File on 4 Investigates

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Short-selling Students? Jun 03, 2014

Show notes

With fees costing as much as £9,000 a year, universities must operate in an increasingly cut-throat market place. At a time when budgets in some institutions are being stretched, students are demanding more for their money.

Against a backdrop of rising complaints, the new Competition and Markets authority is considering whether to launch an investigation.

So are students getting what they pay for? And when they don't, can they get the problem fixed in a timely manner?

Why are some students taking to the courts to try to get redress?

Fran Abrams has been examining the universities' record.

Which of them have seen the biggest rise in student concerns, and which have managed to buck the trend?

Producer: Emma Forde.

Practices Under Pressure May 27, 2014

Show notes

GPs are under pressure to do more. The Government wants surgeries to open seven days a week and the Labour Party say they'll ensure people get appointments within 48 hours. But, at the same time, there are warnings that the family doctor service in England is on the brink of extinction because of a "perfect storm" of funding cuts and growing demand.

Jenny Cuffe meets two doctors - one in rural Yorkshire, who is about to lose a quarter of his funding and does not know how he can keep his surgery doors open and the other struggling to cope with the volume of patients in her busy urban practice in Salford.

One in seven primary care practices in England reports having to make redundancies as a result of the Government spending squeeze.

Recruitment for new GPs is still to hit Government targets and more doctors are leaving general practice through retirement or to work abroad.

So are the promises of greater access to your GP really deliverable?

Miscarriage of Justice May 20, 2014

Show notes

How effective is the system for investigating miscarriages of justice in England and Wales?

Critics say the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body charged with examining potential wrongful convictions, lacks teeth and needs to be thoroughly reformed.

Are they right?

Allan Urry examines cases in which prisoners, campaigners and lawyers say the CCRC doesn't do enough for those who continue to protest their innocence.

Should the Commission be making more use of the latest DNA techniques to re-examine verdicts which relied on circumstantial evidence?

And why did the CCRC twice refuse to pursue the case of a man who spent 17 years in prison for a serious sex crime he didn't commit?

Producer: Rob Cave.

Street Slaves May 13, 2014

Show notes

The Government has introduced a draft Modern Slavery Bill which is aimed at making it simpler to prosecute human traffickers and which will bring in life sentences for such offences.

But who are the victims of modern day slavery in the UK and how organised are the gangs who prey upon them?

While much concern has focused on people trafficked into the country, Jane Deith reveals how the most vulnerable in society such as the homeless and people with learning difficulties are being targeted by gangs who pick them off the streets with the offer of money and accommodation. But many say they end up working long hours for little or no pay and are too frightened to leave. Some - including people from the UK - are taken abroad to countries such as Sweden and Norway to pave driveways and other labouring jobs. Others are working in the construction industry here but being paid much less than the minimum wage.

Police say the traffickers and those who exploit the homeless and vulnerable are highly organised and often use their victims' identities to open bank accounts and commit further crimes such as benefit fraud, netting thousands of pounds and leaving their victims with huge debts.

So who's monitoring the marginalised? Will the new Bill do enough to deal with the dark side of Britain's labour market?

Reporter: Jane Deith

Producer: Paul Grant.

Election Fraud Mar 11, 2014

Show notes

With local authority elections due in May, Allan Urry investigates claims of organised vote rigging.

Earlier this year, the Electoral Commission identified 16 areas in England with wards that are at particular risk of electoral fraud.

File on 4 visits some of those towns and cities and hears first hand evidence of intimidation and the widespread abuse of postal votes - including allegations that some people are being pressured into handing over their vote to party activists.

A candidate who successfully took a court case against his opponent after narrowly losing an election, says some campaigners have lost sight of what is right and wrong.

And a judge who sits in election fraud cases attacks the system as "shambolic" and "wide open to abuse".

So is our voting system too vulnerable to fraud? Are the authorities doing all they can to root out corruptions? And is it time to end postal voting on demand?

Producers: Emma Forde and Sally Chesworth.

The Accountant Kings Mar 04, 2014

Show notes

The UK is said to have more accountants than almost any other nation on earth. Thanks to reforms in the way the public sector is run, the "Big Four" accountancy firms and the accountancy profession generally has become more powerful and more influential than ever before. But what do these accountants actually do and what does it mean for taxpayers?

To find out, Simon Cox meets the residents of Birmingham, who are dealing with the reality of the accountants' decisions. And he speaks to the nation's top accountants to ask how their profession is changing and what the future holds.

