Local News

From 700 nominations, John Crawley, a volunteer at St Petrock’s, Exeter’s charity for people who are homeless, has been announced as one of five finalists for the Britain’s Best Volunteers Award.

John first arrived at St Petrock’s eight years ago for assistance while sleeping in an unoccupied building. Keen to move forward, he offered to volunteer in St Petrock’s kitchen and now regular stands in for the kitchen manager in her absence.

John’s commitment to helping others is not limited to his mornings at St Petrock’s; in the afternoon he volunteers at Hospiscare and had...

Rugby posts have started springing up around Exeter in the build up to the Rugby World Cup 2015.

Exeter is one of 11 host cities for the tournament and will host three matches at Sandy Park.

As part of this, the city has been awarded ten full size rugby posts by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) as part of its “Posts in Parks” legacy programme.

Nine out of the ten posts have now gone up in prominent locations around the city, with the tenth scheduled to go up at Exeter Airport in the next few weeks.

They are located in: Southernhay (next to Giraffe restaurant)...

A Devon-wide project which hopes to save the NHS time and money while ensuring patient safety has been shortlisted for a national award The scheme simplifies the process under which trained staff such as nurses or pharmacists can give medicines or vaccinations without the need for a GP prescription.

Until now, there have been a whole range of different processes (known as Patient Group Directions) across Devon – 17 for vaccinations alone. But these have been replaced by a single working framework for clinicians, pharmacists and NHS managers to use when writing these documents....

Nearly half of the South West’s businesses plan to take on apprentices in the next five years according to a survey of employers across England. The study of 601 businesses, released to coincide with National Apprenticeship Week, also shows how Apprenticeships are growing in popularity, with half of all employers in the South West (50%) reporting that they are now more likely to offer an Apprenticeship than they were two years ago. A quarter of employers also reported that they would be taking on apprentices within the next 12 months indicating that more companies are seeing the advantages...