Panorama 2020 E26
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CreativityTranscript
00:00People around the UK are waking up to unprecedented restrictions on the way we live, as the government
00:12tries to slow the spread of coronavirus.
00:29Britain's way of life must now change. Public gatherings of more than two people are banned,
00:35unless it's people we live with.
00:59It is now almost two months since the people of this country began to put up with restrictions
01:11on their freedom, your freedom, of a kind that we have never seen before in peace or war.
01:20Well the announcement we were given no warning about at all and it's quite sad really because
01:24you know local government is very much at the front line of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic
01:30and you would have thought government would have been talking to us before
01:34the prime minister addresses the nation. Unfortunately that hasn't happened.
01:40So I want to provide tonight the shape of a plan
01:44to provide the first sketch of a roadmap for reopening society.
01:50This isn't about being a labour authority. This is about genuinely trying our hardest and our best
01:57to serve the people of this city. We understand our communities, we understand the issues and
02:03concerns people are facing. We now need to stress that anyone who can't work from home, for instance
02:12those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively involved in the work that they do.
02:20We want you to be encouraged to go to work and we want it to be safe for you to get to work.
02:26So you should avoid public transport because we must maintain social distancing.
02:42It's going to be a strange day I must admit. Who knows what's going to happen.
02:50I've got some real concerns with some of this because clearly if we're maintaining social
02:54distancing on trams, trains and buses that's not going to be enough revenue to pay for the full
03:01costs of these services. So who picks up that tab?
03:09Here we go.
03:20The social distancing aspect is going to be quite a challenge today.
03:38Time will tell if the policy works.
03:42Maybe a long time off yet but small steps going in the right direction.
03:52Coming into Salford University.
03:56Used to be a hive of activity around here.
04:00Maybe it might encourage more people today to walk, cycle.
04:11Let's go to the live view.
04:24The immediate challenge from lockdown being lifted was the number of people trying to go
04:29back to work but perhaps unwilling to use public transport. So you've got a lot of people on bikes
04:38who maybe aren't as proficient. So it's how can we make them feel safer.
04:46You can actually take a bit of one of those lanes and give it to the cyclist.
04:51We talked about it on a Friday. We put it in place on Wednesday.
04:57There's the old maxim, if you build it they will come.
05:09The money isn't 100% secured yet. We're effectively cash flowing it as a city
05:16but we have to act now. If we wait until the funding is secured it'll be too late.
05:26Oh what are you doing in the town hall?
05:43Good God. Is councillor Hines with you? Yes we're all here. Okay if I get right into it
05:51the bottom line there is that the big issue is the income loss and the fact that a loss of income
05:58will total nearly 58 million pounds in 12 months time.
06:07And we've received 16.05 from government so far. So the shortfall is nearly 42 million.
06:16Yeah okay. Generalism reserves are not as healthy as we would like them to be quite honestly.
06:32As a local authority we're classed as the 18th most deprived local authority
06:37in the country. At the start of all of this government talked about us being able to spend
06:42what's necessary to meet needs within the city and then all of a sudden government start changing
06:48the language around this and start talking about sharing the burden. Well it's going to be difficult
06:53for Salford to share the burden because we've already seen 211 million taken out of our revenue
06:58budget since 2010 and that's going into this pandemic. If the government don't come back with
07:06any further help to us or money to us we're in danger then of issuing a section 114 notice
07:15which effectively is bankruptcy.
07:28Salford obviously is a post-industrial part of the country and you know we've been on a journey
07:33here when you know manufacturing and our industrial base was taken away from the city.
07:38We've been trying to grow our economy locally. What I wouldn't want the pandemic to do is
07:44destabilize all of that activity that was just starting to bear fruits if you like.
07:53The main news tonight the cabinet office minister Michael Gove has insisted that teachers and
07:58children will be safe when they return to schools in England. He's confident that children and
08:03teachers will be safe if schools in England open to more pupils next month. Unions that have raised
08:08safety fears were unconvinced after a meeting with government scientists. We want to start
08:14getting our children back into the classroom so we said we would begin with early years settings
08:21and reception year one and year six in primary schools and today I can announce that it is our
08:30intention to go ahead with that as planned on June the 1st a week on Monday.
