Phil Shepka
Phil Shepka reports on how systems of education and care fail the people who rely on them, using investigations and human stories to show the consequences of official decisions for children, families and vulnerable adults. He works within the BBC’s investigations and regional news teams, focusing on impact journalism around schools, public services, cost of living and exploitation.
Special educational needs and disrupted schooling
Shepka’s education reporting concentrates on young people whose schooling is derailed by gaps in support and slow decision-making. In a feature on a teenager who missed two years of school after “autistic burnout”, he showed how the stress of secondary school transition and insufficient support led to complete withdrawal from mainstream education. He reported how the family’s request for an education, health and care assessment was delayed, leaving the child reliant on privately sourced alternative provision and home-schooling. He set out how the local government ombudsman upheld the complaint over the council’s failure to arrange suitable education during the absence and its delay in carrying out the assessment, tying a single case to systemic failings. In committee coverage from the same story, he highlighted the increase in complaints linked to special educational needs and disabilities plans, indicating mounting pressure on the system.
He also covers safety and wellbeing issues inside schools, including a piece on handheld fans and sprays that treated classroom equipment as a potential risk when guidance and supervision fall short. In collaborative reporting on a school counsellor who described her own anorexia journey, he contributed to a story that linked personal experience to the mental health support available to pupils. Across these pieces, he treats education as part of a wider care network, focusing less on curriculum and more on whether schools can keep students safe and supported.
Safeguarding failures in care and health services
Beyond the classroom, Shepka regularly investigates safeguarding breakdowns in care homes and hospitals.
In coverage of hundreds of orthopaedic patients harmed at a major hospital, he reported how a surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital was suspended amid concerns operations had been below the expected standard. He detailed figures from a large-scale patient review, including the number of cases where harm had been identified and the fact that many of those affected were children at the time of surgery.
His reporting set unanswered questions about accountability alongside the human impact of clinical failings on families.
In an investigation into a Whittlesey care home, he used footage from a hidden camera to show abuse of a resident before the man died, exposing serious mistreatment within a regulated setting. The article positioned this case within the work of a regional investigations team, signalling an ongoing focus on care standards rather than a one-off incident. Together, his health and care stories form a line of reporting that tests whether institutions charged with protecting people actually keep them safe.
Cost of living, housing pressure and everyday strain
Shepka’s investigations also track how economic pressures translate into hardship for ordinary residents. In a piece on high living costs in Cambridge driving workers to food banks, he showed employed people turning to charity for basic groceries as rents and prices outpaced wages.
The reporting combined political coverage with testimonies from workers, illustrating how policy debates around the economy filter down to lunch-hour queues at food banks.
In a separate investigation into service charges, he documented how flat leaseholders faced rocketing fees, raising questions about transparency and fairness in the way housing costs are passed on. That article was explicitly linked to the BBC East Investigations Team, underlining his role in scrutinising local housing and financial practices rather than simply relaying announcements. These stories extend his education and care focus into the wider environment in which families live, showing how rising costs can undermine stability even when services exist.
Regional politics, transport and exploitation
Shepka’s beat includes regional politics and transport, where he often writes analytical pieces that explore long-running disputes. In his analysis of the Cambridge congestion charge debate, he examined how the proposal had “broken” the city’s politics, weighing competing arguments and explaining why the scheme appeared to have run out of road.
The work combined policy detail with local sentiment, fitting with his broader interest in how public decisions play out on the ground.
He is also active on exploitation and modern slavery, contributing to reporting that showed how major brands such as McDonald’s and supermarkets failed to spot slavery in their supply chains. In that investigation and related work on slavery in everyday retail settings, he helped trace abuse from victim accounts through to corporate oversight gaps. Separately, he has written narrative features, including a Swahili-language piece on a woman whose life was upended when her brother killed their father and attacked their mother, showing his ability to handle complex, traumatic personal histories.
Across politics, exploitation and feature writing, his work retains the same focus: the distance between public promises and what people actually experience.
4 more education journalists.
Ajit Niranjan
Ajit Niranjan links climate science, policy and hard numbers to how extreme weather and environmental damage disrupt daily life, public services and industry. He is European environment correspondent at the Guardian. His beat includes violent heat, pollution, wildfires, air quality, EU green policy, corporate responsibility, energy transition, clean home heating, public health and long-term risks to landscapes and ecosystems. He examines how lobbying, supply chains and regulation shape environmental harm, from data centres and fish farms to fossil fuel industries. His reporting covers schools, hospitals, transport, homes and infrastructure as climate stress points. He previously reported on climate for DW News. He combines data, scientific research, eyewitness accounts and on-the-ground reporting. He also produces explainers, dossiers, factsheets and Q&As that translate complex technical debates into clear, precise language.
Albert Tait
Albert Tait is Education Editor at The Telegraph, leading coverage of schools and universities as institutions whose decisions have direct consequences for staff and students. He focuses on how regulators, senior leaders and governing bodies respond when safety, standards or integrity are under scrutiny, and how those responses affect classrooms and lecture halls. His work links school inspections and teacher safety to regulatory frameworks and conditions on the ground, and he reports on incidents such as knife attacks and “Code Red” alerts with attention to immediate impact and emergency protocols. He produces multi-part investigations into university governance, including extensive reporting on Cambridge’s handling of Jason Arday’s appointment and resignation. He also covers curriculum debates such as changes in how scientists view evolution and inheritance. He began at The Telegraph as a news reporter and previously covered community news at a local paper.
Beth Kennedy
Beth Kennedy is editor at The PIE News and stands out for reporting on how UK policy, institutional strategy and new delivery models reshape international education. Her beat covers UK study visa rules, international student flows, Home Office and UCAS data, alternative study pathways, language schools, and mergers and acquisitions across the sector. She reports on the practical effects of visa changes, scholarship schemes, online and transnational education, school closures, job losses and sector consolidation. Her work is direct and data-led, with clear explanations of complex systems and a focus on what policy and market shifts mean for universities, language schools and private training organisations. She has over a decade in specialist media, including years reporting for primary healthcare professionals before joining The PIE in 2024.
Callum Clark
Callum Clark is a multimedia journalist at STV News who covers education through the lens of university finances, restructuring and their impact on students, staff and local services. He focuses on stories where cost‑saving plans, job losses and service closures reshape community life, such as Dundee University’s nursery and botanic garden closures, and sets those decisions within wider restructuring efforts. His reporting is direct and fact driven, built on official documents, statements and precise figures that show both the scale of savings targets and monthly losses, and the number of posts at risk. Clark’s background in local news and public service coverage, including mental health service reforms and redundancy schemes, shapes a methodical style that tracks formal processes while keeping the lived experience of workers, families and service users in view.