Since the introduction of the Care Act, many local authorities are reassessing people's ability to pay for their own care and/or support. My daughter relies on her support worker to help her to live independently. For the last 6 years she has received funding from the Local Authority to pay a support worker to help her cook meals, shop, keep her flat clean, deal with correspondence, go to medical appointments and get out and about. Without any warning or discussion, it stopped on the same day she was visited to 'check' she was receiving the right amount of benefits. A subsequent letter informed her that after the general living allowance was deducted from her benefits, there was enough income left to pay for her own care. The Government 'say' that she needs £x amount to live on then our Local Authority say she can live on less than half the benefit amount. It is very wrong and very soon you will be talking to someone who is affected by these assessments (parents of disabled adults, people with aging parents and/or people who need care). Please support this campaign to force Local Authorities to ignore disability benefits when assessing people's ability to pay for their own care so they can exercise choice and control over their lives.

The forums are made up from elected representatives from the 9 regions in England. These representatives talk to government and other Organisations such as the NHS & CQC to give the opinions and voice of people with a learning disability. Without the forums, the voice of people with a learning disability will be lost. We are worried that when the government stop supporting and listening to people with learning disabilities others may stop too. More people with a learning disability could end up isolated and alone with nowhere to turn. Please sign this petition and show our local MPs how important the voice of people with a learning disability is. We would really like them to speak up for the people in their communities that have #NoVoice. We want MPs to tell government that their local community think people with a learning disability should be included at a local, regional and national level. We think the Department of Health should reconsider funding the vital work of the forums. http://nationalforums.co.uk/

Workplaces that recognise unions tends to have better levels of pay, happiness and do provide better services to their users. National Museums Liverpool is a public service and should not be exploiting its workers, many of them only earning just about the minimum wage. Many employees of the NML Trading company are local young people and they deserve as much respect as their colleagues employed directly by the museums. As NMLT is fully owned by the museums, museum bosses should not pretend they cannot act or ensure better standards. Yes there have been budget cuts for museums but surely union recognition would not cost a penny and if workers were getting the real Living Wage and decent hours of work, they would be spending their wages in the local economy and not having to consider claiming benefits.

THE PETITION Rebecca Colpus's role as the Development Officer for the South West of England has been made redundant! The polio fellowship central office offered only limited support to the Groups in the South West beyond Bristol prior to her arrival. Rebecca has built up the southwest as a strong network of members connecting post polio survivors and providing them with resources that have been life saving and the demise of her role will be catastrophic! In addition the action directly contravenes the British Polio Fellowships Mission statement! This is the British Polio Fellowships Mission Statement:- "The British Polio Fellowship seeks to empower and support all people in the UK living with the effects of Polio and PPS by: Actively campaigning in support of their rights and needs and those of their carers Providing information, welfare and support to enable people to live full independent and integrated lives and being the first resource on Polio and Post Polio Syndrome Supporting a Regional / Branch / Group structure that enables mutual support amongst members to be carried out in a caring and inclusive environment Raising the profile of The British Polio Fellowship to enhance its effectiveness and to seek out all those who may benefit from our services Developing world-wide alliances with other Polio and Post Polio groups for the mutual benefit of all our members The British Polio Fellowship is committed to supporting and developing its staff and volunteers to the most effective use of its resources."

Portsmouth City Council is proposing to slash the funding for trade union secondments, funds which release trade union representatives from their day jobs in order to represent members, offer guidance and negotiate on behalf of all Council staff. Portsmouth City Council is legally obliged to pay trade union reps for the time they spend representing the workforce, but properly funded secondments simplify arranging time off and cover. By slashing secondment funding the Council will increase costs, create long delays in resolving workplace issues and expose themselves to legal challenges. The trade unions themselves have offered to negotiate with the Council and put forward their own suggestions for reducing costs but these were rejected. It is a false economy as by removing from the budget the relatively small costs of providing the secondments, the Council will increase its overall expenditure. They will be exposed to costly Employment Tribunal and personal injury claims which would otherwise have been prevented through the guidance and involvement of seconded representatives; statutory formal procedures will take longer to complete as the Council fails to find trade union stewards available to participate; collective agreements formed by employer and trade unions on behalf of the staff, which benefit both the Council and the employees, will not be reached as trade union representatives are unlikely to be easily released by their local manager to work on these or get their existing work covered in their absence. At a time of unprecedented job losses in the public sector the Council wants to remove the protection, reassurance and independent advice that Council staff receive from their trade unions. Portsmouth City Council is one of the largest employers in the city, it needs it seconded trade union representatives to function. By signing this petition you can show your support for the Portsmouth City Council staff and their elected trade union representatives and help us fight this politically motivated attack by the Council.

