britain has officially left the european union, bringing an end to nearly half a century of membership. the moment of departure triggered celebrations by brexit supporters around the country, with many people waving union flags. for others, though, it was a sad moment. there have been muted counter—rallies by people who wanted to remain in the eu, saying they feel disenfranchised by the move. us senators have voted against calling witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial, a move which brings the end of the process much closer. the democrats failed to persuade enough republicans that witness testimony was necessary. there have been more cases of the coronavirus in china. the authorities in the province where the outbreak originated have declared 1300 new infections.

now on bbc news, it's been described as one of the biggest scandals in the welsh nhs since devolution. for years, parents and babies were failed by the cwm taf morgannwg university health board. these hospitals were meant to be places of safety. every year bringing thousands of new lives into the world. i was so excited when they found out i was pregnant. my dream was always to have a little girl. i was so happy to find out i was having a boy. parents trusted that they and their babies would be

protect did. we didn't give it a second thought, we just took them at their word and i believe myself and jennifer were in safe hands —— eye believed. but they will let down. finding out your daughter has just died, not knowing if sarah was going to survive and i was going to lose them both, just an horrific thing. there's no was to describe it. it is all your worst nightmares are wrapped up into one, you know. it is a lot to deal with. for years, despite warnings, the safety of mothers and babies was put at risk. patients were failed, futures are destroyed. they made a mistake. every day, he suffers. every day, he is in pain. every day, he has to take meds.

every day... ..is hell. last year, maternity services at these two hospitals were branded dysfunctional. there is now reviewing to the cases of at least 140 mothers and babies, to ask if they were harmed a result. it has been described as one of the biggest scandals in the welsh nhs since devolution. tonight, we examine the human cost, and ask why lives were put at risk for so long, and crucially, why no one appears to have been held to account. when she was born, jonathan brought her there, because an elephant never forgets. —— brought her that.

so it is, she will never be forgotten, she will always be with us. these are the toys that sarah and jonathan's daughter should have played with. for her birthday or christmas, we will buyjust a little something, and we will put it in the box. jennifer was born three months prematurely in 2007, but she did not survive. -- jennifer was born three months prematurely in 2017, but she did not survive. blanket that she was wrapped in, and these... they sort of smell of, like, hospital and of her. i think it was important for me just to have everything that she touched, everything that was hers, together somewhere safe. you can always go back to it. sarah had to give birth at home in merthyr because of a serious mistake made at a local prince charles hospital, where she was listed as a high—risk patient. i had diabetes, problems with my heart, and i needed to be closely monitored throughout the pregnancy. when she went to the hospital in severe pain, she feared she may be in labour.

i was actually physically grabbing the end of the bed and rocking back and fourth in pain, and pacing around the room in pain. but a registrar sent sarah home with laxatives and paracetamol. things went from bad to worse. and obviously, it wasn't till i went to the toilet and tried to push, and realised that the baby was coming. i knew from that second that it wasn't going to be a good outcome. this was the worst place you could have been born. it was the worst thing that could have happened at the worst time. being born so prematurely meant that jennifer needed specialist care. butjonathan, a police officer, had to deliver his daughter. she was breathing, and i was doing cpr on her. and then the paramedic came in and took her. by the time sarah got to the hospital, jennifer had died. sarah needed emergency surgery and spent weeks recovering in hospital. but failings in record—keeping meant

that what happened wasn't reported as a serious incident. 0ur baby daughter died, my wife nearly died at home. what does qualify as a serious incident, then? is it death? what... what is above that? atjennifer‘s inquest last april, a coroner concluded that mistakes by the registrar had contributed to her death. i have to live every day with what ifs. it has just destroyed our lives. shortly afterjennifer‘s inquest, the true extent of failings in maternity emerged. this damning report by inspectors from the royal college of obstetricians and gynaecologists was published. the report exposed how, despite repeated warnings from staff, professional bodies and regulators, the health board had failed to tackle many issues that put mothers and babies at risk.