08:44When I first heard along with the nation that the prime minister was suggesting that reception was
08:50one of the priority year groups that would open up at first I laughed and I shouted at the tv
08:57and my phone went crazy. That's not going to be possible. We're not going to be able to maintain
09:05the social distancing with children who are four and five. That is just not going to be acceptable
09:12for me, for my staff, for my governors, for our families. It's not a sensible way to do things.
09:18How's it going? Okay? Yeah, good. But when we got the guidance and we were able to see that the
09:24suggestion was for us to form small bubbles at that point then I began to realise, ah yes, this
09:30could be workable. So my current plan is that on that first day we will be welcoming our year six
09:39These have not been open for a while. Year six children, they're going to come through this gate,
09:45mind yourself there,
09:49and they'll be split into four groups. They'll have their spots marked out and then their
09:57designated teacher for that particular group open the gate, collect the bubbles and then
10:04that particular group open the gate, collect those children so that they're not going to
10:10come into contact with any other group, any other bubble from the moment they walk through the gate
10:16to the moment they leave the gate. This is like lockdown in school.
10:23Hello. Hello, you're here. Yes. Are we okay to crack on with the schools briefing, John? Yeah, fine.
10:36So, Mr Johnson announced that schools would come back on the basis of year one,
10:43reception class and year six. Our reaction was it may or may not be possible to achieve that
10:51but what we would want to do is to ask our head teachers what the situation was in their
10:57particular school because of course the safety issues vary dramatically from one school to
11:03another. We prepared a fairly robust assessment which we asked head teachers. Yeah, I've got a
11:10copy of it, John. It is very robust, absolutely. For me, this isn't about a date or a point in time,
11:20this is about the safety of children going back to school, it's the safety of staff, it's the
11:26safety of their families, you know, when they go home. So, we've been working with our health and
11:31safety experts to devise a template to really properly and thoroughly evaluate health and
11:37safety really within those school environments. Let's do the work, let's see what the work tells
11:43us and let's take an evidence-based approach to this. Let's not rush to meet an arbitrary date of
11:49the 1st of June. Mr Williams, would you mind just ringing year six parents? Is that okay, yeah?
12:01Hi, is that Ellie Mays, ma'am? Hiya, yeah, it's Mr Williams here from Vivu Primary School.
12:06Yeah, I'm not too bad, thanks. How are you? Yeah, good. We surveyed our parents in year six
12:13and those responses have varied from, yep, absolutely, I'm desperate to get my child back
12:19to school, I can't wait, you know, can you open any earlier? To, absolutely no, no way, I'm not
12:26sending my child back to school until the coronavirus is gone. And we've got some parents
12:31who are kind of hovering in between.
12:45I'm Rowan, I live in Salford, I am in year six and this is my mum and dad, my brother,
12:52I don't know where he is. I'm dad, Craig, 37 years old. I'm Rowan's mum, I'm 36 and I work at the
13:00school that Rowan goes to, I'm the cook supervisor in the kitchen. This is the living room area where
13:08my mum, my dad, my brother, me and my dog chill out. This is my bedroom, over here is all of my
13:16medals that I've won. This is Amber, my dog that never leaves my side because she's a cuter.
13:25And over here is when I was in nursery, I was three years old, one of the best times of my life.
13:34I think initially I was a little bit nervous, a little bit worried about whether it would be
13:40the right thing for Rowan going back to school. He can be a little bit of an anxious child at
13:47times even though he comes across quite confident. Over here is my table where we eat and drink.
13:55This right now is my new classroom since all of this has begun happening. I find it working at
14:01home really simple compared to at school because we tend to do a bit less lessons and it's quite
14:11more easier. The both of us are of the mindset that we'll see how it goes. Obviously if the
14:21infection rate in Salford jumped drastically then our thinking would be different, then he wouldn't go.
