File on 4 Investigates

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 schools 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 and 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, more than one in four, which is higher than the national average.
We'll hear how the disruption of a school closure 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)

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

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

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.

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