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BBC Radio 4

News-making original journalism documentary series, investigating stories at home and abroad.

File on 4

Hair Strand Tests can show if parents have been using drink or drugs. Such tests play can a central part in Family Court hearings every year as judges decide whether children should go into care or not. Some barristers have been raising the alarm over the way the tests are presented and interpreted in the Famly Court. And, for the first time, File on 4 Investigates talks to mothers who nearly lost their babies – thanks to hair strand tests.

Presenter: Sanchia Berg
Senior Producer: Anna Meisel
Producer: Mary O'Reilly
Technical Producer: Kelly Young
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

Image: Lead Senior Scientist Dr Ellie Menzies carrying out a hair strand test

Hair Strand Tests in the Family Court

As the government plans major reform of the England's Special Educational Needs system, File on 4 Investigates goes back to the floor, spending time with councils as funding decisions are made and with families trying to navigate a system in flux. 

From home-schoolers in Whitley Bay to getting on board a school bus in Hackney, we'll hear about the challenges of delivering services to tens of thousands of children with SEN each year. As the number of young people who need extra support rises how will Councils balance their books? 

Over a hundred schools have closed in England in the last five years. Analysis by the BBC’s Data team has shown that pupils with special educational needs have been disproportionately affected by school closures. These pupils made up 29% of those whose school has closed, which is higher than the national average. 

We'll hear how the disruption of a school closing can affect those with additional needs, and their families.

Presenter: Hayley Clarke
Producer: Nicola Dowling
Technical Producer: Craig Boardman
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

(Thanks also to the BBC News Data Journalism team)

Adding Up: How Councils meet the costs of Special Educational Needs

Police have dealt with scores of cases involving home-made 3D printed guns in the UK in the last three years. Data obtained by File on 4 Investigates from the National Crime Agency shows that criminals and extremists have attempted to manufacture the weapons. 

We hear from police who successfully prosecuted a group who had manufactured printed firearms to sell on to criminal gangs. As Adrian Goldberg asks, how much of a threat are these printed weapons in the UK and what can be done to deter people from making them?

Producer: Paul Grant
Technical Producers: Cameron Ward & Nicky Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

Locked and Downloaded: The rise in 3D printed guns

Finance professionals who paid thousands for training courses in Dubai seemingly endorsed by a government official say they were duped by the British businessman behind them. Participants in the 12-week “accelerator” programmes say they provided little in the way of useful training, while the millions in potential investment offers promised to graduates never materialised. 

File on 4 Investigates a trail of deception left by the British “finfluencer” behind the course.

Presenter: Yemisi Adegoke
Producer: Rob Byrne
Technical Producer: Cameron Ward
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

Duped in Dubai

DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared, leaving the children and their mothers without support. 

With exclusive access to every stage of this cutting-edge process, we follow as a team of lawyers and a leading geneticist travel to Kenya. We witness the groundbreaking legal and scientific detective work used to find the missing military dads. 

Lawyers believe British soldiers stationed at the army base in Nanyuki, Kenya, may have fathered hundreds of children over decades — the oldest we meet is now 70 the youngest just three years old. 

What’s at stake is not only the reputation of the British armed forces and the UK’s post-colonial legacy. The mixed-heritage children have in some cases been ostracised by their communities and denied a chance of British citizenship since birth.

Presenter: Ivana Davidovic
Producer: Josephine Casserly

A Long Form Audio production.

Searching for Soldier Dad

Jack Butcher investigates allegations that children in West German welfare institutions were subjected to widespread medical abuse, including medical experiments.

During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, many children found themselves in West Germany's sprawling network of children's institutions. In recent years, Germany has been shocked by revelations that some were used as guinea pigs for powerful new drugs, including potent anti-psychotics, as doctors worked hand in hand with pharmaceutical companies to observe the effects of new medications on young children. 

The allegations were first brought to public attention by Sylvia Wagner, a pharmaceutical historian who grew up in a care home, and whose own brother was a victim of medical abuse.

