We now have in excess of 80 club members with nowhere to socialise on our prior club days. Breaking friendships and social skills...please sign our petition and help keep us open

STS Lord Nelson is one of two tall ships owned by the charity Jubilee Sailing Trust, which takes mixed-ability crews to sea, changing people's lives. Following a recent emergency appeal to raise £1 million in a week, they raised about £1.2 million, but then very shortly decided to de-commission Lord Nelson. Many of us consider this to be a huge mistake, and wish the ship to keep sailing, doing what she does best.

Service users says: "This is awful news. Birmingham vision has been providing fantastic services to people with sight loss in Birmingham and is the only remaining centrally based Sight loss organisation." " I have enjoyed all of the social activities and all of the sporting opportunities that were made possible by them and if it wasn’t for him, I would never have had the opportunity to go driving, walk out onto Villa Park twice, take part in activities such as foot golf and cricket and the  The fact that he brought me out of the social isolation I was in before I signed up as a service user back in 2016 My thanks also goes out to the wonderful person who put on wonderful social events during the last three summers and kept the pub night going for everyone to enjoy and this was a great social hub as I had met people there who I’m still communicating with now and I’m sure that they will use their social and independence skills to go out and enjoy life. When I first read this post, the first thing came to my mind was that there will be a lot of empty days in the new decade and this will hit home during the summer months as without the great service that Birmingham vision provides, there will be very little opportunity to enjoy the events that I have mentioned in my post and this is a great shame because Thomas Pocklington have buried the people that it once encouraged to flourish and be confident and independent and I can’t imagine life without the services of Birmingham vision and the company of their excellent staff." "This is truly heartbreaking! I volunteered once with the pub quiz and really saw what great work you do. What is to become of all the social isolation that this might bring? I can't really understand how such an important group is not worthy of funding. Just sad." "I'm GUTTED! This is so sad Birmingham Vision work so hard and have helped me and so many other Visually impaired people to deal with living with sight loss. I have made lots of friends through all the events that have been organised . They have made me not feel so isolated. I feel for all the staff that have worked so hard. I am going to miss this group so much!!" "I am totally shocked to hear this sad news! Without Birmingham Vision I would not have the confidence I have today. The wonderful staff have shown us that being visually impaired doesn't mean we have to feel isolated. I too have made some great friendships through the groups, and days out that the hard working staff have arranged for us. Thank you so much for your hard work. ❤" "I can honestly say I’ve really enjoyed getting to know every single person every single member of staff you are all amazing Birmingham Vision chose my life and helped me so much and made good friends with all the staff and many of the service users I have gained lots of confidence and getting out and about and everyone has as well we will all miss you as you are all lovely people and being in your company is always a great pleasure". "OMFG! Are you freakin' kidding me? WHY is it not worth the funding? This group has given me a social life, provided opportunities to visit places & most importantly make new friends including all the staff. It is OUR little community, don't we have a say?"

In 2017 I was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder cancer. I live with Spinabifida and am a wheelchair user because I'm paralysed from above the waist down. It is not legally possible to prove, but it is my sincere belief that had I been examined earlier in the year using a hoist and adjustable wide treatment bed, my cancer may have been discovered sooner. Disabled people and particularly paralysed people, don't always feel changes in their body, so require better than average monitoring. This equipment would provide that extra safeguarding and would protect disabled people from developing further physical issues that cost huge amounts of tax payer's money to address and great distress.

Victoria uses a wheelchair and has been awarded transport for eight years, but now that she is 16 the funding has been stopped. I'm more than happy to pay towards the bus but Victoria's place has still been refused. The city council have said that travel assistance up to 16 is statutory but only "discretionary" for those of sixth-form age. Without transport Victoria who has a mental age of around 6, faces having catching two buses to get to Selly Oak Trust School everyday. Victoria uses a wheelchair for long distances. Victoria finds it difficult to understand danger or cope with busy places. It is extremely important that Victoria is allowed to carry on using the bus.

For many disabled people this is the ONLY accessible route into the station. First Transpennine are suggesting that disabled people should call a mobile number and wait for a member of staff to open the gate. This will result in: • People being left, possibly on their own and feeling vulnerable, whilst they are waiting to be permitted entry. • Longer journey times –people would need to get the station earlier. • Unfair treatment – disabled people need to do something different to non-disabled people to gain access to the station. This will also impact on non-disabled people too!!! • Inconvenience, especially for occasional users, for example people going on holiday, with luggage and children, who are arriving by taxi, will have to wait for the gate to be opened or walk around the station. • Waiting time at the drop off point is 20 minutes – negotiating the closed gate will inevitably take longer than this now when picking someone up, increasing the risk of a financial penalty. The closure is being trialled to protect station staff, but disabled people shouldn't suffer because of this. Alternate solutions should be found that don't result in disabled people being left without access.

