amount of cloud, but the day to start

Perhaps a little bit of a damp start but brightening up and

maybe some sunshine, and temperatures could easily get into

We have some slightly milder air coming

in from the south-west on those south-westerly winds.

Quite a noticeable breeze through the day.

And for the afternoon, as the weather front approaches, it is

gradually going to start to bring us some rain,

so by the end of the day and into the overnight period some

The National weather is coming up but here is

And a cooler, fresher day on Saturday but largely dry with some

good spells of sunshine, just a small chance

And into Sunday it looks cloudier generally, with an increasing risk

We will keep you updated. Now with the National Outlook, Tomasz

Schafernaker. Good