Council harnesses new talent for apprenticeship programme

Devon County Council’s latest intake of apprentices have been speaking about their experiences so far in the work place.

The Council hires apprentices annually. This year is the biggest intake as 25 apprentices are now working in a range of council services from social care to transport.

The latest group is continuing to work through qualifications in their allocated area as well as becoming an integral part of the team. They are also paid during their apprenticeship.

Two of the twenty five new employees, Tom Satterly and Lorna Raymonthole, both from Exeter say so...

Clean sweep of outstanding judgements for Broadhembury Primary

An East Devon church school has achieved a clean sweep of outstanding judgements from Diocese of Exeter inspectors.

Broadhembury Church of England Primary was rated outstanding in four key areas following the inspection:

The school was said to be outstanding at:

• Meeting the needs of all learners • The effectiveness of its leadership and management • Its distinctiveness and effectiveness as a church school • The impact of collective worship on the school community

Outstanding is the highest judgement that inspectors can make.

It follows a similar...

Kapes bentoni – A well travelled specimen from the RAMM’s collection

Kapes was a small lizard-like parareptile some 100mm long.

It had only been found in Triassic of Russia until a tiny jaw was found in the Middle Triassic Otter Sandstone at Sidmouth in 2002.

230-240 million years old, the Sidmouth specimen is named after Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at Bristol University, who has made major studies of the Otter Sandstone fauna. His finds at Sidmouth were donated to RAMM.

The Kapes jaw has recently returned from the University of Helsinki where it has been on loan and the subject of further study by...

Council to consider how it can strengthen and improve its fostering service

Devon County Council will consider a range of measures to reshape its fostering service and attract and retain more foster carers, in a report to be discussed at Cabinet this week (Wednesday 10 July).

With the number of children being placed by the Courts into the Council’s care increasing from 539 in 2008/9 to 693 in 2012/13, the Council's Fostering Service is conversely seeing falling numbers of carers, as people retire or opt out of the service.

During that period, due to lack of in-house capacity, the Council saw significant increase in their use of private sector...

Weekend heatwave leaves two dogs dead and hundreds more suffering

The RSPCA has hit out at owners who left their dogs in hot cars over the weekend, despite repeated warnings about the dangers.

The animal welfare charity was inundated with hundreds of complaints over the weekend from people who spotted animals suffering as the temperature rocketed to 90 degrees in some parts of the country.

Around 350 calls about animals trapped in hot cars came into the RSPCA’s National Control Centre over the weekend of 6-7 July. Unfortunately the heat wave also claimed a number of lives.

A seven-year old female Staffordshire bull terrier died...

New High Definition theatre cameras at the Nuffield Health Exeter Hospital

The Nuffield Health Exeter Hospital has invested over £30,000 in a state-of-the-art high definition camera stack to help with keyhole surgery.

The new Karl Storz camera stack is now in use for laparoscopic procedures and operations such as gall bladder removal, hernia repair and gynaecology procedures.

Theatre Manager Jason Finney said “This new camera stack will be of great benefit to the surgeons, giving an even clearer image for them to work to and providing greater detail.

Patients may experience quicker operation times, and so even shorter waits.

...

Sunny weekend keeps Exmouth RNLI busy

Volunteers from Exmouth RNLI were kept busy during the first weekend of July with three incidents around Exmouth beach.

On Saturday 6 July at 5.42pm, the inshore lifeboat George Bearman was tasked to rescue a couple who had found themselves cut off by the tide by Rodney Point. Responding to a 999 call from the beach, crew volunteers collected the casualties and brought them safely to shore. The man and woman were given a tide table and advice.

On Sunday 7 July at 2pm, crew volunteers had scheduled a training exercise on the George Bearman . Helmsman, Ian Taylor and Henry...

Missing teenager from Newton Abbot area found safe and well

Update 9 July: Charleigh has been found safe and well in the Bristol area. The Police thanked the media for their help in locating her.

First published 8 July: Police are becoming increasingly concerned for the welfare of a 15-year-old girl from the Newton Abbot area. Charleigh Bindon has been missing since Friday 28 June. Charleigh is described as white, 5ft 4in, of slim build and with long dark hair with light brown hair extensions. At the time of going missing she was wearing dark leggings, an indigo strappy top and a white cardigan. Charleigh also uses the surname ‘Robson’. She...

Exeter Racecourse experiences phenomenal growth

Exeter Racecourse has recorded its best ever results for conference and events bookings since it first significantly started to build this side of the business in 2005.

The period from 1 January until 30 June saw a 30 per cent increase in revenue compared to the same period in 2012 and the highest following the opening of its £2.2million extension, in 2009, which doubled the size of the facilities available.

From January until the end of June, the racecourse hosted 300 separate events, with an average of 500 visitors per week and just under 12,000 delegates in total....

Tailoring diabetes treatment to older patients yields dramatic results

More than a quarter of over 70s with type 2 diabetes could benefit simply from improving communication and education in the clinic, new research has revealed. A study led by the University of Exeter Medical School and published in the Lancet found that 27 per cent achieved better glycaemic control through individualised care alone.

At the moment, patients over the age of 70 are treated using a blanket method of aggressively reducing blood glucose levels, but that does little to take their complex needs into account.

Dr David Strain, from the University of Exeter Medical...

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