The LD service is very specialist with relatively few staff doing different but highly specialist jobs. LD staff visit people in their homes for many reasons. For instance, we work hard to keep people out of hospital, if people do go to hospital we work to prevent readmission, we adapt homes so people don’t have to leave their family home or go into expensive care services, and we work with people to help them stay healthy and active, so that they don’t have to use other more expensive health services. And very often, there just aren’t any other services that can provide the care that we do. Norfolk County Council has cut Learning Disabilities Services by £960K and chosen to use the money elsewhere. But this money should be protected by Law for the specific care needs of people with learning disabilities. Help us get Norfolk County Council to reverse its harmful decision to cut Learning Disabilities services.

SMMC- formerly known as Saturday Morning Music School- provides affordable tuition to students as they progress from their first steps on an instrument to become confident, capable musicians. It is the umbrella group through which Liverpool Youth Orchestra is run, as well as Choral, Wind, Jazz, Brass, String and Woodwind ensembles that accept and nurture students throughout their musical development. It is a Liverpool institution, having played a pivotal role in the musical education of generations of the city's children. It has been the birthplace of the careers of many of the city's musicians, and instilled in many thousands of others a lifelong love of making music. It also provides a wonderful social function, as its students become lifelong friends and travel the globe in ensemble tours. They acquire confidence as they perform in public; self-esteem as they improve their instrumental technique, and rise to meet challenges; and through a busy musical calendar develop personal responsibility and time management skills by being part of a team of people who depend upon each other. As well as the children who attend it, it has long made outstanding contributions to the wider cultural life of the city. Its ensembles have been called upon to mark occasions such as the passage of the Olympic torch through the city, or the city's commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic. They featured prominently in the city's celebration of its status as the European capital of culture in 2008, and regularly perform at fundraising events for local charities. Resonate claim that they are designing a new provision taking into account feedback from both parents of SMMC pupils and staff. However, it appears that this consultation is merely window-dressing. Questionnaires were sent out in the first week of the summer holidays; parents received them on the Tuesday and the responses were expected by Friday, which is not a great deal of time in a week when many people will be on holiday. Furthermore, a briefing received by a Liverpool councillor -before the consultation had been sent out to parents- outlines the proposed structure of the new provision. This document also makes it clear that SMMC indeed closed at the end of the last term, which has never been explicitly stated to parents. As for consultation with staff, SMMC staff were simply told on the final day of term, with no prior warning, that SMMC cannot afford to continue in its present form, and have not yet even been told if they will have jobs in the new provision. This structure involves simultaneously expanding the service, with the creation of a second centre, whilst simultaneously amalgamating youth ensembles into "Big Bands". It is stated that there will be a large PR campaign in order to recruit new students, and that to facilitate changing to a weeknight, Liverpool schools will be asked to transport children to the new services after school. One of the major factors that has led to the axing of SMMC is that the numbers of pupils attending it has dropped sharply, from 299 in 2009 to 199 today. It seems strange, in our view, to totally restructure a service of 40 years' standing in a way which leaves it dependant upon recruiting large numbers of students to a less focussed provision, when such a drive could instead be used to restore numbers to their levels of merely 5 years ago. This approach seems particularly strange given that no concerted effort has been made to advertise SMMC prior to its closure. It also seems optimistic to design such a system with scant regard to the response from present students and their parents about whether they would be able to access the service, even on the assumption that schools might provide a taxi service with no discernible benefit to themselves. As well as the transport problems associated with travelling to the centres on a weekday evening (when bus routes may stop running, and parents may not yet be home from work to provide lifts) moving to a weekday evening also creates problems with schoolwork that has to be completed for the next day, and for those students who already play in school or other ensembles not affiliated to Resonate- or indeed for those who participate in other extra-curricular activities such as sport after school.

There are only two Fire Engines at Lancaster Fire Station covering one of the largest areas in the county.Due to Government cuts the Fire Authority has no other option than to remove one engine from the station. We as serving Firefighters must make the public aware that we need a minimum of two engines and nine Firefighters to ensure a successful rescue at a house fire or a road traffic collision. Without these resources arriving promptly, the outcome could prove fatal. If the cuts are imposed there will be a minimum five minute delay from turnout of the proposed 'on call' replacement engine. This would be crewed by retained staff who would not have the same amount of training hours as a full time crew. This is your Fire Service for which you only pay approx £56 per year from your council tax, this is a great value ' insurance policy' that covers rescues from fire,flooding,sea,rivers,building collapse, lift, trench collapse, large animal rescue..... The list is endless. Demand your monies worth, Demand your safety oppose the cuts.

If the closures go ahead the well being, health and lives of people in the local area will be put at great risk.

Bury Hospice provides invaluable in-patient, out-patient/day services and hospice at home services. They ensure vital support and care for those with a terminal or life-limiting illness and their friends and families.

