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Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Kristin Hawthorne.
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00:30Hello and welcome to Kent Tonight Live on KMTV. I'm Kristen Hawthorne and here are your top stories on Wednesday
00:37the 22nd of April.
00:40Jobs on the line. Kent's largest special needs school warns of redundancies over funding.
00:46We'd be losing incredible staff to the profession just through something as simple as a budget cut.
00:53Protect our planet. This Earth Day, Maidstone Borough Council grow their efforts to help biodiversity.
00:58So, you know, the way we are working is to restore as much biodiversity within the Maidstone Borough as we
01:06can.
01:07And sustainable shopping. Ashford trials its free shop charity to help cut down on fast fashion.
01:14I feel like it's exactly what Ashford needs as obviously we are in struggling times.
01:17And I do think that this would help some people out, you know, with the clothes, some food and just
01:23to support the community.
01:35The UK's largest SEND school is warning it might have to make staff redundant after securing less funding than expected
01:42from Kent County Council.
01:44In an exclusive interview, the principal of Five Acre Wood highlighted that hundreds of children with complex needs would be
01:51impacted.
01:51But the local authority said the 1% uplift they provided was a direct response to the government giving no
01:58uplift in high needs funding to KCC this year.
02:01Local democracy reporter Ollie Leader was invited into a classroom to see what this could mean for some of Kent's
02:07most vulnerable children.
02:20A profoundly different way of teaching for children with some of the most profound needs in the South East.
02:26No day is easy for the specialist staff here at Five Acre Wood in Maidstone, who now fear job losses
02:33after a lower than expected uplift in funding from Kent County Council.
02:39It's not sustainable.
02:41And as I've said previously, the last thing I want is to make redundancies because our staff are the best,
02:49the best resource that our young people could have.
02:54And the last thing I want to need to do is make redundancies.
02:57And the impression I'm getting is that you're not confident that the money is there from the local authority at
03:04this stage?
03:04No, no.
03:05And I have colleagues who have had to make redundancies and it's not a good place to be in.
03:11Special educational needs schools here in Kent will receive a 1% uplift in per-pupil funding, but this is
03:19lower than some mainstream schools and won't apply to the majority of staffing costs, which make up more than 85
03:27% of Five Acre Wood's budget.
03:30If those cuts were to happen, I think it would be a massive detriment to staff and pupils.
03:37I think we definitely wouldn't feel like we would be able to give the provision that the children serve and
03:43need.
03:44But Kent County Council say their hands have been tied by Whitehall, who give the local authority their schools funding.
03:52With the higher needs budget, that is sent to us and we were given zero uplift.
03:57So that is why we made a decision to at least give some uplift rather than nothing.
04:04We didn't expect not to get an uplift from the government, so therefore we're all in a situation where as
04:10a sector together, we need to manage that budget best we can because there is no more.
04:17That is the pot.
04:18Now, the Department for Education do say they are reforming a brokered SEND system to give young people the best
04:27start in life.
04:28But after looking through dozens of council documents, government spreadsheets after government spreadsheet, having spoken to senior press officers in
04:38Whitehall and Kent County Council,
04:41I'm no closer to understanding why the UK's largest SEND school has a more than £600,000 gap in their
04:52budget for this year.
04:53The only thing that's certain, in fact, is that staff are now at risk of losing their jobs.
05:00And this could have a huge knock-on effect for vulnerable young people in Kent and beyond.
05:07Only leader in Maidstone.
05:11It's a major issue for people here in Kent, and joining me in the studio to explain more is Peggy
05:18Murphy, the principal for Five Acre Wood School,
05:21Tim Williams, headmaster for the Maidstone site, and Kirsty Hemingway for the Snodland satellite provision.
05:28Thank you so much for joining me in the studio.
05:31And I have to ask, because from that piece we heard just then, funding issues facing Five Acre are twofold.
05:39On one hand, there's this 1% uplift from the local authority, and they say they're not raising it to
05:442% due to funding from government not being in line with inflation.
05:49On the other hand, there's significant inflationary costs around staffing, energy bills, and so on.
05:56Why has this created such an unsustainable financial situation for Five Acre Wood and other SE&D schools here in
06:04Kent?
06:06Because we've had a 1% uplift on 91% of our budget, which would be the element 1, 2,
06:15and 3 funding within our budget.
06:19But it's actually going to be a 3% deficit in our budget to pay for the uplift that our
06:32Kent range staff, paid staff, are receiving.
06:37Can you explain what that actually looks like?
06:39I know that, for example, Five Acre Wood employs lots of teaching assistants, as well as things you wouldn't think
06:45of at a mainstream school, such as counsellors, therapists, so on.