14:37It's seven o'clock on Saturday the 23rd of May. The headlines this morning, Boris Johnson's most
14:42senior advisor Dominic Cummings has been accused of breaking lockdown rules by travelling hundreds
14:47of miles to his parents home when he had coronavirus symptoms. It's prompted calls
14:53from opposition parties for the prime minister's chief aide to resign or face the sack.
14:59Quite simply Dominic Cummings position is untenable and the prime minister
15:04has serious questions to answer. I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly and legally
15:12and with integrity.
15:17In regards to the lockdown rules I think people are starting to lose faith in it. With what's
15:21happened over the weekend on the news regarding Dominic Cummings and other people in high office
15:28breaking the rules excessively, they're probably thinking well if they can do it
15:34we might as well do it now.
15:35We're just getting really bored, there's nothing to do for like two months now it's been on and I
15:40think everyone's just fed up of it and people are just breaking the rules now. Nobody's listening anymore.
15:49People are going to do what they're going to do, you know like this lockdown measure has not stopped
15:53me from coming to this park working out every day and if I get stopped by police or whatever
15:58I'll just explain to them I like you know I work like anybody else I'm like you know
16:03who are they to say what we can do to control us in a way.
16:12Certainly indications really concern me you know the large numbers of people are not maintaining
16:18social distancing really really worries me and this could potentially lead to a second spike.
16:25Hi Paul. Hi Tracey. Just wanted to talk really about homelessness and rough sleeping.
16:33For us it's a really difficult situation to be in.
16:36We're doing as much as we can we just do not have the resources in place.
16:44Before Covid and before this pandemic,
16:47we were in the middle of a housing crisis and we've been struggling with homelessness
16:51and rough sleeping now for several years here in Greater Manchester.
17:04My name's Colin. I'm an outreach worker. My job involves helping people in need.
17:12My name's Colin. I'm an outreach worker. My job involves engaging with entrenched sleepers.
17:22Often people will be in areas where there are night-time economies.
17:27They can come interact with people and obtain money.
17:34All of that's changed really. Those opportunities are much less now.
17:39So we're heading down to that other place now? Yeah we're going over the wall.
17:50So we've got an area here where we regularly pick people up.
17:54See there's obvious evidence of drug use here. You've got benzo,
17:58badazepine packets, cedric there.
18:03If you're rough sleeping here with somebody who maybe has a virus,
18:09how you're going to keep yourself safe, I don't know.
18:29The government made this announcement about everyone in, but actually never provided us
18:34with any ring-fenced funding in local government to fund their everyone in policy.
18:40And a lot of the people were put up in hotels, for example.
18:45Inevitably what that's done is created a lot of work for our homelessness teams.
18:50Hi Mattie, you all right? I think we need to have a little break.
18:56I think we need to have a little chat now about where you'd like better move to.
19:01It's a huge challenge finding COVID-compliant accommodation that we can safely move people
19:08who've been sleeping rough on the streets of Greater Manchester into.
19:12But we've had to cobble that money together from a whole host of different partners.
19:18So we'll be looking to secure three and four people who can live
19:22back together and we'll be happy sharing a house, really.
19:26Yeah, I just want to move on now and just settle. Felt like a long time.
19:43I found lockdown really difficult. I've really struggled with it a lot.
19:47I've been up and down. I suffer with anxiety, so basically I found it really hard.
19:55It was scary, it was really scary.
19:58Right, my last day in a hotel.
20:02I am feeling pretty nervous about it, you know. I really am.
20:08I come out of prison. I got out on licence in 2019.
20:12I went to my cousins. We wasn't really getting on. I had an argument with them, so I left.
20:42Hi, Matthew. All right. How are you doing? Finally here.
20:45It does smell dead fresh, doesn't it? It smells really nice.
21:00Oh, I think I'll have this one. It's got a double bed, doesn't it?
21:04Oh, yeah. I'm having this one. Definitely. I'm well happy with it.
21:14But there's your key.
21:15Thank you very much.
