Fire service 'needs transforming'
By Anonymous on May 17, 2013 02:52 am 17 May 2013 Last updated at 01:02 ET 
Sir Ken Knight said fire service call-outs were down but staffing levels remained about the same
Fire and rescue services in England need to be "transformed" to become more efficient and effective, a government-commissioned review has said.
Sir Ken Knight said incidents were down 40% over the past decade but the number of firefighters was roughly the same.
Sir Ken, a former chief fire officer, said having 46 separate fire and rescue authorities was not "sensible".
His ideas for the future included the creation of a single fire service for England, mirroring Scotland's system.
Ideas for debate Sir Ken, who is Chief Inspector of Fire Services, also found inexplicable variations in the amount different fire and rescue authorities were spending.
After finding that, in some areas, services cost twice as much to provide as they do elsewhere, he suggested tens of millions of pounds could be saved every year.
Sir Ken said many local authorities were considering ways to save money in fire services - including mergers, new shift patterns and greater use of part-time firefighters.
But he warned the "scale of change is unlikely to be achieved through local action alone".
The review noted little change in expenditure and personnel levels despite the decrease in the number of call-outs.
Although the report made no firm recommendations, it listed a number of ideas for future debate.
These included more collaboration between fire and and other emergency services, privatisation, as well as the possibility of a single fire service for England.
'Need to answer' Sir Ken insisted the review was about adjusting the service to current needs, not cutting it.
He said: "When I was a firefighter, fire deaths in the home were 700 and 800 a year. Now, they're 180 a year.
"It's a really good news story but the service itself must adapt and change, not only to maintain that fire safety and prevention front, but to adapt its service.
"So why have - even though those fires have gone down 40% - the numbers of firefighters have remained broadly the same.
"It's a question that the local authorities and fire authorities will need to address and need to answer."
Ministers will now consider the findings.
The national Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was created on 1 April, replacing the country's previous eight regional services.
The Scottish government said savings could be made by pooling resources into one, therefore protecting front-line staff and services.
There is a new headquarters in Perth, with three operational "hubs" in the north, west and east of Scotland.
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Graduate social workers fast-tracked
By Anonymous on May 16, 2013 10:22 pm 16 May 2013 Last updated at 22:22 ET By Judith Burns BBC News education reporter 
High-profile failures have prompted attempts to improve the performance of social workers
Graduates on a new fast-track scheme for trainee social workers will help manage caseloads after just five weeks of intensive initial training.
The "Frontline" scheme aims to attract top graduates into the profession.
Government funding for a pilot for 100 trainees has been announced by Education Secretary Michael Gove.
The British Association of Social Workers has voiced concern that the timescale will not prepare the trainees adequately for safe practice.
The new scheme follows high-profile cases such as Victoria Climbie and baby Peter Connelly when social workers failed to spot signs of abuse. It has cross-party support. Improving the standing and performance of social workers has been a goal for successive governments.
The pilots, in London and Manchester, will begin in September 2014.
'Toughest job' After a five-week residential summer school at a leading university, students will go straight into hands-on work in a local authority for the next two years, along with further university-based study.
They will qualify as social workers at the end of the first year with the chance to do a masters degree in the second year.
Trainees will be paid on the job and will earn the same as a qualified social worker after their first year. The scheme promises intensive leadership training.
Josh MacAlister, chief executive of Frontline, said the two years of placements would be run along similar lines to the clinical training of hospital doctors when they first go on the wards. Small teams of trainees will co-handle caseloads, heavily supervised by senior social workers.
The Frontline scheme aims to "bring the best people into one of Britain's toughest jobs", said Mr MacAlister.
He added that it would be "totally focused on recruiting and developing outstanding social workers to lead change for disadvantaged children".
Bridget Robb of the British Association of Social Workers welcomed the scheme as offering the "potential to attract new talent into the profession".
However she voiced concerns about trainees going straight into hands-on work after only five weeks of initial training.
"There continue to be enormous challenges in the proposed timescale to prepare people with sufficient academic and practical experience for safe practice."
She added that the workload and conditions of social workers had to change so that skilled staff remained in the profession: "We cannot go on ignoring social workers when they speak of excessive caseloads and paperwork - and no time to see the service users including children - or resources to help families."
Raising standards In her 2011 report into social work, Prof Eileen Munro called for social workers' expertise to be developed. She said that people had "underestimated how much skill is needed to do good social work".
Prof Munro also recommended that a chief social worker, similar to a chief medical officer, should be appointed to report directly to government and liaise with the profession.
Isabelle Trowler, who transformed children's services in the London Borough of Hackney, has been appointed England's first Chief Social Worker.