06:49Can you explain what that actually looks like in real terms, and why there are these cost pressures around staffing
06:59at Five Acre Wood that you wouldn't necessarily see at a mainstream school?
07:02Well, we've got over 500 staff for 878 pupils.
07:07Of those staff, about 100 are paid under teachers' terms and conditions.
07:13So that actually leaves over 400 staff who are paid on Kent's scheme.
07:18Those staff range from site staff, cleaning staff, kitchen staff, teaching assistants, and then admin staff.
07:31So it's a whole range of staff.
07:33And with the uplift that they are receiving through the Kent scheme, then that's going to have a £645,000
07:45impact on our budget that we're not getting any support to pay for.
07:51So the council papers suggest that areas that we'll have to see efficiency and savings made in is staffing and
08:00non-staffing budgets.
08:02What would that look like at the Maidstone site, Tim?
08:05What would that look like for pupils and for staff?
08:08It's a hard question, Ollie.
08:09We are certainly being encouraged to realise and sustain more efficiencies in our budgets.
08:14So we will need to really look at how we can cut our cloth in order to manage our budgets
08:19moving forwards.
08:19And obviously with the satellite sites, we saw just then what the Maidstone site looks like and how it supports
08:25some of the most vulnerable people in Kent.
08:28How would it impact the satellite sites that provide support to those young people moving towards adulthood and independence?
08:38I mean, it's the same issues.
08:40You know, we're one wood, many trees.
08:41You know, all our pupils, obviously, has EHCPs and various needs.
08:45And our staffing is based on the needs of the pupils.
08:48So we will have to cut our cloth.
08:50One of the biggest issues for the post-16 cohorts at all schools in SEND is the transport next year.
08:58For some of those youngsters, they're unable to travel independently due to their physical, cognitive needs, you know, medical conditions.
09:07Or they may live in rural areas or there might not be any public transport nearby.
09:10And, you know, we're concerned that we may see next year needs pupils not in education, employment or training, you
09:18know, and we've never had that before in our setting.
09:23We totally accept the cost of transport is really, really high, you know, and that some pupils, with some training
09:29initially, you know, will be able to travel using public transport.
09:32But there's some of these other factors that if they do become neat, that's going to have a lasting impact,
09:37I think, on, you know, our future workforce, pupils that would volunteer as they get older and as they step
09:43into adulthood.
09:45A house in Greatstone near New Romney has been destroyed in a fire despite the efforts of the fire service.
09:52The fire's peak saw five fire engines in Seaview Road and, as you can see, the house was badly damaged.
09:58Because of how close the fire is to Romney, Hyde and Dimchurch Miniature Railway, certain trains are temporarily suspended.
10:06No one was injured because of the fire, but this afternoon firefighters were still working to extinguish the flames.
10:13Dramatic footage has captured the moment police found a man hiding in a garden box after fleeting the scene of
10:18a crash.
10:20Officers pursued the speeding motorist along the M20 before he collided with a traffic island.
10:25The driver fled but was found hiding nearby in a garden box in Seale near Sevenoaks.
10:31Ryan Whitehead from Wales was arrested and later charged with assaulting an emergency worker, dangerous driving and driving without insurance
10:38and whilst disqualified.
10:40The 32-year-old admitted all four charges and was jailed for a year at Canterbury Crime Court on Monday.
10:46Here is the dash cam footage of the incident.
11:05A head teacher took her own life after fearing she was developing dementia and becoming a burden.
11:11Alison Higgins had become increasingly health conscious after suffering a mini-stroke a year earlier.
11:16An inquest held at Oakwood House in Maidstone this week heard Miss Higgins had not been diagnosed with dementia at
11:22the time of her death,
11:23but had seen her GP just days earlier.
11:26The thoughtful and caring teacher was found unresponsive at her home in Hyde by her husband of 31 years.
11:33If you've been affected by this story, you can call Samaritans anytime on 116 123.
11:41Well, that's all we have for this half of the show, but we'll be back in just a few minutes
11:46with more.
11:47We'll be speaking to Dr Julian Spinks about the IT shortages in GP practices
11:52and why maybe you've been affected and unable to get an appointment.
11:55All that and more in a few minutes. Bye-bye.
15:46Thanks.
15:54So, Julian, thanks so much for joining us this evening.
15:56Can you first of all touch on the IT issues that GP practices have been having?
16:00Yes, I looked at that picture and that's typical of me these days, two big screens because we're using multiple
16:06IT systems, no paper, no pens.
16:08And it means we're totally dependent on it.
16:12And so when something happens where the IT fails, we can't really work with patients particularly easily.
16:18We can deal with emergencies, we can deal with emergencies but nothing more, we can't do any plan care, we
16:22can't do any plan care, we can't do prescriptions, we can't receive pathology results, we can't get letters from consultants
16:27and so on.
