hello this is bbc news, the headlines... us presidentjoe biden warns russian leader vladamir putin that he'll respond with severe economic sanctions if ukraine is invaded. the uk government warns british nationals in ukraine it won't be able to fly them out if russia invades and says russia's in a position where it could attack at no notice. borisjohnson receives a legal questionnaire from police investigating lockdown parties at downing street and whitehall. doctors say thousands more lives could be saved by paying attention to earlier symptoms of heart attacks. a new campaign to spot the signs is launched by nhs england. in paris, french police fire tear gas at demonstrators after a convoy carrying protesters

against coronavirus restrictions made it into the capital. and champions of the world — chelsea beat palmeiras 2—1 after extra time in the final of the club world cup. ashleyjohn—baptiste is a bbc reporter who grew up in foster care and spent most of his life believing he was an only child. that is until his mid—20s, when he received a life—changing message. now on bbc news, he explores the separation of siblings by the uk care system. i can't even remember the first foster home i lived in because i was so young. i went into care at age two and didn't leave until 18. i always wondered whether i was considered for adoption and never had the courage to ask about it as a kid.

it's really hard to describe what it felt like being shunted before five different terms between the age of 18. it felt like being under a cloud of rejection, like no sense of family, no sense of belonging. check what happens in my mid to late 20s and i'm still coming to terms with my own childhood — i get a message from a man on facebook who tells me that he's my brother. it was completely crazy because for a long time, i thought that i was kind of isolated, in terms of family, that i didn't have anyone, but i've got a brother, that's life—changing. i find it difficult to understand why no—one told me i had siblings while i was in care. there is one person who might hold some answers. oh, my days! oh, my gosh!

roselyn! roselyn was my social worker between the ages of 15 and 18. a few years ago, i had a brother get in touch with me. really? yeah. from where? he spoke to me on facebook. who? my dad's side. oh, my gosh. i can't talk to you about this, man, i don't know why i feel emotional. oh, my god. flipping... ihad to... so, basically, on my dad's side, i've got at least four siblings were all older than me. was there any information in my files about me having siblings? no. not to my knowledge. you know, files and information gathering has come a long way. obviously, back in the day, we had paperfiles, now we have electronic files. and i think sometimes families don't always tell us what we want to know at the time and that happens quite a lot, where family members, erm, withhold information.

speaking to roselyn about my siblings brought up another part of my past which i've always wanted to know about. was i ever considered for adoption? i know that's a big question and you don't have to answer it if you don't know. i was going to say, you might... i will tell you what i know but you might not want to know. i think you were. from what i can remember, you were, but i think they fell pregnant. and then they pulled out. ooh. at what age? very, very, very young. oh, my god. you didn't know that? i didn't know that. you wouldn't. you feel like your narrative in life and identity does not belong to you. the fact that you could have been adopted, the fact that you could have had siblings but no unnecessarily tells you they are there. i just feel like everybody wants

to know who they are, everybody wants to know who they are connected to. and i agree. i think in social care, that's what you want for your young person as well, you don't want any young person to come out and be like, well, what happened there? i've no idea what happened in the last ten years. that's not what you want. that's not why we come into this role. i'm feeling shattered after that chat. it was great to see rosalynn but even just talking to herfor ten minutes, i see how many unanswered issues there are as it pertains to my time in care but it now makes me think that there are so many siblings in the system who are estranged from relatives and they are not getting the support that they need. the more you move them, the more you scar them because you'rejust letting me know i'm a kid in care, and more people the more you move them, the more you scar them

because you're just letting me know i'm a kid in care, and more people don't care about me. ten years ago, when i started out as a journalist, i spoke to a guy called jerome who grew up in care and he said he was split from a brother so we've now become mates, i want to catch up with him and see what he has to say about the issue. i'm just hoping he can relate to what i'm going through at the moment. welcome to my humble abode. you have got a slit in your eyebrow. yeah. that is a decade old swag. jerome now works with children in care and has reconnected with his brother. when i spoke to ten years ago, you told me about your brother who, at the time, was in prison. how is he now? he's out. ah, brilliant. he's out of prison, doing really well, in terms of moving his life forward, but still struggling with the trauma of having gone through the system. he's still alive, he;s still here. that is a success in itself.

