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BBC Radio 4

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

File on 4

File on 4 Investigates concerns about how some strict discipline measures are being implemented in schools across England. 

We discovered students internally excluded for around 20% of their lesson time, and some much longer. The Outwood Grange Academy in Wakefield put one pupil in an isolation booth for more than half of the academic year. 

We hear from a mother in Devon whose son Taylor took his own life, weeks after he’d expressed his frustration at what he saw as his school, Ivybridge Community College’s punitive and illogical rules. 

Presenter: Jane Deith
Producer: Anna Meisel
Production Co-ordinators: Tim Fernley & Tom Dunster
Technical Producer: Cameron Ward
Editor: Tara McDermott

This programme contains reference to suicide and self harm. 

If you've been affected by some of the issues raised in this programme you can find out more about organisations that can help by going to www.bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Strict schools: Taking discipline too far?

File on 4 Investigates how Immigration Enforcement officers are tackling sham marriages. Claire Jones follows Home Office officials as they apprehend people entering into, and organising fake marriages in order to circumvent the UK’s immigration laws. She discovers details of criminal gangs charging people up to £30,000 for a partner and 'marriage pack', a set of photos and documents designed to create a convincing back story of the fake relationship. After File on 4 Investigates asked the Home Office why more statistics are not available on suspected fake marriages, they have now committed to regularly publishing these numbers 'in due course'. 

Presenter: Claire Jones
Producer: Ashley Kennedy
Editor: Tara McDermott
Production Co-ordinators: Tim Fernley & Tom Dunster
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford

Fake Marriages - The real story

The Church of England is confronting difficult questions over a £100 million fund to address its historic links to slavery. Aleem Maqbool hears from clergy, historians and politicians as he explores the arguments over reparations, responsibility and whether the Church can make amends for sins of the past.

Presenter: Aleem Maqbool
Producers: Hayley Mortimer & Catherine Wyatt
Technical Producer: Cameron Ward
Production Co-ordinators: Tom Dunster & Tim Fernley
Editor: Tara McDermott

Sins of the past: Should the Church of England pay for its links to slavery?

Liv Nervo is one of the world’s most successful female DJs, who along with her twin sister, make up NERVO. She was starting a family with a man she believed was the love of her life - but at six months pregnant, she discovered he had been living a double life. She says she entered the relationship under false pretences and wouldn't have consented to sex had she known the truth about his other relationship.

What happened to her reveals an intense debate about consent, the law and a lesser-known form of domestic abuse called reproductive coercion.

G for guidance - this programme contains strong language.

Presenter: Alys Harte
Producer: Ben Robinson
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Production Manager: Tom Dunster
Editor: Tara McDermott

Tricked into pregnancy? The Liv Nervo story

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

Strict schools: Taking discipline too far?

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