there were staff shortages, the complaints system wasn't working properly, and lessons weren't being learned from mistakes. my name is alison, and i'm your chief executive. this is the woman who was in charge of the health board. we have a philosophy in this organisation that is very simple. cwm taf cares. she was earning up to £175,000 a year, and it was herjob to make sure the service was run properly. but as far back as 2012, midwives at cwm taf had been raising the alarm with her and others. i am meeting the head of the royal college of midwives in wales. she visited the hospital to see what was happening. we were finding staff in tears, really distressed that they couldn't give the care, and they genuinely

felt that if they raised concerns, they would be punished in some way. certainly, by 2016—17, every time we go into both of the units, they are saying they are short and they cannot deliver safe, effective care. she says that she warned allison williams about the concerns. we discussed that the staff felt very under a great deal of pressure. they were very traumatised by the fact that they could not deliver a good, safe care. in their view. do you know what she did with that information? i know that she met staff. i know that there were action lists drawn up, but the staffing levels did not improve. one of the actions was to ask maternity staff to complete a survey. the results were damning. 91% of those who took part said

there were not enough staff to complete work properly. others said it felt unsafe. they would go in and try to just get through their shift. you know, they couldn't see further than the mess they were in. we discovered that in 2017, ten months after that survey, there were more failings in maternity, this time at the royal glamorgan in lla ntrisa nt. the baby girl was overdue, there were not enough staff on duty, and she had not been properly reviewed. by the time staff realised the baby was distressed, it was too late. during the emergency delivery, the baby was starved of oxygen, and she suffered severe brain damage. she died less than a week later.

at the inquest the coroner said if staff had followed guidelines and delivered her sooner it was likely she would have lived. the hospital said it had learned important lessons and apologised. her parents are now suing the health board. bosses were warned five years ago to check safety and governance was working in maternity. it followed an enquiry into the infamous morecambe bay maternity scandal in which 11 babies and a mother died needlessly. i'm in the north of england, to meet the expert who chaired that enquiry. doctor bill kirkup wrote recommendations for the entire nhs to follow. if we wanted to draw general lessons about how this could have happened, and how health organisations elsewhere could make sure that it didn't happen in their patch.

we have shown him the report on cwm taf. it is a seriously failing organisation, if those problems you describe to me have been happening over a much shorter time, but they have been happening over such a long time, which is unforgivable. despite the fact that you pointed out similarfailings in morecambe bay? yes, very much so. llantrisant said that it was following doctor kirkup's recommendations. it is now clear that it was not. the lessons were there to be learned, and they were not learned. and i think of the unavoidable ham has persisted for longer than it should have. these are real people in real families that have been affected by this. —— unavoidable harm. more than 3500 babies a year are born at both hospitals. most will be delivered without incident. but mistakes in cwm taf‘s maternity service have resulted

in multi—million pound compensation settlements for children left with life changing injuries. he has been through hell. he has been through hell and back. come on, we are going to feed, 0k? ok, i will do it now. come on, come on, come on! yea! well done. he was born in the back of an ambulance, starved of oxygen and we had oxygen for six minutes, so obviously, it caused irreversible brain damage. he had open heart surgery. he has had a 52 brain surgeries. he has had meningitis twice, and he spends his life in hospital. seven—year—old cadent has severe physical and learning disabilities, because in 2012, his mum didn't receive the right care during labour at prince charles hospital. he has a special needs bed,

because he is unsafe at night, and we have constant cameras on, 24/7, just in case he has a seizure. we have got carers in to watch him from 9—9. lisa has sued cwm taf morgannwg for negligence. it pays for the care he needs. he should be out in the streets playing. that's what i miss. kids coming to knock on the door, can he come out to play? and he won't get it, will he? ijust want his life to be perfect, and it's not. i know nobody's life is perfect, butjust to be a little boy that he can go out and play, and have friends, to parties. because he is a child with disabilities like he has got, nobody comes to him. nobody invites him to parties.

it shouldn't be like that. he will never have his own independence or a home of his own. i get angry about that bit. it was taken away from a child and it didn't have to be. i love you, mum. i love you too, baby. how much do you love me? i no. when lisa went into labour three months early, she was told she would have to be transferred to the only available bed at a specialist unit 120 miles away at thejohn radcliffe hospital in oxford. even in the ambulance i kept saying to them, please don't take me, i'm not going to make it. but they said they had no choice but to take me. they had to follow whatever somebody above them had said,

so we just went. but there was a breakdown in communication. the registrar who sent her wrongly assumed lisa would be sent by ambulance. she wasn't checked by a consultant or given the correct medication before leaving the ward. just as we were getting into john ratcliffe's car park i said, this baby's coming. and he was born. obviously not breathing. the midwife cut the cord, put him down her top and ran intojohn radcliffe hospital. he was on a life—support machine. theyjust said, look, you'll have to take it hour by hour. that's how we took it. the health board apologised for the failings and said lessons would be learned.