but it still hurts me to watch him because we both... you took very different path. yeah, with my brother, i always say the system lost him. because we had an amazing carer and she got quite ill, and he had to be moved and they didn't explain what was going on, the future plans. i think he felt that sense of rejection and he just went on a spiral, and, you know, the streets were his home but as we know, the streets is not a real family, there is no real love on the streets. i think of other people like us to come through the care system and i really hope they are not saying the same things about their brothers and sisters. sadly, this is what happens. and they are. i see sibling groups sometimes where they are acting out dysfunction and what happens is the carers or professionals will

blame the kids for their behaviour. it's not on them. they are showing you a need and you need to meet the need with love and nuture and understanding and patience. there is little data about the extent of sibling separation so we ran our own research and it shows that as of the 3rd of september 2021, around half of sibling groups in care are split up. more than 12,000 children in care are not living with at least one of their siblings. to know more about the impact of these decisions, i am meeting social worker student saskia. saskia and her brothers were adopted after being rescued from their birth family. saskia.

in their adoptive home, they suffered physical abuse and neglect for a decade. saskia, tell me about your brothers. so, max is the oldest. he is 2a, then i'm 11 months younger than max, i'm 23. and toby is 18 months younger, he is 22 at the moment. but we are all very, very close, very tight unit, always kind of been that way. when the adoption broke down, saskia and her brothers went back into council care but they didn't stay together for long. all three of us were in different placements, different areas, and it was quite strange as well because myself and max were obviously still attending the same school. oh, that must have been so awkward. it was really strange. at what point this contact breakdown completely for all three of you? i would have been 1a, 15 and toby 13, yeah. i lost such a key part of myself i think because it was us

three against the world, it always has been. and so being so far away from them, it is like i'm not as strong any more. sometimes siblings is all you've got left, and if you take those away, you're taking the last thing away. the last bit of hope. yes, yes, the last bit of your identity. saskia says they don't normally talk about their separation but her younger brother toby has agreed to meet me for a chat. are you going to sit like that while filming? yeah. i'm calm, i don't care. weirdly, it's quite nice because it shows he is being normal. do you know what? how often do you guys sit here at your flat and talk about this stuff? never. how do you think it has affected you? where to start?

oh, man. i don't know, it's made me into quite a resentful person, as a whole, really. even if life is going good, i will still find some way to be like... ..gegative, so overall, i'm just a negative person. i find it hard to see the good in anything. even if it is good, i will find something with it, and i will...it up, so it is affecting me a lot because these traits have made me have real—life consequences. you have committed crime, you've gone to prison. yeah. maybe it's fair to say that you were difficult to look after in the care system and that is partly to explain why you've been moved, what would you say to that sort of... this is not to diminish my responsibility of committing a crime either. i take full responsibility but if i hadn't lived the life i lived, i would have never been in that position to ever

commit crime, you feel me? i agree. i would have never... i've done things that i cannot take back and i'm not that person but through what people and other people have put onto us, i am now that person and it's a shame. it's sad. do you think you should have been kept together? yeah. i think any siblings should be kept together anyway but given that they knew what we'd been through in that house, itjust... looking back now, itjust made no sense that they split us up. she means a lot to me. she's the only reason i keep going sometimes. when saskia does well, we all do well. we boys, we are naughty but of saskia can do it, i can do it. it's so funny because i feel

the same and there are so many times where i've nearly given up and i just wouldn't do it to them. iimagine yourface. i see your face, innit? you made me all emotional, why did you do that? it's real, innit? the law says siblings should be placed together when it's safe and possible to do so. however, many will be separated because a shortage of foster carers and suitable accommodation. hello. someone trying to change this is veteran foster carer debbie bright. debbie is best known as lydia's mum on the only way is essex but behind the scenes, she has looked after more than 200 vulnerable children. itell you, being here, i'm like, debbie, i wish you fostered me. aw, i wish i did as well! it's so homely. i've fostered many sibling

groups and i fought a lot to keep siblings together. when i first started fostering, you was not... ..you was allowed to have siblings sharing bedrooms. now, there's so many rules and regulations about all foster children having their own bedroom and i understand the reasons why but who has got a spare bedroom? who? what about the emotional capacity as well? they may not have the capacity to look after more than one child? no, but then there should be support in place so they can facilitate that sibling group. in england, foster carer numbers are at their highest but the increase is not keeping up with the amount of children in care. debbie has been supporting a new recruit. hi. ijust let myself in, the door was open.

