The mums and dads threatened with having their disabled sons and daughters taken into care – accused of inventing or exaggerating their child’s illness. These are parents of children with conditions which are sometimes difficult to diagnose - such as autism spectrum disorder or rare inherited conditions. Some parents claim their council has used child protection concerns to delay paying for expensive care. They’ve been accused of a rare form of child abuse known as Fabricating or Induced Illness (FII) also known as Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy where a parent or carer exaggerates or deliberately causes symptoms of illness in the child.

Photo credit: Deborah Faulkner

Teenager Thomas Jones went missing on a night out with friends during his first week at university in Worcester. His body was recovered from the River Severn more than a week later. 5 Live Investigates has been told that Thomas's death and dozens more like it could have been prevented - if only certain safety measures were put in place. 150 young men have died after going missing on a night out over the last nine years. 5 Live Investigates has seen new research which reveals between 10 and 20 men die every year after going missing in towns and cities across the UK – the majority of them under the age of 35. Practical safety measures like late night transport to get people home, improved lighting and barriers between footpaths and waterways could all help prevent similar tragedies in the future, according to campaigners and charities.

5 Live Investigates has discovered three of the UK’s leading supermarkets are misleading customers by selling food which is high in salt or fat in the healthier choices sections of their stores. The British Dietetic Association says the supermarkets are being ‘unhelpful’ and the practise is ‘confusing’ for customers.

Researchers visited the top five supermarkets in the UK and found Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco were all selling products high in salt and saturated fat in areas marked as containing healthy or healthier choices food. The Royal Society for Public Health says the findings raise the possibility of the introduction of a supermarket regulator.

Tesco has told 5 Live it’s sorry some of its products were mistakenly included under a ‘Healthy and Diet Meals’ sign. Morrisons says their 'Healthier Choices' section gives customers the option to buy an item that is healthier than a product that meets a similar need – even though it might still carry a red traffic light label. And Sainsbury’s say it’s going to update its signage to reflect that vegetarian and plant based meals are now stocked alongside their range of healthier meals.

Photo credit: Helen Clifton

Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK every year. Many can spend weeks or even months in hospital fighting for their lives. But limited maternity and paternity rights mean many parents are having to return to work much sooner than they would like. The charity Bliss which supports families of premature and sick infants has surveyed more than 700 parents and shared its data with 5 Live Investigates. It reveals two thirds of fathers had to return to work whilst their baby was on a neonatal unit and more than a quarter of them had to choose between taking time off when their baby was is in neonatal or when their child went home. The programme hears from parents like Gemma and Andy Reid who were forced to make some tough decisions when their baby Gabriel was born a year ago.

There are now more than half a million vegans in Britain – with more than a quarter of a million people trying out a vegan diet last month – double the number of people who signed up for ‘veganuary’ in 2018. There’s no doubt that veganism is a more humane and potentially more sustainable alternative to a traditional diet containing meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. But could going vegan actually be bad for your health? 5 Live Investigates hears concerns that for some, it could have serious health consequences. Rebecca Hills, 20, tells the programme she used a vegan diet to conceal her eating disorder. But for Rebecca Hills, 20, going vegan wasn’t about 'ethics' and 'healthy eating', like she told people. It was to cover up her eating disorder. “In the back of my mind I was thinking that veganism would be a really good way to lose weight,” she said. The charity Beat Eating Disorders believes Rebecca may not be alone: “Some people may use veganism or vegetarianism to conceal their eating disorder, as it becomes socially acceptable to follow a restrictive diet.”

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Thousands of police officers and civilian staff haven't been vetted since the introduction of strict guidelines in 2006. 36 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales responded to a Freedom of Information request from 5 Live Investigates. But 16 of the forces that provided information said they hadn't performed retrospective background checks on a total of 5,966 police officers and staff since the policy was introduced. The programme has also discovered that the number of police officers investigated for abusing their 'power for sexual gains' has more than doubled over a 4 year period - from 84 in 2014/15 to 170 in 2017/18. The revelations follow the conviction in December 2018 of Cheshire PC Ian Naude who was sentenced to 25 years for raping a 13-year-old girl who he groomed after attending an incident at her home. PC Naude passed Cheshire Police's vetting process despite allegations of sex offences being investigated by two neighbouring forces prior to joining the force.

(Photo credit:: Press Association.)

Alice Franklin is one of 300,000 people in the UK with Tourette’s Syndrome. For 25-year-old Alice, the condition manifests itself in uncontrollable body movements or ‘tics’ – jerking, twitching, punching walls and windows and involuntarily collapsing to the floor. The physical side of the condition is the hardest to deal with and exhausting she says. But she also swears and hurls impromptu insults at individuals she’s just met – including her new boss and customers in a bar where she worked. It’s a life-changing condition Alice has lived with for more than three years – but for her and thousands like her, therapy isn’t readily available. In fact, a survey shared exclusively with 5 Live Investigates by the charity Tourette’s Action shows even when a diagnosis has eventually been made, most aren’t given medication or directed to any form of behavioural therapy. And even when they are, it can take years to access. There are no NICE guidelines relating to the condition and Tourette’s Action says the condition is widely misunderstood by the medical profession. More than 460 people responded to the charity's survey and 79 per cent of respondents said their mental health had been affected by the condition. More than a third said they’d considered suicide of engaged in self-harming behaviour.

An investigation by BBC Radio 5 Live Investigates reveals problem gamblers are able to continue betting online even when they sign up to a national self-exclusion scheme. More than 50,000 people have signed up to the GamStop scheme which allows addicts to ban themselves from online betting platforms. But 5 Live Investigates recruits the son of a problem gambler to sign up to the scheme to test if it works. After banning himself, Adam Bradford, whose dad David lost more than £100,00 by gambling online, is able to sign up to a new gambling website by changing just a few small personal details. GamStop say they're 'deeply concerned' by the findings.

There has been a big increase in the number of vulnerable children being housed alone without live in support. In some cases youngsters have been placed in bed and breakfast accommodation, bedsits and even caravans by the local authorities that are meant to be looking after them. Figures obtained by 5 Live Investigates show the number of young people aged 16 and 17 and placed in what’s called ‘independent living accommodation’ has gone up by 28 per cent in England since 2010. Young care leavers tell the programme they’ve been placed in dwellings over-run by drug users, alcoholics and abusers. The Children’s Commissioner says she is now launching an investigation into the crisis. The Government says the law is clear and that local authorities must provide accommodation that meets children’s needs and that includes appropriate supervision whilst in that accommodation.

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MP’s have told 5 live Investigates they want the roll-out of ‘all-lane running’ smart motorways to be suspended amid concerns over the safety of stranded motorists and the recovery workers who go to rescue them. All-lane running – or ALR – motorways are stretches of carriageway where the hard shoulder has been removed and converted into a running lane. That lane is only closed to traffic in the event of an incident. Highways England says ALR motorways are as safe as traditional motorways and they improve traffic flow. But there are many people who disagree. Ellie Montgomery and her family became stranded on a traditional motorway which didn’t have a hard shoulder because of road works. Their vehicle was hit by an HGV on the M6 in Cheshire and the family narrowly escaped serious injury. She sets out her concerns about taking away hard shoulders.

Photo credit: Press Association.