Wheelchair users are being discriminated against every day, in all walks of life - education, work, homebuilding and social life. They are being denied access to buildings, venues and premises that other people in our society enjoy. Non-wheelchair users are often unaware of the obstacles wheelchair users face. Wheelchair users may want to join in with things but are being denied the opportunity to. The world puts up so many barriers . For instance, going to the theatre is an experience enjoyed and cherished by many families, especially during the festive season. However, like many other activities, theatres and shows often fail to be wheelchair accessible. Although the accessibility of venues has improved, wheelchair access is often forgotten, or indeed never thought about. I acquired my disability in 2010, and was plunged into a World that I didn’t know existed. I found that I couldn’t go here, couldn’t go there, couldn’t do this, couldn’t do that. It’s torture. The Equality Act describes disability as a ‘protected characteristic’. However, the Act is neither monitored nor enforced. If I think someone is in breach of the Act, it is up to me personally to raise a court action. As the majority of wheelchair users will be surviving on DLA/PIP, this means that this is outwith the realms of affordability for most of us. Is it deliberately cost prohibitive? This Act is nothing more than lip service – a façade to wrongly give the impression that the Government gives a damn. I was concerned about the number of premises which appeared to be inaccessible in the City Centre of my home town of Edinburgh, so I undertook my own accessibility survey. The results revealed some gobsmacking figures. I surveyed 130 properties on Lothian Road/Bread Street/Grassmarket on the West side of the City Centre. A massive 95 (73%) are NOT wheelchair accessible. This is Edinburgh, home of the Edinburgh International Festival and World famous Hogmanay celebrations and Scotland’s capital city, in the 21st Century. It’s appalling. This means that I would have to raise 95 court actions! Everyone who asked what I was doing during the survey made the same comment – “I thought everywhere was/had to be accessible now/these days”. I am not niaive to believe that this situation is confined to one City. The issue exists in every village, town and City, UK-wide. Wheelchair access needs to be a pre-requisite of planning permission for old AND new buildings. Inaccessible premises change ownership, undergo extensive refurbishment and re-open as ‘newly opened’ businesses, and are still inaccessible! How is this being allowed to happen?

Although now retired the bond between Dave and Jarvis is extremely powerful. Not only has Jarvis been a wonderful guide to Dave but he has been and continues to be a great ambassador for the charity. In his time Dave has filled many volunteer roles with Guide Dogs as a branch chair, Volunteer Liaison Officer for the region, a speaker and fundraiser as well as organising the regional Guide Dog carol Service. Jarvis is a very nervous dog who frets when not around Dave yet Guide Dogs are using his welfare as a reason to remove him. How would removing him be good for that welfare in his old age. Jarvis is well known throughout the Church Of England and is known and loved by so many.

My Son has missed out alot of his childhood which should be "the best days of our lives" and he's only 8. He's got a disability along with other issues that have an impact on his life and being able to socialise with his peers. He was out of school for a while with very little support from the Local Authority which meant me having to go off work to care for him. He's been waiting for 5months for an appointment with CAMHS with no help or support in the mean time. It's not fair that our youths are being failed big time, especially the ones that may need the extra help and support than others!

Saxon Hill Acadamy is a special needs school in Lichfield for children up to the age of 19. It currently runs a Sleepover Club where students can stay overnight. At the moment this runs four nights a week during term time. This provision provides a place where the students can socialise together, something which is difficult outside this setting due to the complex needs of these young people. As well as the social side it also helps with independence away from the family. The staff help the students to reach their potential in a safe and happy environment. This a unique service not provided by many other places and is important to the pupils, families and staff of the school. I speak from experience having been a pupil at Saxon Hill Acadamy and attending sleepover club for many years. I believe it helped the move to residential college easier for me when I left at 19 and gave me the confidence to succeed in the future. I am currently working in theatres and I am the disability officer for a local political party. The County Council have just announced that they are cutting funding to the sleepover club which means places are being reduced from 44 to 33. This means 11 students will have their places taken away from them. This will happen from the 1st April 2019. Furthermore the contract is only being given for one year and will then be reviewed before next April. This means sleepover could be closed next year. This is an important facility that needs to be saved and have it’s funding restored.

