hello, this is bbc news with me, shaun ley. the headlines... this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the health secretary, matt hancock, the headlines at three... rejects calls from england's gps to remove home visits the health secretary, matt hancock, from their contracts, calling it a "complete non—starter". rejects calls from england's gps to remove home visits from their contracts, calling it a "complete non—starter." it isn't going to wash, it isn't it isn't going to wash, it isn't going to happen. going to happen. they say they want they say they want to negotiate to negotiate to end home visits, but to end home visits, but of course gps need to do home visits. of course gps need to do home visits. jeremy corbyn defends his jeremy corbyn defends his decision to remain neutral in any decision to remain neutral in any future brexit referendum future brexit referendum if labour wins power. if labour wins power. i think being an honest broker and i think being an honest broker and listening to everyone listening to everyone is actually a is actually a sign of strength sign of strength and and a sign of maturity. calm in hong kong today, but the authorities threaten to suspend voting in tomorrow's local elections if violence errupts. railway rebuild. the model display destroyed by vandals — now back on show thanks to help from sir rod stewart and thousands of other supporters.

and coming up on click at 3:30, will google's entry into gaming mean the end of the console? plus a british—designed hypercar and an artificial intelligence debate at cambridge. good afternoon. gps have voted to reduce visits to patients‘ homes, saying they "no longer have the capacity" to offer them. at a conference on friday, doctors in england supported a proposal to take the requirement to provide home visits out of their nhs contract. the health secretary, matt hancock, said the idea was a "complete non—starter." jenny kumah reports. family doctors say their workload is on the rise and this, coupled with falling gdp numbers, mean something has to give. one of the daily pressures that

gp practices are under is the obligation to do home visits. what would be much better is if we had a dedicated home visiting team with people with the time to be able to do this throughout the day, rather than gps having to squeeze it in. under the proposals home visits would not be scrapped completely but delivered by a separate service. similar to the way out—of—hours care has been contracted out. sometimes a gp has to go and see someone and they might be too frail to travel. and that has always been part of the vocation of being a gp and it will continue. so these proposals won't go any further, but what we will do is train, fund and recruit more gps. meanwhile, labour is promising more cash to help out. they are saying, as a point of desperation, they can no longer continue those home visits. this is a siren call to all of us, that the funding of the nhs has

to be increased so that gps can undertake those home visits. doctors say they recognise that vulnerable, complex and end—of—life patients will need home visits. theyjust want to see a change of policy to ensure patients get a suitable service. jenny kumah, bbc news. i'm joined now from oxford by dr rebecca fisher, a gp and senior policy fellow at the independent charity the health foundation. thank you very much forjoining us this afternoon. let me ask you first of all about the pressures that have increased on gps and what form they have taken in terms of reducing the capacity already for home visits?” think it is clear we are feeling pressures in general practice now at an unprecedented level, it has been an unprecedented level, it has been a decade of significant underfunding for the nhs as a whole but particularly in general practice relative to the volume of work. so

we see about 90% of patient contact but will close on 10% of the funding of the last decade. that has translated into more gps leaving the profession and we have had entering. we have got real funding constraints. we have workforce pressures . constraints. we have workforce pressures. the difficulty i suppose in terms of the practical alternatives to gp home visits is if we don't have the capacity of another gps and the government is talking about turning more and there is an acceptance the numbers have dropped considerably not least because a builder gps retiring as well, shortage of one end and short shortage of the other, how would it be possible to create do you think a new additional service similar to the one that exists for out of hours? it is a real challenge because you have to ask who was going to staff the traditional service. there is no doubt that allied health professionals can play a partand allied health professionals can play a part and are playing an increasing role so where i work in oxford as a gp we have a home visitors are

resident staff by some untested paramedics. it is important that where those services exist they are not drawing on other parts of the nhs which themselves are in need of those staff so that is one thing to consider. the other i think is how we provide continuity of care for patients who really do need it. it shouldn't be a substitution, more an addition. i suppose the difficulty is obviously the language of the statement agreed by the conference yesterday, the oak gps conference for england, part of the bma, was to say removed from the contract people think immediately that means oh no my doctor will no longer do home visits but it is likely saying, we continue to do them in certain circumstances but we don't want to be required and mandated to do them because we are afraid it is reducing the service we are offering elsewhere. yes, and i think viewers will understand there is a lot of new ones here because for a start this doesn't necessarily reflect all gps. this is the view of a group of gps. this is the view of a group of gps who do represent gps but not

