NHS Professionals is a staffing agency run by the NHS. It was set up in 2004 to avoid the high costs of employing nurses from private agencies. These high costs have been much in the news recently, as a major drain on NHS finances. The NHS is short of staff (as a result of government policy) so has to use agency staff, especially nurses. This will get worse now that nursing bursaries have been scrapped, and of course Brexit will prevent EU nurses being recruited.

A decision will be taken this week on whether a "lifeline" service for hundreds of armed forces veterans will be forced to close its Grampian base. Eight Veterans First Point centres were set up in Scotland using cash from the UK government's Libor fund. But that money is running out and local health boards are now covering costs - with help from the Scottish government. NHS Grampian has now said it is unable to continue to fund the service. Veterans first point is a NHS run service to help veterans. It enables veterans to get help quickly for all sorts of problems, but mental health is the biggest. Without it veterans can be waiting over 12 months for help by which far to many will have committed suicide. These veterans have served you it is time you served them.

A group of mothers and midwives who care about quality maternity care have come together to start this petition. Last week, the major newspapers all ran high profile stories saying that Midwives were no longer supporting 'normal' birth, portraying it as a climb down. Midwives were attacked for 'pushing normal birth at any cost' and the support for normal birth was even linked with 'unsafe' care and neonatal death in the Times leader. We were also appalled to find Jeremy Hunt's tweets supporting this line and complimenting a prominent campaigner against 'normal' birth. These stories were damaging to women's choice and the work of midwives in delivering evidence based care. Moreover, they were contrary to the evidence and inaccurrate. The Birthplace Survey looking at 65 000 births showed that midwifery-led environments delivere safe care to mothers and babies and better outcomes for low risk women and babies. Only 57% of Low Risk healthy women have a normal birth in an obstetric led unit. All midwifery led environments ensure over 80% of healthy low risk women have a normal birth. Midwives deliver choices and quality of care - Better Births recognises this and wants all healthy women to have access to midwifery led care environments. The Lancet Series is internationally acclaimed research looking at the importance of midwifery care in a range of environments across the world. Midwives deliver safe evidence based care to all risks of women in a range of environments and improve outcomes in doing so. This is the evidence and it needs to be recognised and acknowledged by Jeremy Hunt to ensure that women have access to a midwfe they know and trust to support them along their maternal pathway. Better Births is about delivering quality maternity care to all women and their families whatever their situation. It is not about delivering normal birth to every woman and baby. Women of all risks need good quality care and especially those struggling with physical and mental health challenges. The attacks on midwifery do nothing to ensure high risk women and babies receive the care they need - midwives are an important part of care for high risk women and babies too. Finally anyone who knows anything about anything knows that the biggest cause of infant mortality is poverty. By contrast evidence shows continuity of midwifery carer helps reduces miscarriage, premature birth and still birth rates. It is time that this was publically acknowledged by Jeremy Hunt and others. Jeremy Hunt should have been aware of all this when he was tweeting and discussing maternity in public and we as mothers and midwives are very disappointed at his lack of understanding, and his lack of commitment to evidence-based care. We are disappointed at his casual attitude to midwives who seek to deliver quality of care and choice to all women. We are also concerned that his expressed opinion demonstrates a lack of commitment to delivering Better Births that will ensure the majority of women have access to the midwifery-led care that maximises their chances of having a safe normal birth and beyond. A normal birth remember, is by definition, the safest birth you can have. Jeremy Hunt, we ask you to stand with evidence-based care and the midwifery profession. And to publically commit your Government to delivering on the recommendations of the National Maternity review in Better Births. We commend this petition to you.

Mr Hunt keeps criticising Stehen Hawking's understanding of reading scientific evidence in relationship to the future of the NHS. (he uses the medium of twitter for this.). However, cool twitter can be, a proper debate is what is needed. And Stephen Hawking is the prefect person to speak on behalf of the NHS. And Jeremy Hunt is the perfect person to speak on behalf of the government.

Unconventional oil and gas extraction (“fracking”) will have an impact on our countryside, climate and local communities. It uses vast quantities of fresh water and chemicals and, as we have seen in America and Australia, this type of extraction has a detrimental impact on our natural resources, the environment, health, noise and air pollution, traffic and local communities. Fracking has also been known to cause earthquakes. The people of Sefton do not want this type of extraction taking place in any part of the borough.

Villa Road and Hunters Road are being used as a dumping ground for illegal fly tippers, and as a race track for speeding vehicles. Pavements are impossible to use because of inconsiderate parking. Anti social behaviour has increased since the part sale of the council owned carpark in 2014. This is having a direct impact on local businesses and people living within.

Evidence from other countries and from the only Fracking to be carried out todate in the UK at Preece Hall in Lancashire demonstrates the industry has a proven record of environmental failures. At Preece Hall, which was being Fracked by Cuadrilla in 2011, as many as 46 earth tremors and 2 official earthquakes were experienced resulting in the site being closed down. Evidence has also been considered by the governments own Environmental Audit Committee and as part of their 2015 report they concluded: "Despite the assurances from some that environmental risks can be safely accommodated by existing regulatory systems, an extensive range of uncertainties remains over particular hazards—to groundwater quality and water supplies, from waste and air emissions, to our health and to biodiversity, to the geological integrity of the areas involved, and from noise and disruption. Uncertainty about their significance is in part a reflection of the fact that fracking operations have yet to move beyond the exploratory stage in the UK. It is imperative that the environment is protected from potentially irreversible damage. • Fracking must be prohibited outright in protected and nationally important areas. • Full containment of methane must be mandated. • Fracking should be prohibited in all water source protection zones.

