26/02/2014 Midlands Today

soon. That is all from the BBC News at Six, goodbye from me. On

The power of the written word. How one stranger's letters are judging

the lives of people around the world. There has been a springlike

filter today, and with more sunny spells on the way tomorrow, you

would be forgiven for thinking things are on the up. But the wintry

weather is backed by the end of the week.

Good evening. The Mid`Staffordshire NHS Trust will be dissolved `

Stafford and Cannock hospitals will now be run by other trusts. The end

comes following concerns over the standard of care and financial

problems at the Mid Staffs Trust. In April 2012, the Trust revealed it

had a deficit of ?16.5 million. A year later, the trust was declared

insolvent, and administrators were appointed to look at its future.

Last December, the Trust Special Administrators recommended

downgrading services. But today it was announced that Stafford could

still retain consultant`led maternity services ` if an NHS

England review finds it's feasible. Our health correspondent Michele

Paduano reports. At the moment premature babies under

34 weeks have to be born in Stoke on Trent. Then was three lbs. Eight

oz.. His parents praised Stafford Hospital's maternity unit. We have

not got a bad word to say about them. All the negative press, we

cannot do anything but praise them. They are also gearing up to open 12

more beds at Stafford, but then Prime Minister `` the Prime Minister

dropped a bomb cell. What is being proposed are steps to make sure that

A continues at Stafford Hospital. And make sure that we can continue

with consultant led maternity services.

For protesters gathered opposite Stafford Hospital was a cautious

welcome. It is talking about the future. I think we need to wait and

see what happens. If it does happen, absolutely great. The devil is in

the detail. We have now got the statement, we will work with it to

make sure we have a debate and discussion about whether or not

obstetric labour maternity is possible, but it may not be.

Cannock hospital will still be taken over by Wolverhampton hospitals.

There was no reprieve for children's services.

23 years of working on the children's Ward, it is heartbreaking

to think there will no longer be a paediatric ward at Stafford. There

have been two demonstrations, the largest 50,000, and there is no

doubt the majority at Stafford still want all the services.

I have had experience at all the departments, so I would like it to

stay as it is. It is not good. The fact it is going to be passed over

to new ownership almost, so quite disappointed really.

It is not yet clear what the announcement on maternity really

means. What is clear is that campaigners `` politicians get

nervous around hospitals. Today marks the end of an

organisation so inextricably linked with bad care, but not the end of

the Stafford story. Let's talk now to the Conservative

MP for Stafford, Jeremy Lefroy, who's in Westminster for us. Mr

Lefroy ` do you not feel that on the day that such a significant decision

has been made by the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt and the

Department of Health, that their refusal to be interviewed about this

decision is unacceptable? I cannot speak for them, but I am

being interviewed here because I think it is an extremely important

day for Stafford. We heard the announcement by the Prime Minister,

which I welcomed, because in my view and in the view of those who support

Stafford Hospital, alongside the children's paediatric services are

absolutely vital. I had feared that all that would happen would be a

rubber`stamping of the proposals which were not acceptable. Will you

be speaking to Mr Hunt about this? I have spoken to him already on

several occasions in the last few days, but the key now is to continue

to make the case for these consultant led maternity services,

with the other services that paediatric services, that go

alongside them. We have been given are of hope on this. One year ago we

were faced with a downgrade with removal of acute services, or

maternity services and many others. Those have not by and large gone.

90% or more of patients currently treated at Stafford and Cannock will

continue to be treated there, but this consultant led maternity issue

is extremely important. We have more than 2000 babies born per year, they

have been given excellent service, continue to begin an excellent

service there, and it is vital that this service remains available to

the people of Stafford and further afield. Campaigners say they will

keep fighting for services at Stafford. Is it time for them to

move on? The Prime Minister has said he wants to see as far as possible

consultant led services, so this is the case we have got to make. I

don't think it is time to move on, I think it is time to say the trust is

dissolved, Stafford and Stoke will work together in what I am hope will

`` I hope will become an excellent University Hospital trust. But we

have to fight for those consultant led services.

Coming up later in the programme: We're at Shropshire's first ever

house swap, as people look to move up and down the property ladder.