no! their lawyer has helped a number of families win damages in maternity cases against cwm taf morgannwg. i see these mistakes being made again and again. over the last ten years i have recovered millions of pounds of compensation for in the past, but also, all those cases involve annual payments and they can be as much as £300,000 per year to provide the ongoing care a child needs for the rest of their lives, so these ongoing payments will run into millions, if not tens of millions, in the future. in the last decade mistakes in maternity at cwm taf morgannwg have cost around £20 million. the all—wales figure is 184 million, but the final cost could be far higher depending on how long the children live. lisa wasn't told whether anyone was disciplined over what happened

to her and her son. over the last ten years, the health board says a small number of staff have been given warnings, demotion, or been referred to professional bodies. but because of data protection laws they couldn't tell us how many or why. the registrar who made mistakes in sarah's care has returned to his native sri lanka. the inquest should have been our opportunity to challenge him and find out more information. obviously we will never have that opportunity now because we have had the inquest and the health board has just given us a response saying they are not able to get hold of him. the health board said the doctor had stopped responding to their e—mails. the couple had complained about the doctor to the general medical council. investigators agreed that some of sarah's care had fallen below standard and constituted misconduct.

but they accepted the doctor had shown remorse and done further learning, so they did not sanction him. we have discovered that because of a breakdown in communications at the health board, key staff were not even aware there had been an investigation carried out by the general medical council. even though sarah's hospital records had formed part of that investigation. the health board apologised and promised in future it will check if doctors who have left are the subject of enquiries with the regulator. helen rogers says when she raised concerns again in 2017 she was given misleading information about staffing levels. staff would be listed as working, but when we went to the staff, they were able to say, that's not right, because that person is on maternity leave, that person is on long—term

sickness, that person is not here. but yet if you looked at the sheet of paper, it implied that they were actually on shift. so they are basically lying? the evidence appeared to be correct. in effect, it wasn't. it wasn't correct. based on what i am reading and what you are telling me, the royal college of midwives told the welsh government what happened. it has since emerged that officials and the health minister were not given the full facts either. did the former chief executive, allison williams, mislead you about what was going on at cwm taf? i don't think the information we had was as full and honest as it should have been... were you misled, then? ..and i think we we were not told the truth. thinking about for example the questions the chief nurse and her team were asked about staffing levels and the reassurance they were given, and it's plain that actually

understaffing was notjust an issue between recruitment rounds, but there was a real issue for a period of time about the staffing levels. and some staff complained and raised concerns about that and had direct assurances it would be tackled, and it wasn't. but soon after those reassurances, at prince charles hospital, the problems continued, and injune of 2018 there was another tragedy. a baby boy died after a catalogue of errors during his delivery. his mother had been left for too long in labour. at the inquest into the baby's death it was revealed there had been poor communication, poor training and poor record—keeping. the coroner also said if the baby had been delivered sooner it was likely he would have lived. yet again, the health board apologised. a few months after the baby's death, allison williams asked a consultant midwife to review the service. her report was scathing. systemic failings into the maternity

service have existed for several years and continue to be ongoing. although action steps have been called for over the years, failure to follow this up and implement change into practice remains a common theme. the author asked why senior members of the board hasn't highlighted the failings sooner. allison williams and three senior managers how to that report but failed to share the findings with the board or the welsh government. at the end of 2018, when she was filmed singing alongside board members in their christmas video, the report was under wraps. what's your reaction to that? well, i'm incredibly unhappy about it. it is exactly what should not happen in any part of the health service.

and in the community there was anger, with the council passing a no—confidence vote in the health board. last may, the council leader called for allison williams to resign. i raised it on the phone with the senior person in the health board. ultimately the chair of the health board. marcus longley? yes. but i was asked at that point not to go public. it was a difficult and challenging conversation. the term used was that the health board could push back, i asked for clarity on what that meant. after some heated conversation i terminated the call. i have a duty to speak out and i told them in no uncertain terms where to go. this is the chair of the health board, professor marcus longley. he didn't want to be interviewed and said he was not able to comment on private conversations. last year he and allison williams apologised for the failings at the seneedd.

