The future of embryo research, Ofsted inspections, British Gymnastics' complaints procedure

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.1 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Leading scientists are calling for a change in the law to help IVF patients donate unused embryos to biomedical research after a collapse in donations over the past 15 years. Emma Barnett talks to Professor of Reproductive Physiology at Cambridge University Kathy Niakan and Clare Ettinghausen from the UK's fertility regulator, the HFEA.

The new play Glacier is a dark and poignant festive comedy. It follows three women who meet while wild swimming in their local lake one Christmas. They form an unofficial tradition, meeting each year to go for a swim and escape. Escape their responsibilities, life’s stresses, and maybe most of all – their families. We hear from playwright, comedian and podcaster Alison Spittle, and actor Sophie Steer, who stars in the show.

We take another look at the world of gymnastics following on from last year's damning Whyte review with labelled the British Gymanstics as "inept and dysfunctional". Since that time, not one complaint of abuse has been upheld by British Gymnastics’ Independent Complaints Process – with every single case over the past three years collapsing. We talk to Claire Heafford from Gymnasts 4 Change about their campaign for a new procedures. As two teaching unions call for a pause in Ofsted inspections following the death of head teacher Ruth Perry, we talk to Paul Whiteman, the General Secretary of the teaching union the National Association of Head Teachers.

Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Manager: Tim Heffer

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the
0:03.8	podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC.
0:08.6	It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world.
0:15.3	What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism
0:19.8	and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines.
0:23.7	And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject
0:28.4	you might not even have thought you were interested in.
0:30.2	Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment,
0:36.1	you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds.
0:39.7	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:45.0	Hello, I'm Emma Barnet and welcome to Woman's A from BBC Radio 4.
0:50.0	We're turning our attention today to a story we have been following closely, the way schools are inspected
0:55.0	and the stress that that process can cause on some individual teachers and heads, two school
1:00.9	unions are calling for offstead inspections to be paused immediately
1:05.0	following the outcome of the inquest into the death of the head teacher, Ruth Perry.
1:10.0	The Association of School and College Leaders
1:14.6	have issued a joint statement, asking to allow time for meaningful action to be taken.
1:20.7	This request comes three days after a coroner found an Ofsted inspection last year had contributed to the suicide of Mrs Perry, the first time
1:30.6	Ofsted has been listed as a contributing factor in the death of a head teacher.
1:35.3	Her school in Reading was downgraded from outstanding to inadequate due to safeguarding concerns
1:41.2	in November last year.
1:43.0	Ofsted's chief inspector Amanda Spielberg has apologized for the distress that the inspection
	...

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