With homelessness increasing across the UK and Northampton we should be dealing with the causes and spending money providing shelter, food and helping folks out of this situation. People asking for food and money are usually in need of society's help not punishment. People not in this situation are damn lucky though with societies safety nets being burnt by this government we may be far from being homeless or in need, so please support this petition.

The NHS is the embodiment of British values, free healthcare to all at the point of access. Social Care is entwined in healthcare. We need to stop the collapse of the NHS and the Social Care system now, and the only way we can do this is by putting enough money into the system to allow it to work. Telling the local councils to raise money through local taxes is not enough. This is a national problem for a national service, and it needs more money raised through taxes.

We already know that the STP suggests over 12% of beds being cut, closure of the General hospital, maternity services and community hospitals. If hospital beds are cut without investment in social care, district nursing, mental health care and General Practice then the pressure on the costs of running these services will result in poorer care for the local community. These changes threaten to create NHS job losses when the service is already understaffed, increase local unemployment, and restricts choice and accessibility for patients. It will also place a greater reliance on family members to care for sick relatives at home. It is important that no further pressures are put on social care and that the community are properly consulted on changes to their National Health Service.

People need public toilets, the closing of them would be bad for public health, city centre trade, tourism and public events

Statistics published by the ONS in July 2016 show that the mortality rate in England and Wales increased by 5.7% in 2015. This was equivalent to an extra 27,000 deaths, the biggest annual rise since 1968. Rates were notably higher at ages 75 and over for both males and females in 2015 compared with 2014. In fact, the death rate has increased year on year since 2011 (with the exception of a 1.1% fall in 2014), indicating the reversal of a long term trend of falling death rates which began in the 1970s. Danny Dorling, an Oxford University professor and an adviser to Public Health England, said: “When we look at 2015, we are not just looking at one bad year. We have seen excessive mortality - especially among women - since 2012 ….. I suspect the largest factor here is cuts to social services - to meals on wheels, to visits to the elderly …” Social services budgets have been badly affected by reduced grants from central government, which have been cut by 36% since 2011. Furthermore, as noted by the Guardian (14th November 2015): “Councils in northern, urban cities and London boroughs with high levels of deprivation predominantly run by Labour have seen their budgets cut by almost 10 times the amount lost by mostly Tory-administered authorities in rural southern England.” The precedent for a UN inquiry into violations of human rights caused by government spending cuts was established in October 2015, when, at a closed hearing in London, the UN launched an investigation into alleged violations of disabled people’s human rights in the UK. The inquiry’s findings will be published in 2017.

Netherton high street have lollipop persons we have a high intake of traffic and not having these patrols in place during the start and end of school could end up someone getting seriously injured or killed netherton NEED these patrols

Kent Support and Assistance as it was called (KSAS), a Government Scheme funded £2.8 million pound in its first year and millions since, has just recently had removal the information of its phone service with the web page edited slightly to remove the multi million scheme's name too. You can only find information on the scheme by typing 'help in a crisis' or something similar into the KCC search bar with it's new name 'Home essentials in a Crisis'. The page has its header name changed and their number removed but is other wise the same. This seems to also be the case with other essential council services whereby you have to report/claim for help online not taking into consideration the vulnerable and those without internet access or the know how to use this method, the only choice given. This is something us a non funded organisation fill the faps with as they refer clients to us when turning people down for help was not informed of, nor any other sign posting agency we lisise with. We are already seeing the rise in cases coming to us before this at our Thanet 7 day Food Bank, non funded and run by community, something we have had to take the demand for with errors to this KCC service since it began in Spring 2013 following the abolishment of the DWP's social fund's Crisis Loans and Community Care Grants. As an organisation, we have previously fought to get waiting times down in their first year which was proven to be productive after being asked to meet with the scheme's commissioner when we swapped figures on how many people Kent County Council were helping in Thanet compared to our non funded 7 day food bank. The figures were shocking Our concerns were acted on after myself and vice chairman Robin were asked to meet the commisioner of the scheme and his colleague who travelled to meet us from Maidstone after we voiced our growing concerns through several channels Waiting times were at least 14 days often longer for a decision on helping with emergency food, gas and electric, by which time their situations had largely started to sort themselves but claimants were still receiving food and fuel from KSAS after we had supported them through their hardships within 24 hours which even the clients acknowledged to be a waste of the council money. The commissioner, Hugh Martyn listened to what we provide non funded and he called me the 'Gap Filler', he asked what we see as the need here in Thanet and was quick to act with waiting time reduced to a matter of days rather than weeks within weeks. This was funded £2.8 million pound in the spring of 2013 with further millions in funding year on year following from Central Government to provide a service to the people in need from Maidstone to the whole of Kent. Right now, the people of Kent are being let down hugely yet again. We will be gathering more figures and FOI's into exactly how many services have had their phone contact service removed. **If you would like to get involved or would like to share your story, please send us an email to [email protected] or [email protected] Kerry Keating and Robin Vaughan Lyons