21:16It's brilliant.
21:17I know you were worried about it all, so I can see you are looking very relaxed now.
21:24I am, yeah. I'm happy now, yeah. I'm just happy that I'm going to stay settled here for a little
21:28bit, yeah. I am happy. But take care, man.
21:32I thank you, Colin. Thank you very much.
21:51More than two million primary school children are due to begin returning to lessons in England
21:55for the first time in 10 weeks from this morning, in one of the most significant
21:59relaxations of the coronavirus lockdown so far. In a few areas, the local authority has advised
22:07delay. Many parents, councils and teachers remain sceptical of the government's assurances
22:13over their safety. Morning, Pete.
22:21So I've just driven into work this morning, and everybody's talking about it. Everybody's
22:25saying it's too soon. It's too early. And that worries me. I don't want us to have a second
22:32spike. I want to go on my holidays this summer. Right, I'll have a quick slurp of coffee,
22:45and then I'm going to get going around the building.
22:57Morning. I'm just about to wait Rowan up for his first day back in school. It's going to be
23:05difficult. Morning. How you feeling? Not too bad. You ready to go? Yeah. I'm excited. I've got pins
23:18and needles. Bar pins and needles. Make your curls a bit bigger. Got to look good on your first day back.
23:36Obviously, everybody's worried. Green man's on. You can tell kids a lot of times to do stuff and
23:41they'll forget. Don't touch this with your finger. I know. You move, let me press it. That's it,
23:47press it with your elbow. Don't know how well the kids are going to adapt to the measures. We don't
23:52know how well they're going to take to social distancing. Remember to keep hold of your hand
23:58sanitiser. Don't let anybody else use it if you keep hold of that, okay? Yeah.
24:05Hey Rowan, you okay? Morning. You all right?
24:10No touching. There we go. You stay on your spot, Rowan.
24:17Can I just say, it's just lovely to see you and to have you back. Absolutely brilliant.
24:23From now on in school, in the bubble, we will keep that two metre social distancing, okay?
24:28Everyone happy with that? Yes. Perfect, let's go.
24:36This is mad. Jayden, make sure you're not getting too close to Gregory for me, please.
24:42Bit more Olivia, because you're a bit too close to Scarlett there. Perfect.
24:53Okay, so today is going to be very, very different compared to what we usually have. So,
24:59usually we all know we start off with reading, writing, maths, but it is going to be different.
25:06Just go around the other side, Shubh. Obviously, just keep you two metres from me today, but yeah.
25:12It is a challenge to keep the two metre distance because the space between certain areas is quite
25:18small. It would be near enough impossible to keep the two metre distance if all nine of us were in
25:24here. Just three pizzas, bubble one. Right, everything's earnest. Thank you very much.
25:35You're welcome, no problem.
25:40So, the bubbles have gone really well today. The staff are beginning to see how this works and
25:46are beginning to kind of, you can see their shoulders physically relaxing as they realise
25:51that how this will work.
26:16So, do you think it was more fun than being at home with me?
26:19Yeah, no offense. Oh, no offense. Do you definitely want to go back tomorrow?
26:24Defo, defo, defo. You're happy I'm happy? Yeah. Love you. Love you too.
26:32It's because the rate of infection is not yet quite low enough that we are not proceeding with
26:52our ambition to bring back all primary pupils, at least for some weeks before the summer holidays.
26:58Instead, we do fully intend to bring back all children back to school in September.
27:28So,
27:58I've always believed that all politics is local at the end of the day. In local government,
28:10we don't want to be just consulted on what the government are already intending to do.
28:15We want to be part of working through that in a genuine and meaningful way.
28:21Can I think government actually acknowledge that? It's just about making sure that,
28:26you know, it's not just acknowledgement, it's about genuinely resourcing that and genuinely
28:31empowering that. Over on BBC Four, another chance to enjoy a Jane Austen classic, Emma,
28:45is starting now. Next here, two celebs working as a team with a brick wall between them. It's
28:51Celebrity MasterChef.