A campaign has been launched to educate parents about the need for

children to use booster seats in cars. The idea came from a West

Midlands firefighter who says he's met a shockingly high number of

pupils who claim they don't even wear seat belts. The latest

Government figures show that 56 child passengers were killed in the

UK in 2012, a 4% increase on the previous year. And nearly 11,000

more were injured. Ben Godfrey reports. Hands up anyone who has

ridden in a car without putting a seat belt on. It is not a good

reaction, but no surprise to West Midlands firefighter Jeremy Lefroy,

Ash Mike pence a macro, who wants pupil `` Darran Gough, who wants

pupils to educate their parents about road safety. A colleague's son

was killed in a crash because he put the belt under his arm.

Darren believes `` Darran believes if these children can walk through

this hole in a cut`out Range Rover without ducking, they should still

be using a child or booster seat. If you didn't have one, you could be

in serious consequences and you could die, but if you have got a

belt, you have better chances of surviving.

Children under 1.35m tall or younger than 12 are required by law to sit

in a booster seat. So are parents listening? The oldest one's 12 but

he is nearly as tall as me so it can be a bit conflicting, but generally

I think they should have booster seats. In our car we have the child

seats and also seat belts. Here at MIRA near Nuneaton, Tony

Payne has the job of preparing test dummies for crashes. Take a

six`year`old child, this is how it shouldn't be done. We buckle him up

there. Because he is sitting lower than the seat, this belt is

automatically riding up across his abdomen. It is now lying across his

neck and face. There are other potential injuries to those areas as

well. The impact of a crash can be

devastating ` car seats do save lives.

All child seats today are fitted with a system which attaches the car

seat rigidly to the car itself. You also have side impact bars for

safety. But this seat is only really safe if the driver is following the

instructions carefully. The campaign is all about pester

power ` can children convince their parents to do more to protect them

on our roads? A mother, her lover and his wife have all been sentenced

for conspiring to cover up the death of a commentary toddler who died

from head injuries. Police say they have been shocked at the way adults

threaten to cover up the events. The three`year`old was captured on CCTV

in November 2011, minutes before paramedics work call. `` before

paramedics were called. Members of the Unite union have been

protesting over plans to hand over the running of Nuneaton's George

Eliot Hospital to the private sector. Two companies and an NHS

Trust are currently bidding to take on the role. The hospital has a

history of high death rates, but has substantially improved over the last

year. A thousand tenants in Shropshire

have been invited to swap their homes with each other. People deemed

to be living in under occupied or overcrowded homes came together to

see if it would be beneficial to move into each other's properties.

It's seen as a way of helping householders to avoid paying the

bedroom tax and reduce a shortage of social housing. Here's Bob

Hockenhull. There are 15,000 properties are available to rent in

Shropshire Council's area, but many tenants feel they are not living in

the right accommodation. Elizabeth spent a year is trying to

get off and estate she did not like in Oswestry. Now she has finally got

a two`bedroom real property for her son and herself. I had been in tears

egging them to move me, but their hands were tied. The structure of

the system meant you had to have so many qualifying positions to be able

to move. Tenants like Elizabeth living in

properties too big or too small met at this event. It is a kind of speed

dating, where they are hoping to be matched up with somebody else's

home. We want to put people in touch with, I have an three`bedroom house,

if you are looking for it and I have something `` you have something I am

looking for, we will swap. The Johnsons have outgrown their

house and want something smaller. If people are struggling with one

bedroom or two`bedroom, probably they could do with an upgrade. We

are prepared to downsize. There was no shortage of potential

swap partners wanted to upgrade their properties. It is very, very

small, and the boys' bedrooms are quite small for the two of them.

Swapping houses could be a good way for some people to avoid the

so`called bedroom tax. If they have got one extra bedroom, they face a

14% cut in housing benefit, and with two extra bedrooms it is a 25%

reduction. The house swap event moves to Bridgnorth tomorrow.

This is our top story tonight. The final verdict ` the Government

announces it's to dissolve the Mid`Staffordshire NHS Trust for

being financially unsustainable. Your detailed weather forecast to

come shortly from Beccy ` also in tonight's programme: The next

generation of Winter Olympics hopefuls, perhaps?

We meet the youngsters competing in a skating contest inspired by this

year's Games. And the power of the written word `

how one stranger's letters are helping to boost the morale of

people worldwide. Manufacturing in the Midlands

suffered more than anywhere else in recent years when many firms

relocated overseas. Tens of thousands of jobs disappeared in

this region. It will be a very different sort of

programme. To illustrate the ministers of manufacturing, we have

gathered together over 100 different objects made here in the Midlands.