16:27So we are pretty much dead in the water.
16:30And whilst we have ways to back up so that if someone's got an urgent problem, we can write on
16:34bits of paper, but that's not the same and worse than that, after this is solved, we then have to
16:41go back and put all that information back onto the computer and deal with the backlog.
16:46And how long has this been an issue for? Because I'm assuming maybe people at home will be watching, they
16:50maybe haven't been able to get an appointment on Mondays for a couple of weeks now, is that right?
16:54It's been several weeks and it's mostly been Mondays. We had bank holiday Tuesday, so just as we got back
17:01and we were very busy, this week we've had two days, Monday and Tuesday.
17:05It seems to tie on with the fact that Monday is the busiest day, we have more people working and
17:10the crunch has happened when people come in first thing in the morning and log on to their systems.
17:14And so just when you're wanting to start seeing patients, you can't access things.
17:19All right. Very interesting. And then we'll move on to the tobacco ban.
17:23So it's this ban that after the 1st of January 2009, people won't be able to buy cigarettes or things
17:29like that and then maybe vapes into the future.
17:31Do you think that's going to make a big difference in people's health?
17:34I think it has the potential to make an enormous difference.
17:36The whole idea was, and it's taken a bit of time to get through Parliament, was that by the time
17:41you were old enough to buy cigarettes, you were not going to be able to do it.
17:45And you're absolutely right. After the beginning of 2009, if you're born after that, it will be illegal for you
17:50to buy cigarettes and likewise for people to sell it.
17:53It is very dependent on it being policed because clearly it's going to require things like news agents to ask
18:00for proof of age, the same way as they do now for the over 18s.
18:04And there'll be a generation who cannot buy legally cigarettes for the whole of their life.
18:10And hopefully that will take a large chunk of the people who are smoking at the moment and reduce the
18:15amount of risk.
18:16And just, I mean, is it becoming more of an issue? Is maybe why this is coming in more to
18:22law now?
18:23Do you find that more young people are coming in with difficulty smoking?
18:28There's been a steady decline, I have to say, but there is a sort of core that are very resistant
18:32of all ages.
18:33And we'd like to move them off from that. You spoke earlier about vapes.
18:37Vapes actually are a very good way to get people off cigarettes.
18:40But what we don't want is younger people starting vapes.
18:43And there are additional restrictions in the bill about vapes, about particular flavours and so on, that might be more
18:50attractive to younger people.
18:52It's all about trying to improve people's health, keeping them safe.
18:55All right. Gillian, thank you so much.
19:04Now, if you didn't know already, today is Earth Day and Maidstone Borough Council has launched a new initiative in
19:10a small park in Allington.
19:12A nursery of trees has been planted to support nature recovery and strengthen climate resilience as part of the Tiny
19:19Forest Programme,
19:20as the government remains off track to meet its environmental commitments, according to the latest progress report from the Office
19:27for Environmental Protection.
19:29Maisie Walker has this report.
19:30Our power, our planet.
19:33Our power, our planet.
19:34This year's Earth Day theme highlights the impact of environmental damage while promoting community scale climate solutions and the importance
19:41of protecting biodiversity.
19:43Said to be the leading council in Kent tackling climate change and biodiversity, Maidstone Borough Council has launched a new
19:50initiative in a small park in Allington, Midley Close.
19:54A nursery of trees has been planted to support nature recovery and strengthen climate resilience as a part of the
20:01Tiny Forest Programme.
20:03This park in Maidstone is working hard to increase biodiversity levels, which are currently in the red zone, according to
20:10a report earlier this year.
20:11The government remains off track to meet its environmental commitments, and its actions in the coming years will be crucial
20:17in determining whether key biodiversity targets and protections for land and sea by 2030 are achieved, according to the latest
20:26progress report from the Office of Environmental Protection.
20:30Currently, the overarching goal of restoring thriving plant and wildlife populations is rated in the red zone, indicating it is
20:38significantly off track.
20:39So Maidstone, at the moment, we're really struggling with so much overdevelopment on our doorsteps, and we are very aware
20:46that we're losing important habitat in our locality.
20:50So we're thinking, what do we have as a town within our urban spaces that is green, that we can
20:57actually maximise for biodiversity within the community?
21:01We are at a really critical point at the moment.
21:04We are at a really critical point at the moment. I mean, insect populations in Kent have declined rapidly since
21:072004, and in the past five years, things are crashing really, really quickly, and it's really alarming.
21:14So, you know, the way we are working is to restore as much biodiversity within the Maidstone borough as we
21:22can.
21:23And also, you know, with the hotter summers that we're experiencing, especially the very dry springs and the very wet
21:30winters, we need to make sure that, you know, we are resilient for the climate change that's happening around us.