reilly and her girlfriend have recently been approved as a foster family. a lot of people say the process is quite invasive, which it is, you have to give them very specific details about absolutely everything. it's almost like i found it like a long, year—long therapy session. it takes a year? it can take up to a year. sometimes it takes longer. mum took two years i think. mum took two years. sometimes it takes two years. it depends if they've got resources and social workers to do the work. you have a young person now, tell me about that. yes, i do, i have a teenager, and she is absolutely brilliant. that is crazy. sorry to cut you off because you're 23 and have a teenager. yes, it is a crazy concept to a lot of people but i can relate to her so well, because i was not there that long ago, i know what it's like to be a 13—year—old in today's time and that is where we really bond and connect.

does your current foster child have any siblings? yes, she does, she has a few siblings. she has a really good relationship with them. that is something i will always facilitate and push for, especially when you're talking about children who might have bonded over trauma or lost parents. it is really important. that is why you become a foster carer, to be able to facilitate these things. i am proud, so proud. not only to see her as a foster mum but to see what a wonderful foster mum she is. she's got a big heart. while foster carers are crucial in keeping siblings connected, it's local council to make decisions for the children. with the number of looked after children at an all—time high, the system is struggling to keep up. hi, is it ashley? hello, amy, lovely to meet you. welcome to my children's centre.

here we are. oh, wow. i've come to derby to find out how a local authority is trying to rent i've come to derby to find out how a local authority is trying to prevent more children going into care by pioneering a new rapid response team. amy is one of their children practitioners. tell me about this team and the work you're doing. the staying together team was an idea from the heads of service where they were realising that the children in care numbers were increasing in the local authority and it kind of identified that there was a need to work with complex families where children may be at risk of going into the care system. basically helping families before the children are sent into care. yes, to keep those children within their family home. as well family support, amy offers critical and rapid assistance when a family is at a breaking point. tell me about the people

we are going to meet. we are going to meet a mum who has had support from us across the services. they were facing a range of issues, the young lady going missing, violent and aggressive in the home, she was at risk of being exploited in the community. we have protected the identity of the mum for the safety of her daughter. what was life like for you and your family before amy got involved? it was hard, we didn't know where to go for support, to access support. she was going missing regularly, getting into other things like bad crowds and drinking. her education was also starting to fail as well. it was a strain on our marriage, a strain on the siblings and the children. they wanted her to go into care. if not for amy's help, do you think your child would be in care at the moment? i think my child would probably still be in crisis. i think us as a family and the other children would have just broken down. tell me how your family is doing now. amazing. that sibling closeness is coming back again,

where they all want to interact with each other, doing tiktoks in the bedroom with each other, football in the garden. meeting that family was so moving. something that was probably a bit harder to stomach was the fact that the mum said the siblings wanted the child to be removed from the house. that was hard to hear but it was clear to see the intervention from amy was worth it and that sibling group has been saved. over the past 15 months, amy says their team has supported 60 families to stay together. 50 of those are part of a sibling group. while preventative work can ease the strain on the system, local councils are still facing severe challenges. amy's boss is the head of early health and children's social care for derby city council. we know the government provided monday at the height of the pandemic

money at the height of the pandemic for councils to be able to support vulnerable families. but more children are going into care, costs are increasing. do you have the resources to be able to support children in care? no, we don't. we are very, very stretched as a local authority. there has been year on year cuts to services that we are delivering and yet demand is rising. we won't compromise in terms of safeguarding standards but it will mean that other parts of the council and further local authorities will have to make some very, very tough decisions. what could it mean for looked after children and sibling groups in care, nationally? i think that's what keeps me awake at night, in terms of what happens when the money runs out. how are you feeling? i'm feeling quite... because we are... local authorities are close to the bone. ashley.

