Each year we support 500 Edinburgh families and we are parents ourselves. We support any family that needs our service - this includes many parents of children with complex needs, life-limiting conditions, or children on the Paediatric High Dependency Unit in hospital. We are a great service saving the tax-payer hundreds of thousands each year by providing early intervention. Here are some heartwarming quotes from parents who have used our service: ‘At a time when I could hardly think straight all of the people I dealt with at Kindred were exceptionally compassionate but also extremely efficient and full of helpful advice and support.’ ‘I felt very alone prior to the contact with Kindred, and overwhelmed by the consequences of our son’s illness.  They understood and offered me free counselling which saved my sanity and probably my marriage.  I am now much more able to cope.  Thank you.’ I always get emotional trying to explain how Kindred have helped me and my family.  Knowing you have help / support should you need it is incredibly reassuring and any / all questions I have are answered 150%.  Couldn’t ask for better support.  Thanks.’ 'The service is like a breath of fresh air.  To be told the diagnosis of your child's condition turns your world upside down.  Then to be put in contact with a service such as Kindred where the staff understand how you are feeling and are there to help is amazing.' 'I love coming to the groups - it is a bit like a fix of normality in my crazy life.  It is very important that the leaders have experience of parenting a child with additional needs and are willing to be open about their own experiences - one of us and understanding of our needs and struggles ..... '

Sexual health services that are free and open to anyone who needs them have been the keystone of world-leading sexual health care in England for over a hundred years. They provide essential functions such as testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, free contraception including emergency methods such as the ‘morning after pill’ and long-acting methods, as well as sexual health promotion, advice on STI/HIV prevention and outreach services across the community. These services are free to access, confidential and are there for everyone, including those who are the most vulnerable in society. However, sexual health services, which are no longer funded from the NHS, are facing unprecedented threats as a result of damaging and persistent Government cuts to local authority public health budgets, from which they are now funded. These cuts come at a time when more people are accessing sexual health services than ever before, record levels of STIs are being diagnosed, difficult to treat antibiotic-resistant strains of infection are being detected and the need for quality contraception and HIV testing is more important than ever. Therefore, it is essential that the Government ensures appropriate public health funding is made available for local authorities so we are able to address these challenges head-on and continue to provide the care that people rely on. Failure to do so represents the falsest of false economies and will jeopardise the sexual health of both individuals and society as a whole. Sexual health services are for everyone - you do not know when you, your friends, loved ones or family may need them - so join with us now to pledge your support and help ensure that services receive the backing they require. Organisations endorsing this campaign include: - British Association for Sexual Health and HIV - Beyond Positive - British HIV Association - British Medical Association - Brook - Family Planning Association - Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare - Gay Men's Health Collective (MEN R US) - GMFA (the gay men's health charity) - The GMI Partnership - iwantPrEPnow - LGBT Foundation - LGBT Consortium - METRO Charity - NAM - National Aids Trust - National HIV Nurses Association - The NAZ Project - PositivelyUK - Prepster - Royal College of Nursing - Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists - Saving Lives - Society of the Social History of Medicine - Sophia Forum - Spectra - Terrence Higgins Trust

This urgently needs to be questioned and stopped in its tracks before this motion to take away more disabled peoples human rights through the removal of their rights to make decisions for themselves away. The person who knows most about what is best for themselves is they themselves. It seems that this government wants to remove those rights and thus take more and more control of disabled peoples rights from them and families and to place this in the hands of those who have no knowledge or care for those people. My own son was bruised and abused in a care placement he is now returned home to me on these grounds that he should have the right to decide for himself where he wants to live and be cared for. The more we allow the rights of vulnerable people to be removed from the family and chosen placements without their own rights being taken into account. We are then moving further into a controlled state without knowledge or recognition of this, as we fail to be alert to what is being passed through parliament and thus we unwittingly allow this to affect the rights the vulnerable, of families, children, the elderly and the disabled. How we treat our vulnerable and disabled is a measure of who and what we are as a society. Nobody knows what will happen to any one of us and we must remain vigilant so we too do not lose our rights to chose what happens to us as we grow older. This has to be a worldwide protest for all rights to be recognised, even though it begins in the UK parliment. It begins here and we have to make sure that ending the rights of vulnerable people ends here.