21:37So everything that we have planted here is really great for climate resilience.
21:42In these conditions, the healthy competition for sunlight and nutrients will encourage the trees to grow ten times faster than
21:49conventional planting methods.
21:51With £500,000 being invested in community groups to kickstart nature projects, the borough is hopeful this will drive meaningful
21:59progress ahead of 2030.
22:02Maisie Walker for KMTV, Maidstone.
22:06If you're a fan of gaming, toys and trading cards, you won't have long to wait for another shop and
22:12hangout spot to open here in Kent.
22:14The owners of Tokyo Toys are set to open another branch in Sittingbourne this Saturday in the Forum Shopping Centre.
22:21The grand opening, kicking off at 10am, will feature a free play arcade, a cosplay competition and mascots.
22:27There will also be an after party on Sunday, complete with pizza, board games and a chance to meet the
22:33staff and other gaming fans.
22:35Tickets for Sunday's event can be bought on the Tokyo Toys website.
22:40And a golden pocket watch owned by a hidden hero of the Titanic has sold for £46,000 at a
22:47Kent auction today.
22:49The 18 karat gold watch was discovered in West Kent and linked back to John Richardson, the lead engineer of
22:56a rescue ship that rescued 700 passengers from the Titanic.
23:00Researchers from Hanson Auctioneers in Penhurst found that the watch was awarded to Richardson for his courage during the disaster.
23:07It was originally estimated to have a value of £100,000 but was bought by an anonymous buyer for almost,
23:13for over half.
23:20And now around 300,000 tonnes of clothing will end up in landfill every year.
23:27So for Earth Day, Ashford are trialling their own free shop to help people afford basic goods while being sustainable.
23:35They're currently fundraising to open the charity in May and are aiming for £5,000 towards their goal.
23:41Phil McDermott has the story.
23:44It all started with a single rack of clothing in Hearn Bay.
23:47And now free shops are beginning to expand across the rest of the county,
23:50with Ashford looking to be the next to offer clothing, food and toiletries to the public without a price tag.
23:57The charity are hoping to properly open their own shop in May.
24:01So for Earth Day, they're raising money while trialling the free shop in a cafe on the high street.
24:06Today's Earth Day. Do something, something environmentally friendly.
24:09Even if it's a little tiny thing, everything makes a difference.
24:12No one is going to come and save the planet.
24:14We all have to chip in and reuse, upcycle, repurpose, rethink.
24:21It's all about our planet.
24:23And on the other side, just think about how many people in need are struggling at the moment.
24:27So if we build more bridges, more free shops, which connects that people in need and all waste we have,
24:34it's a win-win.
24:35But the idea is that Ashford will have its own free shop.
24:38Currently, they've got the volunteers willing to do the work.
24:40They've even got a location.
24:41But today is all about making sure they can get enough donations to get their free shop off the ground.
24:46Once they reach that £5,000 goal, they'll start supplying free food, clothing and other items to the people of
24:52Ashford.
24:52This is something that, you know, Ashford needs.
24:55And after living in Ashford and being all by myself with no family, all the lovely charities around Ashford and
25:03the churches were helping me through all the struggles I've been through.
25:07So I thought, you know what, I want to say thank you to Ashford. And I remember when Maya posted
25:13online, if you want to open a free shop and, you know, just sign up.
25:17And I was like, I want to open a free shop in Ashford.
25:20The free shop is planned to be based near the train station so it doesn't affect the High Street economy
25:24and local businesses.
25:26I feel like it's exactly what Ashford needs as obviously we are in struggling times.
25:29And I do think that this would help some people out, you know, with the clothes, some food and just
25:35to support the community.
25:37Unfortunately, we have seen a decrease in some customers, but obviously we want to help wherever we can.
25:42So I just think the free shop would be an amazing idea. This is why we decided to collaborate with
25:48them.
25:48We are always open for things like that just to help the community.
25:52Currently, the shop needs to raise £5,000 before they can open their own venue.
25:57But today they're already aiming to reduce the cost on essential items as well as the cost on the environment.
26:02Finn McDermid for CAME TV in Ashford.
26:06Quick look at the weather now.
26:13Well, it looks like this evening will be mostly clear skies,
26:16highs of 10 degrees towards the east of the county.
26:19Then we're going up to 11 and 12 tomorrow morning, wind speeds of 11 and 12.
26:26And then clear skies are staying into the afternoon.
26:29We have got highs of 13 there in Medway, so lucky us.
26:33And then clear skies for the rest of the week.
26:36Highs of 18 on Saturday, 15 on Friday and Sunday as well.
26:49That's it this evening on Kent Tonight. Bye-bye.
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