everybody will be of the opinion that home visit should be taken out of the core contract. what i think we can say is it is in some ways a cry for help from a professional thatis cry for help from a professional that is really feeling the effects of underfunding and understaffing, that desperately want to deliver a good safe care for patients and is trying to work out how we do that within the resources that we currently have and mindful that for example the pressure to get 5000 extra gps in 2015just hasn't been met and we have had fewer full—time equivalent gps working for the nhs than we did then. the locum plays an important part in many gp surgeries and presumably there are a number of doctors who actually effectively making careers as locums rather than deciding to sign up to a practice full—time. is it locums that in the end would have to provide this service do you think?” end would have to provide this service do you think? i think it's probably too early to be looking at how the service would be provided. it's clearly a long way to go

between the vote taken at yesterday's conference and this actually happening. what is clear is that as a whole we don't have as many gps of any type, be they locums, as we need. we need to be looking at how we can work with other health professionals, so paramedics, specialist nurses, to deliver services to patients. i don't think there's any doubt that we need a home visiting service but we need a home visiting service but we also need to be thinking about how we better support general practice and what are those core components of general practice that we really need to retain. presumably we really need to retain. presumably we need to actually hear from patients in this process, because it is partly about what patient expectations are. i suspect, i grew up expectations are. i suspect, i grew up in expectations are. i suspect, i grew upina expectations are. i suspect, i grew up in a village, i suspect in that village back in the 60s and 70s people routinely expected and did get gp home visits. i wonder if the day people will have quite the same expectations of their gps. day people will have quite the same expectations of their gpsi day people will have quite the same expectations of their gps. i think let's be clear, patients are very reasonable about the care they expect or at least that is my

experience. people don't want to draw unnecessarily on resource, but there are lots of people with complex health problems, often the most vulnerable, we really do need to be seen at home. it is often the best interests of doctors to see those patients at home as well. you gaina lot those patients at home as well. you gain a lot of information by doing home visits. they have always been a core pa rt of home visits. they have always been a core part of general practice. i think the question is how do we maintain that at the moment with the level of funding and the level of staffing that we have, and actually how can we get ourselves into a position in the future where we are not time to discuss how we restrict services, but more what funding do we need, but staff do we need to be able to give patients the service that everybody agrees they do need. doctor rebecca fisher, thank you very much forjoining us. jeremy corbyn has defended his decision to remain neutral in any future brexit referendum if labour wins power. he told last night's bbc question time leaders' special he wouldn't campaign to remain in the eu or leave it under terms

labour hopes to renegotiate. mr corbyn said it would allow him to "credibly" carry out whichever result the public voted for. the prime minister questioned how mr corbyn could be "indifferent" on the issue. our political correspondent tom barton reports. he knows which side he's on in this fight between workers and the multinational corporation, but on the fight between leave and remain, jeremy corbyn says he's not picking sides. if he becomes prime minister and holds another referendum he will, he says, remain strictly neutral. being an honest broker and listening to everyone is actually a sign of strength and a sign of maturity. our country has to come together, we cannot go on forever being divided by how people voted in 2016. his decision to remain neutralfirst revealed in last night's question time leaders' special. i will adopt, if i am prime minister, a neutral stand so i can credibly carry out the results to bring our community

and country together. a bruising encounter for all involved, including the lib dems'jo swinson. you think revoking article 50 which involved millions of people who are stupid and didn't know what we were voting for? that doesn't mean that you or anybody like you are stupid, it means we disagree. nicola sturgeon suggested the snp would pile the pressure on labour to offer another independence referendum. in terms of what i would seek to win from a minority labour government, obviously i would ask for and expect jeremy corbyn to respect the right of the scottish people to choose their own future. it is not for westminster to decide, it is for the people of scotland. while the prime minister faced questions on trust. how important is it for someone in your position of power to always tell the truth? it is absolutely vital and i think the issue of trust in politics

is central to this election. and, fundamental to the corrosion of trust in politics. the tory leader's performance today defended by one of his ministers. on one of the critical questions of our time at brexit, we have a clear plan agreed with the eu ready to go. and in sharp contrast to what we saw in the debate last night, jeremy corbyn saying he has decided to be indecisive on brexit. the lib dems' jo swinson also unimpressed by the labour leader's new stance. they want a leader, not a bystander. itjust beggars belief that somebody who is standing for the role of leading our country can say on the biggest issue we have faced for generations, they are not going to take a position. it is a total abdication of leadership. jeremy corbyn will have hope to have put this question behind him. his opponents want it to remain front and centre.