It is very important that this step or similar is included in Section 444 of The Education Act to avoid what is currently taking place for some families. Of course parents who are not bothering to take their children to school for no good reason should be dealt with. However, when you have disabled children or in my case Autistic children the causation of lower attendance can be for very different reasons. For example, numerous legitimate hospital and clinic appointments can soon lead to lower attendance levels and children being flagged up for concerns. This is especially true during the statutory assessment process when there are lots of appointments with professionals and assessments undertaken. I have autistic children. Children with high levels of anxiety around social interactions with associated sensory processing dysregulation who need a higher level of support. Getting that support in place can be a protracted process where budgets available to support are already stretched. Sometimes support fails and needs updating or amending. Again unfortunately this tends not to happen quickly. In the interim, while children are waiting for help to be put in place it can lead to very real school based anxiety reflected very often in school refusal or lateness. This is a very different kettle of fish. I believe that there should be a separate process for these situations and that is a simple fix by way of an amendment or exclusion. Too often EWO action is used as the first response and this can really frighten parents who are already parenting under pressure. This response to difficulties doesn't help the child and it certainly doesn't solve the situation. I feel it is not what Section 444 was designed for. I live in Exeter, Devon. I am currently party to such a situation. I have an autistic child in the middle of a statutory assessment. I am nearly at week 20 of the process. Many needs have been identified including new diagnosis and the local authority in charge have confirmed that they will issue an EHCP in response to those needs. Those needs include Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Sensory Processing Dysregulation, Dysarthria. This is a child with many barriers to the mainstream school environment. In the interim whilst needs are identified, there is still no Education, Health, Care Plan (EHCP) in place and subsequently no extra funding available to deliver extra help in school. SEND Support has not been stepped up in response. SEND Support comes out of a budget which is not ring fenced and so many schools in the current climate simply do not have money available. Children have very often already broken down or are suffering by the time all of the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. My son is presently in limbo without the support that he needs being put in place. As a result, his anxiety has increased around going to school, in the absence of any consistent support to the recommendations around this, we have had to bring him into school slightly later to avoid the sensory overload (noise, visual stimulation) that the very busy mainstream morning school environment causes him. This has got much worse, the longer his now very much identified needs have gone unidentified and unmet. He will be 6 years old in the summer. The first response of the school and the local authority has not been to support us and work together to put support in place with the professionals around the child, but rather to fire out an EWO letter to us with no prior meeting to discuss or resolve. Fire this letter knowing full well that this child has special educational needs and that he is in the middle of this statutory process. We have done our level best as parents, contacting the team around the child as the difficulties began to present themselves and we have asked for their help. We wait hopefully for a response. Also sometimes attendance issues can be the first red flag for children who have special educational needs or disabilities. This should be factored in to my mind when the school or local authority are noticing attendance issues. Is this being caused by SEND? Section 22 and 23 of the Children and Families Act highlights statutory duty around these children. Section 22: The duty of Identifying children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and Section 23: The duty of health bodies to bring certain children to local authority's attention. SEND as a causation should surely be the FIRST possibility ruled out? Lots of parents to disabled children become so afraid with this gun being held to their heads that they deregister and home educate their children rather than face a legal battle. Section 444 shouldn't cause exclusion of disabled/SEND children from school, backing helpless parents into a corner? That cannot be allowed to be the knock on effect of this law! It needs to be amended or SEND children need to be excluded. EWO letters/action clearly are not a helpful response to unmet special educational needs for disabled children. For lots of parents this can cause more very real worry, distress and anxiety on top of what is already a difficult situation. Section 444 allows in extreme cases for action towards parents that falls under criminal law. This is not an appropriate road to travel in these circumstances. As a seasoned and experienced parent to SEND children, I can confirm that It's a common nationwide practice that I see occur more often than it should do. I don't believe that the intention of this law was that it be used in this way towards disabled/SEND children and their parents/carers and that there should be clear steps involved in the process to prevent this from happening or that disabled children should be exempt from Section 444 and different legislation be applied altogether.

Disabled Blue Badge holders rely on their cars to visit the doctor, go shopping or take part in leisure activities. They can't use public transport. Charging Disabled Blue Badge holders to park is punishing them for being disabled. It sends out a message that disabled people aren't welcome in Newcastle. Blue Badge holders may choose to go elsewhere, impacting on the city's economy or park on double yellow lines causing congestion. How is this Creating Decent Neighbourhoods? How is this tackling inequalities? How is this showing that Newcastle is open for business? Charging disabled residents and visitors to the city to park is detrimental to both the disabled person and Newcastle.