For a substantial amount of time now, Buckinghamshire has received less funding per capita than most of the country for our hospitals. This ‘cash-starving’ or 'squeeze' contributed to downgrades at Amersham and Wycombe hospitals and our Trust has recently been in 'special measures'. Since the downgrades at Wycombe hospital, many people have suffered and neighbouring hospitals have been overwhelmed. Staff, patients and their loved ones deserve better.

The Walk In Centre is easily accessible and an excellent service used by more than 27,000 people last year. Local people are very concerned at the prospect of losing this local facility and feel the District Hospital in South Shields as an alternative is out of the way. Waiting 2 weeks to see a GP is not an option for worried parents with poorly kids, the elderly, and vulnerable patients. The Walk In Centre is a prime example of Right Treatment, Right Time, Right Place.

This concerns every person living in Britain. What happened to Mr Hilton can happen to anyone in Britain, whether we’re aware of it or not. The following took place. Mr Hilton of Meadoway, Church in East Lancashire felt very vulnerable and grew increasingly upset when he was threatened with eviction from the home in which he’d been living for 30 years. He responded by threatening to blow up his home. The reason for the eviction was that Mr Hilton developed rent arrears as a result of what PM David Cameron euphemistically and callously calls the withdrawal of the spare room subsidy, and what I see as an instrument of a feudal aristocracy, the so-called bedroom tax. We all tend to assume that when someone else is threatened with eviction, the person could make this ‘go away’ if only they would act. Because we have no choice but to believe that if it happened to us, we would make it go away. Because we, we would act. That is how threatening the idea of an eviction is to most of us. Losing our home… In reality, however, there is often very little a person can do against an eviction for arrears if the person has no money. In cases of rent arrears caused by the so-called bedroom tax, it is safe to assume that if the person was unable to do anything about the bedroom tax, he or she is equally unable to do anything about the eviction. Effectively, Mr Hilton was being threatened with homelessness after having lived in his home for 30 years. I don’t know Mr Hilton and he may have been seriously mentally ill. If he was merely terribly stressed, then chances are that he did not stick his head in the sand, but simply felt there was nothing he could do and was convinced that his housing association could not do anything for him either. I think that he threatened to blow up his home because he could not accept the idea that there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop the eviction. He did not blow up anything at all, and no one got hurt. He just yelled. He was arrested because he had made many people worried which can be seen as a disturbance. He has been in custody since the beginning of June 2014. The plea hearing is set for 22 August 2014 and his trial hearing is scheduled for 12 November 2014. A little earlier, namely in May 2014, David Garbett of Sunderland took similarly drastic steps when he chained himself and his wheelchair to the railings of Southwick JobCentre. In his case, his Employment Support Allowance had stopped which meant that he became unable to buy food and pay bills. After he chained himself to the JobCentre, Mr Garbett’s claim was settled, and his payments were backdated. Mr Garbett was not in danger of losing his home, but he too was desperate so he did something desperate. When austerity has already been part of your daily life for years, there is no room for more austerity. It is believed that Mr Hilton was eligible for exemption from this wretched bedroom tax, but apparently did not know how to obtain this exemption. It is also believed that Mr Hilton had been in bad mental health for some time. So here we have two men who apparently both had health problems. One was losing his home and spoke desperte words that others felt threatened by, but did not carry out his threats. The other one was fed up with having to go to the food bank and being unable to pay his bills and did not threaten but took desperate action. One is now in detention and has lost his home. The other one’s claims were reinstated and backdated. Mr Hilton – the man in detention – is a victim, not a criminal. He deserves leniency.

SSCL has already cut 500 jobs across the UK. It's also announced the closure of three offices in Cardiff, Leeds and Sheffield, and is shipping 200 posts to India. SSCL, the joint venture company, is 25% government owned. The remaining 75% is controlled by French multinational Steria - one of the companies responsible for failing to deliver a £56m IT project, recently written off by The Ministry of Justice. Despite this, MoJ is now rewarding failure by awarding further work to the company. If this privatisation and offshoring goes ahead,1,000 staff in Newport and Bootle also face being privatised. More jobs could be lost. The staff in Newport and Bootle handle personal data belonging to thousands of public servants, prison and probation officers. This data would be at risk if it was offshored to a country without the UK’s robust data protection regulations. We want the government to use its stake in the SSCL company to prevent the offshoring of jobs and data and to stop future offshoring by ending its privatisation agenda.

The BBC is a public service with a remit to cover and analyse news, events signifying social & political shifts in the country, and not a spokesperson for power or corporate interests.