a community like ours deserves the very best for all the reasons you say. we have failed them, there is no disputing that. allison williams took sick leave before quitting herjob last summer. the health board recently held a special meeting to explain how allison williams and three colleagues failed to share the scathing report but it still couldn't say why it happened. three of the four responsible have since left the health board. somebody like allison williams, given the fact she was in charge of a failing organisation, and then somebody like her and other senior managers were able to walk away. i can understand completely why people are angry and want further action. what i can't do, is i can't make the law retrospectively fit what has happened. but this happened on your watch. do you not take some responsibility yourself? of course i do. and i have always been clear that

i am taking responsibility for what has happened and the need to put it right. but what about the former boss herself? allison williams has failed to answer important questions raised in this programme. we have written to her and we have called her, but we have had no response. so i will try one last time to see if she will talk to us. hello, miss williams? it seems there is no answer at the door, or indeed from miss williams herself. but the new woman in charge of the health board did agree to speak to me, so are things improving? what we have got to do going forward is to make things as safe as they possibly can be, as clinically safe as they can be, acknowledging where we have made mistakes. the fewer mistakes we can make then the better it is for our families and patients, and the better it is for the public purse. that's where we need to go.

for nine months, maternity services have been in special measures, under intense scrutiny. but at prince charles hospital, there have been furtherfailings. we have seen a leaked report warning that women and babies have been put at risk yet again. two months ago, an unannounced visit by the health care inspectorate for wales found that emergency resuscitation equipment was not being properly checked by staff. confidential patient records and controlled drugs were not properly stored. and the hospital was told to review the way it updated patient records. the hospital was also told to look again at security in the maternity department to mitigate the risk of baby abduction. similar problems are also found that the health boards other maternity unit at the princess of wales in bridgend. how can the public have faith in your maternity services? again, we are very clear that we are not where we need to be yet. so things are not fully safe yet?

i think things are safe, things are clinically safe, but are they as good as they could be and is the quality where we would like it to get too? no, it is not. tonight there are calls for the police to investigate if there are grounds for criminal prosecutions following the deaths of babies at the hospitals. if it's established that harm did come to individuals through neglect or because people knew of the risks and did not act, then potentially they should face further action through the courts. sarah and jonathan are asking the police to look at jennifer's case. surely somewhere there has to be in an investigation to see if there's any criminal element to it. i won't be able to rest, i don't think, until we know it has been thoroughly looked at. all angles. ready, steady, go! and the families who have been

failed by the health board will always live with the consequences. they are just in a position where they can walk away. i can't walk away. i can't walk away from my son or my responsibilities. no matter how much money they pay out, they can have it all back, if they make him healthy. money doesn't buy you health. hello there. we ended the week on a rather windy note and it stays pretty windy as we start the weekend too, because we will have low pressure always nearby. generally mild for most, particularly england and wales, with rain at times as

well, perhaps with some sunshine. low pressure to the north of the uk, that will bring outbreaks of rain in scotla nd that will bring outbreaks of rain in scotland and northern ireland and into northern england. generally starting dry for england and wales, some sunshine around as well. looks like we could see some sunshine right here across the northern half of scotland, the wind is a northerly, some cold air moving in here despite there being some sunshine around. some of these showers wintry on the hills. single figure values in the north. ten or 11 degrees for england and wales. not as mild as it was on friday. saturday night the snack system moves in and brings a spell of rain to northern ireland, england and wales. some of it could be quite happy. wales. some of it could be quite happy- i wales. some of it could be quite happy. i jumpsta rted the wales. some of it could be quite happy. ijumpstarted the north and east of england and then that rain pushes north out of northern ireland into scotland. snow on the healthier, wet it remains quite chilly. for england and wales, sunshine, a few showers and very mild 14 across the south—east.

welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: the uk has left the european union — with a countdown clock in downing street marking the moment. big ben bongs. 0utside parliament, brexit supporters celebrated. elsewhere, the mood was more subdued. the fact is that the war is over. we have one! cheering. us senators vote against calling witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial, making the acquittal of the president all but certain.