Because it will isolate the Adults who use these Day Centres and they will have nothing to look forward to also they will miss their friends and activities and the independence they have and it will stop Parents/Carers having much needed respite and time to their self. My daughter Marie who is affected by closures has fought back after 2 strokes caused by a rare disease called Moyamoya will with my help fight these 2 closures to secure a long term future and choice to attend the day centre to help in my independence and choices how I live my life which will benefit me. Day centre users pay a fixed price every month whether they attend or not either due to sickness or holiday they still have to pay for day centre

Currently Cheltenham, Tewkesbury or Gloucester do not have facilities accessible to citizens who have requirements of a more substantial nature than is achievable in even a standard accessible bathroom. This means we are limiting our counties resident’s ability to become “active citizens”, a Conservative Government initiative launched by David Cameron, in our largest civic centres. Facilities are available elsewhere in the county but only within the Forest of Dean and Stroud valleys area. Our main shopping and social destinations are unable to meet the most basic needs of some of our residents and instead revenue and experiences that could be consumed in the City are currently being delivered in Bristol and the surrounding retail spaces. This means families friends and carers are being excluded from our City and its culture. We would like to see Gloucester set an example for the larger towns in the County to follow and ensure that our citizens and economy benefits from the inclusion of all. It is estimated there are 230,000 people in the country who would have facilities adapted to assist them in their homes. There is a real requirement for inclusion outside of that environment. A rough estimate would have Gloucestershire with about 3500 people who require resources available to them in our City Centre to be able to plan a visit to our shops, theatres, or communal spaces for more than a couple of hours at a time. Several other councils across the country have installed and endorsed the fitting of these facilities, with The City of York being one of 5 Conservative led councils to commission them. We believe that there is a case to be answered by the council for the incorporation of a Changing Places toilet in the new developments within Gloucester. Louise Ellis, one of our cities parents whom has adopted children with special needs, is experiencing the effects of this lack of incorporation when travelling with her two children. Both her 9 year old daughter Chloe and her twin brother Jack suffer with Cerebral Palsy, with her son Jack requiring more robust assistance than his sister. Changing a child on the cold floor of a car to prolong a trip into the city center is not unusual and indeed Bristol is the preferred destination for Louise's trips out. Many people suffer with illnesses and disabilities that require facilities that are better equipped than standard disabled toilets. These requirements, such as a changing table capable of supporting an adult, hoist equipment to lift someone safely from chair to toilet or space around the facilities to allow two people to assist, are not uncommon. Tables are placed in baby changing facilities as parents need more than a bare floor to change their child's nappy, yet this is what we expect parents and carers to do with their children and loved ones. The lack of a suitable facility is not the only problem with Gloucester for Louise and her children. The disabled toilets which are available, whilst wholly inadequate, are still their best option. In our City however they are often located on a floor below or above ground, Debenhams is located on the first floor whilst M&S is in their basement, placing another obstacle in their path. The cost of a toilet to be included into a new build is approximately 15k. Conservative councils have led the way in terms of ratification for the CP scheme, backing the organisation more than another other individual party in terms of case studies. This is largely due to the inclusion of these spaces doing a lot to help councils meet the goals of the Active Citizens program and it has been seen as favourable when the City of Culture awards are evaluated. If Gloucester is serious about their bid for City of Culture 2025 then we would like Gloucester to adhere to the principals of the “Active Citizen” initiative and help us deliver a city accessible to all. There are a number of new developments planned -in the new bus station for example- that would have been accessible to shoppers and travellers and as yet do not have plans for a 'changing place' toilet in.

It is important because disabled people deserve more access to the world the same as everyone else.