The last 20 years have seen many services which used to be run by local councils outsourced to the private sector. Capita, formed by a former government accountant, has taken the lion's share of these contracts, which often involve a team of Capita accountants deciding where to make cuts in local services. In Birmingham a massive IT and 'business transformation' contract between Capita and the City Council is proving highly controversial - with claims that it is diverting money away from public services and into private sector profit.

Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) form another kind of management model which accountants helped create and which added to the growth of the Big Four accountancy firms - Deloitte, Ernst and Young, KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers - over the last two decades. Birmingham is home to one of the biggest PFI contracts ever signed, with a private contractor in charge of roads, trees and street lights. Have the accountants engineered a good deal for Birmingham?

The next big growth area for the accountants is the NHS as doctors seek their help in commissioning and managing local services under the health service reforms. But what does this mean for the people on the NHS front line?

Reporter: Simon Cox Producer: Lucy Proctor.

Deadly Hospitals? Feb 25, 2014

Show notes

Each year the number of deaths in every hospital in England is recorded and compared with national averages for the range of patients and conditions treated. The results are published by a company called Dr Foster in The Hospital Guide.

The Guide has a solid reputation. Its findings are studied and used by leaders of the NHS. Dr Foster's statistical expert says that high mortality statistics should act as a 'smoke alarm' raising investigation of standards at a hospital. The Care Quality Commission praises Dr Foster's "powerful analysis of hospital trusts" and the Health Secretary says: "We expect all hospitals to examine this data carefully and take action wherever services need to improve".

But some leading statisticians question the reliability of mortality statistics as an indication of clinical quality. And they believe that many pockets of poor practice go undetected in hospitals with good mortality scores.

Critics also see the publication of such data as an invitation to the press to distort the available evidence by calculating numbers of 'needless deaths' within the NHS. Such calculations have in fact been produced and then given widespread publicity. The NHS Medical Director calls them "clinically meaningless and academically reckless". But they continue to make the front pages.

Gerry Northam reports from hospitals which have "worryingly high" mortality statistics according to Dr Foster and asks how much this really shows about their quality of care.

Producer : Ian Muir-Cochrane Editor : David Ross.

Repeat Offenders Feb 18, 2014

Show notes

Probation staff are currently being told where they will be working under a radical reform of the service. The government is transferring the management of low and medium risk offenders to private companies and high risk cases will be handled by a national probation service.

The Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, says the reforms are necessary to cut reoffending rates and save money which will be ploughed back into providing support to all prisoners who have served less than 12 months.

But opponents claim the reforms are being rushed in and will put the public at risk.

Last month, it was announced the plans have been delayed. They were due to come into effect in May but the start date has been put back until July.

The new private providers will only be paid in full if they achieve a reduction in reoffending. The programme speaks to one of the companies bidding for the contracts which says payment by results will lead to innovation and visits a prison which says it is already achieving success in a pilot scheme working with prisoners serving under 12 months.

But Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw also talks to probation staff about their fears for the future of partnership working and hears why some of them are threatening to quit the service.

Producer: Paul Grant.

Flooding: Best Laid Plans? Feb 11, 2014

Show notes

Flights grounded. Trains cancelled. Roads flooded. It's becoming a familiar story every winter as Britain's transport systems are battered by the weather. While rainfall this winter has been unusually high, has some of the disruption that we've seen been caused by a lack of strategic planning and routine maintenance? Should a flooded river have been able to knock out power supplies at Gatwick, catching airport authorities by surprise? Were the drainage systems adequate on some of the railway embankments that collapsed, leaving passengers stranded? Allan Urry investigates why our infrastructure is struggling to cope with the storms and asks whether bad planning has made a bad situation worse?

Producer: Rob Cave.

Cut-Price Care Feb 04, 2014

Show notes

Ministers have promised a new focus on home care for the elderly and disabled amid concern that 15-minute calls and a low-paid, underskilled workforce are leaving vulnerable people at risk.

From this Spring, inspectors will ask how councils' commissioning practices are affecting the daily lives of those they care for. But with authorities under pressure simultaneously to cut costs, will quality continue to suffer?

Fears have been mounting about whether the basic needs of vulnerable people are being met. The government's human rights watchdog has been pressing the issue, along with tax officials who say many companies are breaching minimum wage legislation.

This week File on 4 reports on the results of its own survey of local authorities in England. Have councils increased spending to keep pace with inflation in the past few years, or have they actually driven down costs? And are they providing even the most basic level of resources that social service chiefs say are needed to keep those in their care safe and well?

Reporter: Fran Abrams Producer: Emma Forde.

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