Liberal Democrat county councillors in Surrey have expressed their concerns over the long waiting times faced by children and young people with mental health problems in the county.
Ahead of next week's Children and Education Select Committee, where the matter is due to be discussed, Cllr Chris Botten, Lib Dem Spokesperson for Children & Education, said:
A survey by Kantar Public, published today (Sunday, 18 February), has found that 56% of the public judge the Conservatives' handling of Berexit as poor or very poor.
Whether people are for or against Brexit, there is clearly growing anger that the Conservatives are badly mishandling negotiations.
Warring factions in the Conservative Party mean the prospect of sensible negotiations has long since disappeared.
This is why there is growing support for the Liberal Democrat policy of a vote on the terms of the deal, with the option of an exit from Brexit.
Michel Barnier has warned that a transition period immediately after Brexit is 'not a given' and that he did not understand some of the UK's positions on Brexit.
When Barnier says he doesn't understand some of the positions the UK government are taking over Brexit, he is not only speaking for the EU but also the entire British population.
British taxpayers have coughed up £1 billion to placate the DUP and keep them on the Government's side during this disastrous parliament. What are we getting for it? Just intransigence.
The British government are heading for a very dangerous situation in Ireland.
If this speech was supposed to offer an olive branch to Remainers, Boris must have picked up the other version.
A clear majority of Remain and Leave voters oppose the damaging hard Brexit Boris so vigorously advocates.
They do not want job cuts triggered by tougher trading conditions with our largest export market or life-threatening uncertainty at the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Boris's antipathy towards the common rules and standards which apply within the EU, and to trade within the EU, is in stark contrast to Brexiters head-long rush to adopt common standards with the US which would require the UK to accept chlorine-washed chicken, hormone-fed beef, GMO products and potentially open up the NHS to US private health companies.
If Boris is seeking to establish himself as the standard bearer of liberalism, he should dump plans to come out of the Single Market and Customs Union and campaign to stay in the world's largest free trade area.
1. Saving lives
The NHS provides some of the best emergency care in the world. Although the NHS winter crisis has placed unprecedented pressure on our health service, the NHS has, historically, maintained an impressive standard of emergency care. Last year an astounding 23.65 million of us attended A&E. This number increases each year. Over the last five years A&E departments have seen a 7.2% rise in attendance. Yet despite this enormous pressure, A&E staff display tireless dedication during gruelling 12-hour shifts and regularly go above-and-beyond the call of duty.
Theresa May is insisting that the UK will leave the Customs Union after Brexit.
The idea that UK will not be in the, or any, Customs Union, confirms that the extreme Brexiters are now in control of the Government.
The Tories' increasing obsession with putting two fingers up to all things European will only ensure maximum damage is done to our country in the long term.
NHS A&E waiting times have hit the worst levels on record.
This is yet more evidence of the growing crisis in our health and social care services, where staff are being put under great pressure and quality of care for patients is suffering.
When will the Government wake up to the fact that they urgently need to commit additional funding?
Over 11,000 homes across the country have been sitting empty for ten years or more.
At a time when the homelessness crisis is worsening and more and more people are sleeping out in the cold on our streets, it is a national scandal that thousands of homes across the country are sitting empty.
The figures, uncovered through Freedom of Information responses from 276 local councils, show that there are over 216,000 homes across the country that have been empty for six months or more.
Of these, 60,000 had been empty for two years or more, 23,000 for five years or more, and over 11,000 have stood empty for at least ten years.
The research also shows that just one in thirteen councils are making use of Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMO), powers used by local authorities to take over properties that have been empty for at least six months.
Only 19 of the 247 councils in England and Wales that responded (the powers do not apply in Scotland) had used an EDMO in the past five years.
Of these only six had used one in the past year.
In total, councils returned around 23,000 empty homes back into use, including through direct action and the work of empty home teams.
These homes could be turned into affordable places to live for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
The Government needs to urgently review the current system which is clearly not working.
Councils need to be given the powers and resources to bring empty homes back into use.
This must form part of a wider package to tackle the housing crisis, including building more homes on unused public sector land and clamping down on land-banking.
The latest figures show that hospitals are facing the highest pressures so far this winter.
16,900 patients faced waits of half-an-hour or more in ambulances outside A&E in the week to 31st December, 4,700 of them delays of over 60 minutes. These are the worst figures for ambulance delays for a single week so far this winter.
There were 39 A&E diverts in the week to 31 December, the highest number so far this winter.
Thousands of patients being stuck in ambulances outside A&Es and many hospitals suffering from a severe lack of beds.
There were 480,400 calls to the NHS 111 service in the week to 31 December - the highest number of calls in a single week to NHS 111 since the service was created.
Liberal Democrat analysis showed that in the week from 25th to 31st December, 12 of 137 NHS trusts were 100% full on at least one day, while 57 were at least 99% full on at least one day.
In total 71,000 patients have faced delays of a half-an hour or more this winter, over 12,000 of them for an hour or more.
These figures show the NHS crisis is worsening, with thousands of patients being stuck in ambulances outside A&Es and many hospitals suffering from a severe lack of beds.
Every day seems to bring yet more bad news about the state of the health service. The blame lies firmly at the government's door.
Ministers refused to provide the funding top NHS officials said was necessary and now patients are paying the price.
It's time to give the NHS and care the extra cash they desperately need, by putting a penny on income tax to raise an extra £6bn a year.
![An ambulance By Graham Richardson from Plymouth, England (South Western Ambulance VX09FYP) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/themes/5909d4366ad575794c000000/attachments/original/1516294593/hero_ambulance.jpg?1516294593)