We are all calling on the Chancellor to ring-fence mental health spend in his Autumn Budget. The government has announced additional funding for mental health - £1.4 billion over five years to deliver the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and £1.25 billion for the Future In Mind programme for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. This money is a step forward but is only a fraction of what mental health services need to meet growing demands. Across England, for the second year in a row, over half of Clinical Commissioning Groups – the bodies that decide how money is spent locally - say they plan to reduce the proportion of their budget spend on mental health. This is unacceptable. The money needed to transform mental health services and save lives is just not reaching the front line. Waiting times are too long, people are not receiving the best care in the community and people are having to travel too far for in-patient services. On November 22, in his Budget, the Chancellor Philip Hammond can make a difference and ring-fence mental health budgets to make sure that the promised money actually reaches local mental health services. Please sign this petition today to urge the Chancellor to ring-fence mental health spending on November 22 and ask your friends and family to sign too. Together, we can make a difference. #mentalhealthmatters https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/public38/images/mp.gif

Xplore are proposing two alternative routes to the 32/33 bus which would cut out Forfar Road. Their consultation highlights that the route could also stay as it is. You can see the proposed two route changes at this link http://nxbus.co.uk/files/NXDundee/misc/FintryRouteReview-PublicConsultationDocument.pdf This re-routing would severely restrict people's ability for travel: • make it harder for people with disabilities and older people with mobility problems to catch a bus and get out of the house, potentially leading to loneliness and social isolation • safety concerns of having to work through a scheme to get to/and from the bus • get to and from work • visit friends and relatives • access education and training • access to hospitals, doctors, dentists and other medical services • access to leisure activities including town and countryside locations Fewer buses on the road will mean more traffic congestion and delays which affects all of us.

On 30 October 2017, NHS Lanarkshire voted to close Douglas Ward at Udston Hospital. This decision was made without proper public or patient consultation. The ward provides crucial lifeline care to patients with complex health needs. Many of the patients have lived there for over ten years and now consider this their home, as do the relatives who visit. Its closure means that its patients will move further away from family and friends, and have less contact from loved ones and the additional support they desperately need.

In hindsight, it is recognised that the Beeching closures in the 1960s went too far as many larger settlements lost a very valuable lifeline to the national rail system leading to an explosion in motor vehicles for leisure and work and an equal increase in new road expansion and air pollution. The City Region hubs of commerce are now gridlocked in the peaks leading to high levels of air pollution from wear dust and exhaust emissions. 430,000 tons of tyre dust alone is produced annually from 50 million tyres. Particulate size less than ten microns become airborne and inhaled by all mammals and are small enough to reach the deepest parts of lungs causing pulmonary and coronary disease. Tyre wear dust also has a carcinogenic and mutatogenic effect on tissue cells contributing to 50,000 premature deaths annually from road traffic pollution. Many closed railway lines within urban areas are now essential in reducing city and town centre congestion and pollution. It is a known fact that bus usage has reduced at the same rate as rail footfall has increased in the last ten years to a point where more rail routes are desperately needed to increase capacity and opportunity to use rail. Rail is the preferred mode of transport in urban and inter urban travel and as such can encourage modal shift away from car by reducing travel time. There has been an increase in new rail route investment in Scotland and Wales, in the last fifteen years but not in England outside London. The Campaign for Better Transport has identified routes in every Region in England that would benefit local communities by being reinstated increasing connectivity and social inclusion with the rest of the UK. The Government would do well to take notice of Campaign for Better Transport's list of preferred reinstatements.

Hello everyone my name is Samantha, I am currently 30 years old and I live at home with mum and dad. As you can see from my photo I am in a wheelchair, I was wondering if you can help me out. My mum and career Hannah have started this petition to help me but not only myself but other people like me having the same problem that live in the county borough. As it stands at the moment there is no policy in place that allows the council to put disabled parking bays outside residential properties and I want to change that if I can in any way possible. As it stands at the moment we are struggling to park my car on many occasions outside my home, this may not seem a big thing to you but to myself and other disabled people it is. We have a sign outside our home saying that there's a disabled person living here but that doesn't stop them. If this policy got put into place and I had a disabled parking space situated outside the house it would mean the world to me. As I love going out in my car but at the moment I cant go out later on in the evening, a Saturday afternoon or any time at all on a Sunday, which being able to go out more and do more stuff than what I can do now. I hope that I am able to get as many signatures as possible to change this sooner rather than later. I hope you can all sign and share this cause one signature can make all the difference, thank you.

Because he disabled people like myself have accidents and are unable to stand to be cleaned up or changed they cold fall or abuse injury to those who are trying to help us