tom barton, bbc news. with me is our political correspondent tom barton. let's just deal with jeremy let's just deal withjeremy corbyn first of all. presumably labour has been under pressure to be even more explicit on what the later's position would be. does the party hope that by saying its ability at this stage of the campaign it will move on, and the controversy will pass? that is exactly their hope, that by as you correctly observed jeremy corbyn asked about this time and time again over the last few weeks, as have the people around him, and up until last night they haven't particularly had an answer. we wait and see what the party decides has been the holding position. this is a change from that. he got a bit of flak on monday and the itv debate when he stated that position. exactly. this is a development, saying quite clearly i am going to remain neutral during this. absolutely with the hope of

appearing to answer the question. as you heard my report he is also hoping to make out cogent are of this, saying that by remaining neutral it allows him to not find himself in the position that david cameron... or theresa may and boris johnson, because theresa may had voted remain, a lot of the brexiteers were sceptical about whether her heart was in it, and some of the borisjohnson, so the people are saying actually he really wa nts to people are saying actually he really wants to leave without a deal he wa nts a wants to leave without a deal he wants a deal, a credibility issue. exactly wants a deal, a credibility issue. exa ctly a nd wants a deal, a credibility issue. exactly and so his hope that by remaining neutral in any future referendum that he can come out the other side and as he says be an honest broker and bring the country back together, it hasn't gone down terribly well with his opponents, not just ones we terribly well with his opponents, notjust ones we from my report nigel farage has been speaking this afternoon as well. a total lack of leadership. this is the defining issue of our times and the labour leader says he doesn't know which side he is going to back. truth of it is the reason he is saying that

is because the labour party in parliament are remainers, 95% of them are outright remainers but corbyn knows that in the country there are 5 million labour leave vote rs there are 5 million labour leave voters so he is trying to keep both these wings of the labour vote together and it is not going to work. but as nigel farage, we expect to hear from nicola work. but as nigel farage, we expect to hearfrom nicola sturgeon later as well and i'm sure she will have something to say about this perhaps not very surprisingly, this is something which has but two opponents have chosen to seize on. political opponents, the big ma nifesto we political opponents, the big manifesto we haven't yet had as the conservatives we are told we will get this weekend. we are expecting it to be launched tomorrow on a sunday, the first time we think a political party ever has done that, for the conservatives potentially, potentially controversial. this is the party that was once synonymous

with the church of england, the conservative party, the nonconformists used to say. we don't know why for sure they are going to break with the tradition, some suggest tv audiences for the big tea—time bulletins, bigger on a sunday. differently made up of different people on a sunday compared to during the week. perhaps they are hoping to reach more people. in terms of what will be in the manifesto, we don't know yet. we can expect to see a lot of lakes on the sunday papers are. absolutely. three words will be big. get brexit done. we have had the promise about national insurance which i think it's fair to say earlier in the week. i think after the disastrous i

think it's fair to say conservative party manifesto of 20 17, we can expect the conservative manifesto to be... they will not want anything controversial, anything that could backfire, because i think boris johnson hopes the opinion polls say that he is currently in a strong position and they will not want to risk anything that could potentially impact the. at least it means in plenty of time for postal votes before they send the votes back and they will have the policy is to be able to make comparison. absolutely. good, thank you very much. lots of policy detail on the bbc news website from all that, and lots tomorrow so. millions of people in hong kong are preparing to vote in local elections on sunday. it's being seen as a gauge of public sentiment, after almost six months of pro—democracy protests and violent clashes between demonstrators and police. if there's more violence, the authorities have threatened to suspend voting. our correspondent stephen mcdonnell gave us this update.