Karen Perry | Wife | Mother | Full-time carer. Karen has been married to Marcus for 33 years, their marriage has seen two wonderful sons introduced to our world. Karen is a valued member of a Care Group which cares for Adults with severe learning difficulties such as Autism and Downs Syndrome, near Middlesbrough, where she works tirelessly to help others, always prioritising other peoples needs over her own. Karen is from Cape Town, South Africa. Her Grandfather moved there from Norfolk after his father had served in the Anglo Boer war as a blacksmith. It is where she met Marcus and love blossomed, and soon marriage bells rang. Karen and Marcus decided to move to the United Kingdom in 2006, so that Marcus could be nearer his Welsh family and their sons would have better education and career opportunities. Marcus is a qualified electrical engineer who was sadly diagnosed with a brain tumour, due to the effects of his illness Marcus has been unable to work for the past 7 years but retrained as a lecturer and started to work again briefly. He relapsed about a year ago and has had to rely on Karen for support and care since. It would have been easy for Karen to focus her full attention on her husband, his illness warranted it. However, Karen knew that her service users at the Care Center needed her too. It was never in doubt, Karen decided to split her time between caring for her husband and continuing her support for her service users. Sadly Karen now needs the support of others, the Home Office has decided that she is not entitled to or merits British Citizenship. The Home Office stated in their refusal letter that Karen had not proved proficiency in English even though she had passed the "Life in the UK Test" and was told that she wouldn't have to prove proficiency again. This was confirmed on the uk.gov website. After Karen sought assistance from her local MP, Alex Cunningham, the website was changed to reflect new conditions. Without citizenship, Karen is left in a state of limbo. This cannot be right, so I ask you to please show your love and support for Karen by signing our petition. Kind regards to all and thank you

NHS Professionals is an in-house employment agency for health professionals. All of its profits remain within the NHS. The agency is able to provide staff for significantly less than its commercial competitors, so it contributes to lower costs for the NHS units to which it provides staff. If this agency is sold off, its rates will have to increase, if only to provide a return for the new owners. Long term, this seems certain to increase financial pressure on the NHS in the form of higher agency costs for vital staff. The sell-off has been planned for some time, but has hardly hit the radar screen, and negotiations are being conducted now. However, the nature of the contract, the names of the bidders, and projected sale price are all cloaked in commercial confidentiality. It seems entirely possible that the deal could be concluded before Parliament returns after the summer recess, so there will be no opportunity for democratic scrutiny. The public, and Parliament, will be presented with a 'done deal', and the unit's competitors will heave a sigh of relief.

Fit, feed & read work in partnership with families whos children recieve free school meals. During the school holidays some parent's can't fund lunch and rely primarily on the programme to prove it. The support from the libraries give the children the education they need and keep them progressing throughout the holidays. As well as feeding and educating the children another aim of the programme is to keep the children fit and active with help from local link 4 life workers and volunteers.

Many people who come to Tupton Tiddlers either can't or don't want to go to other Baby clinics because they are either too far for them to travel or feel uncomfortable going somewhere that they won't know anyone. Having the health Visitor here helps parents and carers get out of the house to meet others and form friendships when they feel isolated. It also makes sure that more people can make sure that everything is alright with their children and give them any help they need.

I have visited the Town Hall in Buxton, on various occasions, requesting a contact number for whoever is responsible for turning off the Lion's Mouth Spring at the bottom of the slopes. This has been happening regularly and for long periods of time. The Town Hall have been extremely evasive and dismissive and I have visited Buxton Advertiser on three occasions, asking them to look into it, should they be so kind, which they have been and have followed it up. My last visit to the Advertiser was today and I was told that they had received an email explaining what was going on. In short, the email stated that they were trying to work out the best way of reconnecting the supply from the pump house to the lion's mouth. Hmm, that seems to be in contrast with what I was told by multiple members of the office staff involved with renovating the Crescent. They informed me, and were quite adamant about it, that the supply pipe at Nestle was connected directly to the lion's mouth outlet, and they knew this, becasuse the first time that the spring stopped, they thought somebody on site was responsible, but discovered that this was not possible, due to the above and they also informed me that they have no input, nor are they doing any work on the pump house at all, because they contracted a separate company in to do that. I will detail the reasons in more depth, should the need to arise, but for now, it ought to suffice to say that the spring has now been turned off for eight days. I have left a flyer taped to the statue, stating that there will be a meeting there at ten o'clock in the morning, this Sunday, 13th August, to sign a petition and to discuss the issue. On Monday morning of the 14th August, we will be meeting again, to present the petition to the Town Hall. I intend to send other petitions, with more signatures, through online methods and I aim to start a 'Ban Nestle Products' movement in Buxrton and a march to Nestle, to explain our demands, which are "Leave our fresh water spring alone".... erm, that's it, really. All this takes time and energy and I don't want much of yours, but if you support the historical use of Buxton water, from a public spring, for free, just 'like' this post. I will use the likes as support for the petition. It is important, because people depend upon this water as it is healthy water and not detrimental to the health in any way, as tap water is. It is important, because Nestle and Buxton Town Hall seem to be hiding something and being elusive about the matter, so one can't help feeling that some form of underhand practices have been exercised. Thank you, for your time, and if you would like to sign the petition and hopefully meet some rather nice individuals, that would be fantastic.