Hayley is an award-winning investigative journalist and anchor on BBC children’s news programme, Newsround. Hayley currently reports for BBC Sport, BBC Breakfast and The One Show, after many years working as an undercover reporter for Panorama.
Hayley’s documentary on The Winter Olympics was played on Prime time BBC2 and iPlayer. For this Hayley battled -15 degree snow storms, reporting on snow-capped mountains and presenting for BBC live as the gold medals came sliding in. Hayley was the first reporter to reveal the results of the UK general election in 2015 and has enjoyed presenting at live events such as Wimbledon and the Olympics.
Undercover Presenter
As an investigative journalist Hayley Hassall worked for BBC current affairs programme ‘Panorama.’ She spent over a year and a half undercover in 2007 working in three maternity hospitals across the UK, where she uncovered overworked staff, lack of patient care. In the worst cases, pregnant women being left unattended and without beds or medication. In 2008 Hayley continued to work undercover. Even changing her name whilst working as a carer for elderly people, where she exposed a severe failure in private equity home care. Hayley’s undercover work resulted in major improvements to British health care, earning her a BAFTA, an International Prix Europa award and two Royal Television Society awards. Hayley has also reported for The One Show and Songs of Praise. Covering vast range of topics from children in poverty, beauty pageant to illegal cosmetic surgeries.
Children’s TV Anchor
Currently, Hayley anchors BBC children’s news programme, Newsround. She has carved out a niche for herself as the children’s home affairs reporter successfully investigating child anorexia, homelessness, child poverty and abuse. Hayley can also be seen on MOTD Kickabout covering the football update bulletins every Friday morning. In 2021 Hayley was named as the new presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live’s early morning weekend programme.
Personal Challenges
When you watch her speaking fluently on screen, one would never guess that she suffered from a bad stammer from the age of four. Hayley was told she would grow out of it eventually. But at that age each day was a long time and she used to get teased. It wasn’t until Hayley was 11 that she was offered help in the form of speech therapy. This taught her techniques to help deal with the problem. She now wants to raise awareness that one in ten children in the UK have problems with communication.
Her experience has led her to become an ambassador for the children’s speech, language and communication charity, Speech and Language UK, which offers expert resources so children can be diagnosed and given help at an early stage. To top this all off, Hayley has jumped out of a plane at 21 thousand feet, broke a world record, challenged the Prime Minister on child education and slept on the streets of London for 32 hours.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.