it is pretty quiet in hong kong this weekend apart from that truck, as people prepare to go to the ballot box rather than the barricades. candidates and their supporters are still out in the streets asking for people's support in crucial district council elections tomorrow which are being seen as a barometer of sentiment in the city which is now in its sixth month of crisis. those candidates backing the protesters, those calling for broad democratic reforms are hoping to do well because people are upset with the way in which carrie lam's administration has handled this crisis. however those in the pro—establishment camp are saying if you are fed up with the chaos and constant protest, you should choose our tickets. the government says if any polling places are sufficiently disrupted, voting will be suspended there, so for that reason people are trying their best do not give the authorities any excuse to call off the elections and it is more peaceful than it has

been four months here. the headlines on bbc news... the health secretary, matt hancock, rejects calls from england's gps to remove home visits from their contracts, calling it a "complete non—starter." jeremy corbyn defends his decision to remain neutral in any future brexit referendum if labour wins power. calm in hong kong today, but the authorities threaten to suspend voting in tomorrow's local elections if there is more violence on city's streets. and in sport... jose mourinho has started his time at tottenham with a win. his tottenham side beat west ham 3—2 at london stadium. despite west ham scoring two late goals, mourinho said ‘the most important thing was to win, no matter how". it was a tough day for england's cricketers with their bowlers only taking two wickets on day three of the first test again new zealand. an unbeaten century from bj watling helped put new zealand in control as they closed on 394—6 — 41 runs ahead. and in rugby union's european champions cup,

defending champions saracens had a bonus—point victory over ospreys winning by 44 points to three. and by 44 points to three. the sign finals of the tennis davis and the sign finals of the tennis davis cup tie between great britain and spain starts at 430. listen to that on five live sports extra. a group of orphaned british children caught up in the war in syria are said to be in good spirits, after they were brought back to the uk. they're the first to be repatriated from an area in the north east of the country, which was formally controlled by the group that called itself islamic state. orla minogue is from the charity save the children — earlier she spoke to my colleague geeta guru—murthy. there are as many as 60 british children remaining in these camps in north—east syria, all of whom need to come home urgently given the state of affairs in the camp. the conditions there are desperate. we are talking about 60 very young children. what has been the blockage to that happening so far? there have been delays

on the side of the british government in terms of making the decision to repatriate. having said that, we welcomed very much the shift in policy on the government's part over the last month to say that they would take steps to repatriate orphaned and unaccompanied children as a matter of urgency and that they would look at other children on a case—by—case basis. we have had reports that a group of children have now been repatriated, demonstrating that it is possible and feasible. now is the time to bring home all the rest of the children. how difficult are the conditions there? the conditions in the camp are desperate. there is severe overcrowding, there is 70,000 people in one of these camps alone, so it is very chaotic, people are living in flimsy tents on top of one another with very little access to clean water to health services. a lot of the children are sick, they have severe injuries from the bombing and shelling that they have experienced, not to mention the psychological distress that these children have lived through and are going through now, given that they are spending their formative years growing up in syria. as we've been reporting — the conservatives are promising

to significantly increasing funding for dementia research over the next ten years. and earlier this week the tories also announced they'd be investing an additional billion pounds per year for social care in england over the next five years. our reality check correspondent sophie hutchinson has been looking at why social care is now attracting so much additional attention. social care is a growing issue. in the past decade the number of people per asking for help with washing and dressing and eating and taking medication has risen. unlike with the nhs, social care is means tested under different rules across the uk. when it comes to paying for a care home, the most generous policies are in scotland, in terms of getting help at home, in wales and northern ireland, those expenses are capped, and england has the least generous system of all. have a look at this.

this graph shows the number of people in england receiving long—term support from councils from 2010 through to 2019. you can see a sharp decline here. it was 600,000. it comes down to around 400,000 people. after that the way the data is collected changed so we can't really compare. this is what age uk had to say about it. there are around 1.5 million older people who have unmet needs for social care and in lots of cases these people have really very significant needs. they need help getting out of bed, getting dressed, washed, having something to eat. all of those fundamentals that many of us take for granted to live a decent life. in many cases people are receiving help from family and friends who are doing everything they can to support the individual concerned but it is not enough, people cannot do it on their own and they are being utterly let down by a billing system. so are the problems all about the money? have a look at this graph.