What happens in our region is predicted to have a major impact on

the national economic recovery. But it is not just about motors, we also

make flooring, food and even food all seats. Tomorrow evening we will

be talking to industry leaders and a master brewer. `` football seats.

If you want to find out more about what is made in the Midlands Today,

join Nick Allen and me at half past six tomorrow. `` Nick when.

`` Nick Owen. As part of our First World War

commemorations, the BBC has teamed up with the Imperial War Museums to

tell the story of the War at Home. Today we focus on one of the most

heartbreaking stories of the Home Front. Scenes of horror unfolded as

a group of children, many of whom had relatives fighting on the front,

took to the stage for a fundraising show. Cath Mackie takes up the

story. It's April 1916. For the last 20

months, the world has been at war. In Hereford, a group of children

whose fathers and brothers are fighting stage a fund raising show

at the Garrick Theatre to send presents to the front. They decided

to stage a winter wonderland, and what a grand event it was. There

were ice maidens, Eskimos and they were all dressed in little cotton

wool costumes. But the laughter and applause soon died out, as a

nightmare unfolded on stage. The laughter stopped. The curtains came

down and there was a shout of fire from somebody at the back. Bender

was a piercing shriek from one of the little girls, `` then there was.

The flames had caught fire from her costume onto those of the other

children. The theatre had actually staged a real`life drama of horrific

proportions. Six girls died on stage in front of

their families and friends. They were aged from five to 13. Two more

girls later died in hospital. There's a heartbreaking account here

of the children's clothes going up in flames, and it says, "so

unexpected, so sudden and so awful was the outbreak, that older people

were temporarily paralysed as by a hideous nightmare." It's just awful.

And yet it's a story that's largely forgotten. The only visible reminder

is a plaque on the side of a car park where the theatre once stood.

But there are calls for those forgotten children are to be

remembered. Dance teacher Rebecca White is planning a performance in

their memory. That legacy still stands through now, we do lots of

performances for charities and four soldiers. It is devastating that

children died in front of their families. `` and four soldiers.

Where do we think the graves might be? Probably in the far corner.

Thousands lined the streets for the girls' funerals, but sadly we could

not find their graves. Their whereabouts on the street, much like

the cause of the fire. The inquiry found no fault at the theatre. There

had been claimed that somebody had seen a man a cigarette burn, but

this was never substantiated. One can only imagine the despair

with which the news was greeted by the Herefordshire men caught up in

the fighting. `` had seen a man throw a cigarette down.

The horror of War had reached home ` and claimed eight more victims.

And you can read more about the First World War and how it changed

the lives of people left at home on our website, that's bbc.co.uk/ww1.

The Bromsgrove cyclist Jess Varnish will attempt to wipe out memories of

her Olympic disappointment by winning a world title in Colombia

tonight. Varnish and team`mate Victoria Pendleton were disqualified

from the sprint at the 2012 Games. A back injury has severely disrupted

her career since. But Varnish returns to the event with new

partner Becky James this evening. It is hard not to compare yourself to

other people, but you have to go out there and race against these girls

every day and every competition, you have to beat them, and every scalp

you take is good. This year has gone well, but obviously the world

Championships is the one you want. I want my own brain by just Mac I want

my own rainbow jersey `` I want my own rainbow jersey.

Thirty years ago, Torvill and Dean won gold at the Winter Olympics in

Sarajevo. Their brilliant Bolero inspired a generation to get their

skates on and have a go for themselves. This week at the Telford

Ice Rink, that passion is still very much alive for 300 youngsters, as

Ian Winter reports. It is day one of competition, and

everything has to be perfect. The skaters warm and supple, and is all

important lucky charms simply bursting with good fortune. `` those

all important lucky charms. Young skaters are superstitious and

always on the look out for that extra special something to give them

the edge. What is the most difficult thing you

have done? My most difficult thing was a leap, I have to jump a

full`time, but I never get round. No point in choosing something too

difficult if they cannot do it. This time last week Liz was judging the

Olympic figure skaters in Sochi. This week she is in Telford to cast

an eye over the next generation of young talent. It is nice to get back

to normality, Sochi was wonderful but with `` I like to see the

youngsters. I like to see where that progression will be towards the top.

It won four medals in Sochi but none in figure skating. Perhaps over the

next couple of days in Telford there is a future Olympic champion waiting

in the wings. `` Britain won four medals.

