AUGUST may be a time for family holidays but it’s also when young people receive the public exam results that shape their future.

Basingstoke schools and colleges know that local employers need new recruits to have top class qualifications and are rising to this challenge. Our leading secondary schools now consistently out-perform the majority of schools in the county, to make sure our young people have the demanding qualifications they need to secure the sort of jobs Basingstoke employers offer.

ON FRIDAY I visited Basingstoke’s Discovery Centre to support this year's National Summer Reading Challenge and to meet staff, parents and children. The challenge is to read six books from the library during the summer holidays.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of the staff and the commitment of parents, more than 1,000 children in Basingstoke have already signed up.

I DROPPED into the annual general meeting of the Hampshire Hospital Trust at The Ark to hear about how the NHS is ensuring our community has the medical service it needs.

The Government has increased NHS budgets centrally but it is clear demand for NHS services is rising too. More of us are living into old age and we want our bodies to be healthy for longer. Taking responsibility to live as healthily as we can, throughout our lives, is more important than ever.