this is spending by local authorities in england on adult social care going back from 2006 all the way up to 2019. you can see there is a slight decline but on the whole spending levels have remained pretty static. what isn't static though are the costs. listen to what the think tank the health foundation has to say about it. a large part of providing care is to do with those of staff and the wages of staff have been going up. 30% of people are at the national living wage and that has been increasing the pressure is on care providers. have a look at these costs. the nhs estimates in 2016—17 the average weekly cost of care for a pensioner was £565 a week. if we move just on year on, it becomes £604, quite a hike.

if you look at the numbers of elderly people, from 2009 to 2018, the numbers on the population rose by 16.3% for those aged 65 and over. in terms of the very elderly population throughout the same time period, 2009—2018, the increase was 17.4%. with the population getting very elderly, the needs are more complex and of course more intensive care is needed and so that becomes more expensive. age uk is saying if the current situation continues and there isn't an improvement, we risk having more than 2 million elderly people without their social care needs met in the next ten years. now a story to gladen the heart of model makers everywhere. decades of hard work was destroyed in a matter of minutes, after a group of teenagers broke into a school hall in market deeping in lincolnshire and smashed up the model railways. the display was valued at £30,000.

members of the market deeping model railway club refused to admit defeat. now, thanks to their dedication, and the generosity of other model railway enthusiats — including rod stewart — it,"s all aboard once again. nicola gilroy reports. a mindless attack that left more than the trains and layouts broken. my emotions took the better of me, i must admit. you can't replace the time you spent building these things. but six months on, the modellers from market deeping are back in business, displaying here at the largest model railway show in europe. this is the premier fmodel railway exhibition in the country, and to be invited is really important. and it's even more special because the layout on display was one of those damaged in the attack.

these buildings were totally wrecked, and rebuilt, part of the scenery damaged. some of the track down here has been relaid, and the wiring was pulled out from underneath. it has taken 1000 hours of hard work and dedication to repair this layout. it's nearly 20—odd years since i was last here with a layout, and to come back again to this with it is a wonderful thrill. i'm very proud of what the guys have done. it's tremendous. the club continues to be overwhelmed with support, with £100,000 raised in crowdfunding, 10,000 from rod stewart, and next week they'll be able to say thank you in person when they appear with the man himself on the one show. nicola gilroy, east midlands today, birmingham. now the weather with darren bett. the next few days will stay mild but there will be some rain at times. today has been a dull cloudy and damp sort of day. we have had some heavy rain earlier on in wales and the south—west, that has been easing. the wet weather transferring

a little further north with thickening cloud and rain arriving more widely in scotland. there is evening and into the first part of the night the heaviest of the rain will be affecting in north—east england and eastern scotland particularly over the high ground. it may well lead to some travel difficulties. there is the rain moving north. a bit of rain and drizzle heading off in south—east across england and wales. that peter is overnight. it turns drier across northern ireland. away from the north—east where it is wet and quite windy as well those winds will be following right, mist and fog patches. it should be a mild frost free night with temperatures at sixes and sevens. tomorrow a drier day. in between two weather systems. the next area of low pressure approaching the south—west by the end of sunday. we have still got some rain in the morning across eastern scotland that was the louis peter out. it will linger a bit longer in the northern isles, one or two light showers around the irish sea coastal areas but on the whole a drier day. lots of ground again.

misty and murky in the morning. maybe a little sunshine here and there. south—east corner favoured for a while and perhaps the moray firth. temperatures generally in double figures and this number is very similar to today. into next week, areas or very similar to today. into next week, areas 01’ area very similar to today. into next week, areas or area of low pressure bringing rain from the south—west. we have the jet stream on there as well because that is a bit further south than normal for the time of year. that is bringing up the areas of low pressure and putting the rent was uk again from the south—west, this is monday, rain overnight continuing northwards. mainly affecting england and wales on monday, not as scotland and northern ireland. the wind is picking up as well. some finally part defined but thatis well. some finally part defined but that is on the mall site. no frost again any money. temperatures generally in double figures. that mild weather continues into the middle part of next week. then signs of change as the wind direction changes. colder air coming down from the north and north—east. potentially even a touch of frost returning by the end of next week. but some off. temperatures drop away ahead of that, it is mild and

crowded with some heavy rain at times but optically for southern 00:29:04,415 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 parts of finland and wales.