The proposed sale of the statue of Sekhemka matters to everyone because the issue stretches far beyond one of a single local council attempting to sell off the treasures it holds in trust for one local community and breaching the Museums code of ethics to do it. It is just the latest in a series of sales, or proposed sales of commercially valuable, nationally or internationally important items from local museum collections including those at Croydon and Southampton. The commercial sale of such material also impacts on people many thousands of miles away as it indirectly supports the illegal trade in looted antiquiteis and art. It is time a line was drawn and local authorities, like Northampton, are shown that the way to solve budget cuts forced by Central Government, is not to impoverish their local culture and put at risk other people's culture, by engaging in speculation on the commercial art and antiquities market. The sale of Sekhemka is opposed as unethical and in breach of the Museums Association Code of Ethics by the Museums Association itself, the Arts Council, the Arts Fund, every major UK Museum with an Egyptology collection and a roll call of museum and heritage professionals. You claim the sale will help you build a £14 million extension to the museum, but the math's do not work. Even if Sekhmeka reaches its top estimate you will still only raise less than a quarter of the sum you claim to have budgeted for the proposed extension. Besides, even if you do build the new museum, you will have nothing to put in it. The sale of Sekhemka will result in Northampton Council losing its Museums Association Accreditation, cutting off Northampton's museums and gallery spaces from any public, charity or lottery funding. FOI material shows you have already spent over £40k, to facilitate the sale of Sekhemka. That is the equivilent of the salary of a teacher and a museum curator who could be telling the children of Northampton about the statue and all the other treasures you hold in trust in Northampton's museums. The proceeds of the sale will not all even go to the people of Northampton because you have agreed to hand over 45%, as much as £2.7 million, as a free gift to the Marquis of Northampton, one of the richest men in Britain. It is a free gift because you have announced that Northampton Council Tax payers will be picking up the legal and auction house costs, not the Marquis. ...and the sale may not even be lawful- you refuse to release the legal advice you and the Marquis have been given because the precise ownership of the statue is disputed and you may also be open to judicial review over the sale itself. Finally, the eyes of the World are on Northampton and this unnecessary, unethical sale and your actions have an impact far beyond Northampton. The sale of cultural objects like the statue of Sekhemka boosts the hammer price of antiquities and indirectly supports the criminals and even terrorists in places like Iraq and Syria, who traffick antiquities from all over the world for sale in the developed world.

I have been a registered psychiatric nurse for more than twenty years. I am gravely concerned regarding the situation unfolding within our communities and mental health services as a whole. Times are difficult and I appreciate the need for financial constraint but fear we have gone too far down this road. Following the suspension of our local psychiatric inpatient unit in 2012 our area has been without sufficient inpatient beds to meet the needs of its community. Consequently people are being placed in intolerably difficult and potentially life threatening situations, as people are discharged prematurely to free up beds, increasing pressure on dwindling community resources. Similarly people are becoming unnecessarily acute symptomatically, prior to admission, necessitating Mental Health Act Assessment, where timely intervention would minimise the need for such measures. Services are at breaking point and I fear a significant rise in untoward and avoidable incidents were sufficient resources in place. The lack of adequate inpatient beds is resulting in many of our most vulnerable being hospitalised in an untimely manner, hundreds of miles away from family, friends and the familiarity of local support and services, exacerbating difficulties arising from already fragmented care and a lack of continuity and seamlessness within service provision. Waiting times for care co-ordination are in excess of 3 months. Something I have never before encountered, leaving people in the community unsupported and without service provision. Timely intervention at the point of referral is critical to recovery, promoting well-being and optimising the efficacy of community based solutions, as alternatives to hospital admission. My purpose in writing to you is as advocate to those I serve. They are amongst the most vulnerable and I fear, increasingly neglected members of society. I respectfully petition you to bring their plight to the attention of government and support my plea to you, to support the urgent need for adequate inpatient beds, per head of the population. Services are in collapse and otherwise avoidable tragedies are going to become common place. In the last two years 1291 acute inpatient beds have been c!osed. Below is a list of individuals within my local authority, who at the time of writing are being accommodated in inpatient wards a great distance away from local facilities. There are 60 such local authorities in England alone: 19 year old hospitalised 85.2 miles away from home. 20 year old hospitalised 83.1 miles away from home. 23 year old hospitalised 48.2 miles away from home. 27 year old hospitalised 75.6 miles away from home. 27 year old hospitalised 76.8 miles away from home. 30 year old hospitalised 105.5 miles away from home. 34 year old hospitalised 222.6miles away from home. 47 year old hospitalised 82.7 miles away from home. 54 year old hospitalised 316.3 miles away from home. 58 year old hospitalised 237.8 miles away from home. 68 year old hospitalised 81.5 miles away from home. 73 year old hospitalised 69 Miles away from home. 93 year old hospitalised 81.2 miles away from home. My greatest fear is these difficulties are not locally based but reflect a national crisis within the provision of services for those in need of acute psychiatric care.