you've been a social worker for 25 years. mm. to see this very important industry fall into poverty, what would that mean for you? erm... i'd be heartbroken. it would be devastating, i think, for the next generation and for this country. it's horrible, isn't it? it is horrible. when it comes to the rights of siblings, scotland is leading the way. a new law there is giving brothers and sisters in care more power over their relationships than ever before. i'm meeting karen, a foster carer instrumental in these changes. karen! she also runs star, a charity which works to reunited siblings split up in care.

we've got a busy day. i will tell you, i would have loved this as a kid. i would have absolutely loved to come somewhere like this. it is natural. you can be a kid. there you go. you are having a laugh! what? halloween. you have pulled out all of the stops for these kids. look at this! oh, my days! the group you will meet today, they've not had a halloween here before, so i'm excited to see their faces. ah, they're going to love it. our family are foster carers, it didn't take long for us to realise that these children are going into the care system and they are not going to the same place together. ijust realised, they have been through enough.

why not, why can't they have their own special place that they call... ..and most of them do, call it their second home? that contact, i can only imagine, must be a lifeline. i think it keeps them going. it is tough growing up and being a kid but it is tougher being them. but if they have that support of each other, we are not only making a difference now but fast forward to when they leave the care system and imagine if they had each other. who do we have coming today? we have a sibling group of five boys, full of energy, lots of fun, you will have a lot of fun meeting them. today is a big day. a massive day. at the farm, they go for two hours every two months. this is their only contact.

how excited have you guys been to meet today? ten out of ten. ten out of ten? 9000. 9000? what does it mean to be able to hang out and carve these together? it means so much. tonnes. thank you so much for letting us film because it has been so fun, really fun. these kids are golden, absolutely incredible,

and i don't even want to imagine that they would be without the opportunity to see each other because they clearly all depend on each other so much, it's really beautiful to see them together. the boys are leaving, they're going to say goodbye to each other, and it's always quite difficult for them. goodbye.

see you, mate. goodbye. karen, that must be so hard for you to do all the time. it is not, it is not. to do nothing would be hard. that is the difference. during this fall, i seen so many children in care being estranged doing this film, i've seen so many children in care estranged from their siblings and clearly substantial change is needed before more lives get affected forever. but this can't rely only on the goodwill of people on the front line. decisive action is now crucial. going on thisjourney, i see that the system is under pressure, so much pressure and social workers i think i've got a new level of sympathy for them because they are so stretched, they are so overwhelmed. i think one of the most encouraging things i will take away from meeting

someone like saskia is from having the brothers in the union, even though i grew up not knowing my siblings, i now have the chance to meet with my family. i now have the chance to be... and create the life i want, and sometimes it will be blood, sometimes it won't, it doesn't actually matter. as long as you have people you love to love you back, i think that's enough.

good evening. for most of us, it was a windy saturday and there was some rain to contend with as well. there is more where that came from. in fact, heavy rain will return from the southwest as we head through the second half of the night, increasingly strong winds. where we keep hold of some clear skies and some relatively light winds in northeast scotland, we could just get quite close to freezing, but for most of us, it is going to be a mild night. a mild start to sunday, but with rain first thing in western england, wales, northern england, northern ireland and southern scotland seeing some wet weather. after a dry start, east anglia and the southeast will turn wet

through the afternoon. northern scotland should hold onto something drier and brighter with just one or two showers. the winds relatively light in the northern half of the uk, much stronger further south, those are the average speeds. we could see gusts of 50 mph for english channel coasts. temperature north to south 7—11 degrees. the week ahead looks quite turbulent and heavy rain and gales, maybe severe gales at times. some drier interludes and turning really mild for the middle part of the week.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. us presidentjoe biden warns russian leader vladamir putin that he'll respond with "severe economic sanctions" if ukraine is invaded. russia says the west is created hysteria — and it's absurd to suggest an invasion will happen. the ukrainian president warns against creating panic.... the best friend for enemies — that is panic in our country. and all this information, that helps only for panic. it doesn't help us. borisjohnson receives a legal questionnaire from police investigating lockdown parties at downing street and whitehall. doctors say thousands more lives could be saved by paying attention to earlier symptoms of heart attacks — a new campaign to spot the signs

is launched by nhs england. and, champions of the world! chelsea beat palmeiras 2—1 after extra time in the final