"I want to raise standards throughout the profession", said Ms Trowler who will take up her post later this year.
She said: "I know the best social work can transform lives but too often we only hear about the things that go wrong."
She said her new job was a chance to "champion social work as well as challenge the profession, its employers and educators too, to deliver the very best for families".
Announcing the appointment, Mr Gove said: "Good social workers literally save lives; the bad can leave them in ruins. I am delighted that Isabelle Trowler has agreed to lead our reform programme; to challenge as well as to champion the profession so that vulnerable children and families are better protected."
"I am also very pleased to announce our support for Frontline, an exciting proposal and a real challenge for the brightest applicants who will have the privilege and satisfaction of helping improve the lives of the most vulnerable children in the country."
Read in browser » Wiggins forced to quit Giro d'Italia
By Anonymous on May 17, 2013 03:19 am Giro d'Italia
- Dates: 4-26 May (13 and 20 May are rest days)
Coverage: Live commentary on the final hours of each stage on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra or online; live text commentary on BBC Sport website
Sir Bradley Wiggins's participation in the Giro d'Italia is in doubt after he lost yet more time on stage 12.
The Team Sky rider, who is five minutes and 22 seconds down overall, has been suffering from a chest infection and will be assessed by doctors on Friday.
"If he's over the worst and gets better then he'll carry on," said Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford.
"But if he's getting worse then it will be up to the doctors and medics to make a call as to what's best for him."
The Giro d'Italia was a big target for Wiggins in 2013 as he sought to become the first British winner of the pink jersey.
Analysis
Rob Hayles Former GB cyclist, BBC Sport commentator"Bradley Wiggins remains under the weather. He toughed it out but if his Team Sky team-mates hadn't dropped back to help him, he would have lost several more minutes.
"At this point it doesn't matter though. It's all over. It's going to take a miracle for him to turn it around and get any time back.
"There is no reason for him to continue if he's unwell but if his health improves he needs to stay in because of the work he has done for the season.
"If he's got any aspirations for the Tour de France, he has to do what's right for that race as well."
It took on even greater importance after Team Sky said team-mate Chris Froome would lead the British outfit's challenge at the Tour de France this year.
The Englishman, 33, was one of the favourites for the road race in Italy having won the Tour de France and Olympic time trial gold in 2012.
But he has endured a difficult Giro so far, falling in wet conditions on stage seven and failing to deliver a victory in his specialist event - the individual time trial - on stage eight.
The 33-year-old came home with his main rivals in stage 11, but was unable to respond when they injected a burst of speed towards the end of stage 12 - won by fellow Briton Mark Cavendish.
He is 13th in the Giro general classification, three minutes and 18 seconds behind Team Sky team-mate Rigoberto Uran in third, with leader Vincenzo Nibali a further two minutes and four seconds ahead.
Should he pull out, it will raise doubts over his challenge at the Tour de France, which starts on 29 June.
"He's sick," added Brailsford. "He's developed a severe cold and chest infection. He battled that but it got worse overnight and we knew it was going to be an uphill battle today.
"It's not like Bradley Wiggins to lose a wheel on the flat so we'll see how it is. We'll get back to the hotel and go from there. He's fit enough. It's not about fitness its about sickness - they are two very different things.
"If you're sick you're sick, there's not a lot you can do about it. Once you are sick it's a health issue."
Whatever happens with Wiggins, Brailsford insisted Team Sky are still in a strong position in the Giro, with Uran well placed in third in the GC.
"We are in a great position in the race," he said. "I think we have got a very strong team. They are all very motivated and they will continue to ride for Rigoberto, so the team doesn't lose its purpose.
"When Bradley broke his collarbone in the Tour, that was quite a difficult thing to take on because the team lost its purpose because the team swapped from trying to get a result in the race to getting stage results, whereas here we still feel that we are competitive in the race."
Read in browser » Deaths boat driver 'wore no kill cord'
By Anonymous on May 16, 2013 08:26 pm 16 May 2013 Last updated at 20:26 ET 
The Milligan family's speedboat still had the red kill cord attached
The driver of a speedboat which crashed killing a father and daughter was not wearing a safety cord which could have stopped the engine, investigators say.
Nick Milligan, 51, and daughter Emily, eight, were killed after they and the rest of their family were thrown out of their vessel near Padstow in Cornwall.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said the unnamed driver was not using the vessel's kill cord.
The cord clips the driver to the boat and cuts the engine if they fall out.
Runaway boat Investigators still do not know why all six members of the Milligan family were flipped out of their speedboat over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend.
But the engine continued running and "as the boat circled, it ran over the family in the water a number of times," said the initial MAIB report.