Over the next couple of days, 300 young skaters from all over the

country will be showing off their talent. All sharing the same dream

that one day they will be sweeping up the ice.

`` sweeping up the floral tributes on the ice.

A year ago Jodie Ann Bickley came close to committing suicide, but

then an idea to open up her e`mail inbox to the world saved her. Our

arts reporter Satnam Rana been to meet the 25`year`old performance

poet, who's become a letter writer to strangers.

This is Jodie Ann Bickley's 1,580th letter to a stranger. You have come

so far. Look back down the mountain at how far you have become.

The journey to her letter writing project began in 2011. She was

performing slam poetry at Camp Bestival on the Isle of Wight. On

her trip, she was bitten by a tick. She caught encephalitis, a brain

infection which led to a stroke. She was then diagnosed with chronic

fatigue syndrome ` ME ` and she suffers with regular fits. Last year

she hit an all`time low. If I am feeling like this, there will be

some other people but are feeling like they are at the bottom of the

abyss, and they are trying to get out. I thought if I can help some

other people get out, then it will give me a bit of a reason.

So she set up a website, onemillionlovelyletters.com,

inviting people to nominate a friend who would like to receive a letter a

from her. Within three months of setting up

the website this time last year, she had received 50,000 views from 150

countries. And a request for 750 letters.

Amongst them, Phil Maguire, a postgraduate student from

Huddersfield in Yorkshire. I was very demotivated and down, and since

I got but let it started a whole thought process about what I really

want to be doing, and it helps me put in motion what I needed to do to

be where I am today, which is a good place.

And this appreciation is echoed on Jodi's walls, adorned with thank you

notes. Some of them are featured in her debut memoir One Million Lovely

Letters. But with 1,500 requests for letters in her inbox, the writing

will continue. There is no weakness in asking for a little help. The

storm clouds are a lot more bearable when we have someone to walk in them

with. I hope I can get to write to more people across the world.

I just want to be able to help as many people as I can, and hopefully

do it for ever, which would be lovely.

We wish her good luck with her letter writing.

It has been very springlike today. Normal service is resumed tonight, a

wet and windy night to come, but it looks better tomorrow. Some good

spells of sunshine to come through the morning, but more in the way of

showers through the afternoon. Tonight we have got a clear, dry end

to the day but temperatures are going to fall away under those

skies, but cloud starts to build ahead of this next band of rain

which is working its way through. Five to ten millimetres of rainfall

was a ball. It will clear away eventually as we head into tomorrow

morning, but temperatures are not going to fall away too far. We start

tomorrow with that rain clearing away eventually. Some good spells of

sunshine to come, a pleasant start of the day. A breezy day than we

have seen today, but then we see showers filling in through the

afternoon. At times they will be quite blustery, but temperatures

ranging between eight and 10 Celsius. But it is too good to last

because as we had through tomorrow evening those showers continuing to

push through ahead of the next weather system. A deep area of low

pressure once again. Some heavy rain to come at times, it could be a

touch wintry bats well particularly over high ground. `` a touch wintry

as well. Friday morning, the Met Office has issued an early weather

warning. Of higher ground they will be more like snow, but on lower

levels like sleep. `` over higher ground. `` on lower levels it will

be more like sleep. `` sleet.

Let's go back to our top story tonight, the news that the

Mid`Staffordshire NHS Trust will be dissolved.

`` sleet. Let's go back to our Our health

correspondent Michele Paduano has spent the day in the town gathering

reaction. So Michele, does this decision today really draw a line in

the sand for the hospitals, and what happens next?

This is certainly the end of the Mid`Staffordshire trust, which has

become synonymous with bad care around the world. People would know

Stafford everywhere and know that it had this relationship with poor

care, but the process goes on. From today they will have to divide up

hospital between Stoke on Trent and Wolverhampton hospitals. That

process may take until as early as July, maybe as late as October. We

don't know. Is it the end of the campaign? Now, the Secretary of

State for health and the Prime Minister today through the

campaigners a crumb, a line of hope that they might be able to get

consultant led services back here. And today the Care Quality

Commission are again looking at elderly care, so it is the end of an

era, but sadly not the end of the tunnel for this hospital.

That was the Midlands Today. I'll be back at ten o'clock, where I'll be

looking at what the future holds for Stafford Hospital and the impact it

will have on people living there. Have a great evening. Goodbye.