Pulling together Sylvia's research, speaking to victims and digging through the documentation, Jack Butcher and reporter Ilona Toller, who led a major investigation of the scandal for German national radio, lay bare the horrendous human cost and tell the story of the tenacious activists who have challenged the conscience of their nation.

Producer and Presenter: Jack Butcher
With reporting from Ilona Toller and Anouk Millet, and additional research by Leonie Mombaur.
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design: Phoebe McIndoe
Mix: Arlie Adlington
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

The Experiments

White disadvantaged girls are being overlooked, school leaders are warning. Whilst white working-class boys remain one of the worst performing group in their GCSEs, white girls from low income homes aren’t much further behind them. 

File on 4 Investigates has worked with the BBC Data team to compare 2025's GCSE results in England with those of 2019. The team found that white working class girls in England have seen some of the biggest declines in attainment since 2019 - with just 38 percent of these students passing their English and Maths exams. All girls are down by 1.6 percentage points at GCSE but low-income white British girls are down by 6.4 percentage points. Cutting the link between 'background and success' and halving the 'disadvantage gap' is something the Department for Education has pledged to tackle. 

In this programme we examine what is behind the decline for this group of girls and meet school leaders who are working to reverse it. 

Reporter: Hayley Mortimer
Producer: Ashley Kennedy
Technical Producer: Cameron Ward
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

Are white working class girls falling behind?

What happens when the sperm or egg donor you choose isn’t the one you get? Northern Cyprus is a sun-soaked haven for affordable IVF. But behind the glossy clinic websites, parents are discovering their chosen sperm or egg donors might not have been used. For File on 4 Investigates Anna Collinson follows parents searching for answers and children wondering where they have come from. 

File on 4 Investigates Sunshine & Secrets: The hidden side of IVF

Producer: Jo Adnitt
Executive Producer: Rob Brown
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

Details of organisations offering information and support with infertility are available on the Pregnancy related issues page at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Sunshine and Secrets: The hidden side of IVF

The UK was once a world leader in heart and lung transplantation. Pioneering surgeons attracted patients from all over the world. But the NHS has not kept pace with medical and technological developments and today the UK lags far behind most similar countries. It carries out fewer transplants and a lack of resources mean it doesn’t routinely use modern technologies. Many of the health service’s leading surgeons have left to work overseas in recent years, frustrated, they say, at the lack of attention transplant services have received from NHS England. 

Through speaking to patients, surgeons and experts, File on Four Investigates looks at what the UK needs to do to update and transform this life-changing service. 

Reporter Michael Buchanan
Producers: Adam Eley & Paul Grant
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

The battle for hearts and lungs: Transplants in trouble.

President Donald Trump won multiple elections thanks to support from the Maga movement - but cracks have begun to emerge in the broad coalition of America's political right. 

The schism first emerged online as Maga supporters-turned-detractors began to criticise President Trump, saying he has failed to deliver on campaign promises they voted for. Maga congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene - once one of President Trump's most vocal supporters - quit Congress last year after becoming increasingly critical of the president over issues such as continued US involvement in foreign wars, the failure to tackle the cost of living in America - and failure to release all of the FBI's files on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. 

But two months prior to her quitting, it was the murder of conservative influencer, Charlie Kirk, which really sent a shockwave through the movement. A power vacuum at the top has been filled by some curious characters, as other activists have fought for control of the space Kirk once dominated. 

And when former Fox News host Tucker Carlson - perhaps the most influential thought leader in conservative America - invited Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes onto his podcast, a vicious debate kicked off which continues to this day. 

Some Maga influencers say they'll welcome anyone into the fold, but more mainstream Republicans continue to call for the rejection of these elements - and are concerned they could cost the party votes in November's midterm elections. 

Warning: This programme features and discusses some anti-Semitic and racist points of view. 

Presenter: Mike Wendling
Producer: Lucy Proctor
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Hair Strand Tests in the Family Court

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