Nick Milligan and eight-year-old daughter Emily, left, were killed in the 5 May accident. Mrs Milligan had part of her left leg amputated
BSkyB executive Mr Milligan and his daughter Emily were killed.
His wife Victoria, 39, had her left leg amputated below the knee.
Mrs Milligan and their four-year-old son Kit will need further surgery.
They have been transferred from Derriford Hospital in Plymouth to a hospital in London.
The Milligan's two elder daughters, Amber and Olivia, received minor injuries in the accident.
A statement from the family said: "We are grateful for the continued support of our family and friends and the good wishes we have received from the public."
The runaway boat was brought under control by water skiing instructor Charlie Toogood who leapt from his own boat into the craft to turn off its engine.
The Milligan family, from Wandsworth in London, owned a holiday home at Daymer Bay near Padstow.
Boat owners are not obliged by law to use a kill cord, but accident investigators hope the case will encourage more of them to do so.
Read in browser » Time-lapse imaging 'improves IVF'
By Anonymous on May 16, 2013 09:49 pm 16 May 2013 Last updated at 21:49 ET 
This technique allows thousands of images of the early embryo to be taken
Time-lapse imaging which takes thousands of pictures of developing embryos can boost the success rate of IVF, according to British research.
The method, reported in Reproductive BioMedicine Online, can be used to select embryos at low risk of defects.
Scientists at the CARE fertility group say such informed selection can improve birth rates by 56%.
Other experts say the result is exciting, but the study of 69 couples is too small to be definitive.
The research followed the couples at the CARE fertility clinic in Manchester last year, when 88 embryos were imaged and implanted.
The embryos were put into an incubator and imaged every 10-20 minutes.
Continual embryo monitoring through time-lapse imaging is aimed at selecting those with the lowest risk of aneuploidy - where the cells have chromosome abnormalities. Aneuploidy is the single biggest cause of IVF failure.
But this form of embryo screening is a predictive rather than diagnostic tool.
Couples at high risk of passing on a chromosomal abnormality may prefer to have Pre-implantation Genetic Screening. This invasive test removes cells from the early embryo for analysis. It costs around £2,500 on top of the £3,000 charged for conventional IVF.
The researchers classified the embryos as low, medium or high risk of chromosome abnormalities based on their development at certain key points.
Eleven babies were born from the low risk group (61% success rate) compared to five from the medium risk group (19% success rate) and none from those deemed high risk.
"In the 35 years I have been in this field this is probably the most exciting and significant development that can be of value to all patients seeking IVF," said Prof Simon Fishel, managing director of CARE Fertility Group.
"This technology can tell us which embryo is the most viable and has the highest potential to deliver a live birth - it will have huge potential. This is almost like having the embryo in the womb with a camera on them."
In standard IVF, embryos are removed from the incubator once a day to be checked under the microscope. This means they briefly leave their temperature-controlled environment and single daily snapshots of their development are possible.
Using the time-lapse method embryos don't leave the incubator until they are implanted allowing 5,000 images to be taken.
"Removing embryos from the incubator potentially exposes them to damage, so it must be a good thing to be able to look at the pattern of development over time.
"These results are very interesting but this is is a very small study and any interpretation of the findings must be made with caution as we are dealing with the hopes and expectations of patients," said Dr Virginia Bolton from the assisted conception unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.
Sheena Lewis, professor of reproductive medicine at Queen's University, Belfast, said: "This may well be the technique we have been waiting for to improve embryo selection and thus success in fertility treatment.
"However, this is a small study with just 46 embryos being followed through to birth. Much more research will be needed before this becomes a routine clinical tool."
Around a dozen private and NHS clinics are using time-lapse embryo imaging. It costs around £750 in addition to about £3,000 for IVF.
Read in browser » Morrisons agrees tie-up with Ocado
By Anonymous on May 17, 2013 02:54 am 17 May 2013 Last updated at 02:22 ET 
Morrisons is playing catch-up in the online shopping stakes
Morrisons, the UK's fourth largest supermarket chain, is going into business with internet grocer Ocado.
Morrisons says the deal will enable it to launch an online grocery service by January 2014.
The website and delivery vans will be Morrisons branded, with logistical support by Ocado from its Dordon distribution centre in the Midlands.
At the moment, Morrisons is the only one of the big four chains not to offer online shopping.
Morrisons will make an initial payment of £170m to Ocado to acquire the Dordon centre, then a further £46m to expand it and establish a delivery network.
At present, Morrisons is the only one of the "big four" supermarkets not to sell food online.
In March, Morrisons reported a 7.2% fall in pre-tax profits to £879m for the year to 3 February - its first drop in full-year profits for six years.
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