The existing school funding model is unfair. The ten best funded areas in England will receive an average grant of £6,297 per pupil this year, compared to an average of just £4,208 per pupil in the ten most poorly funded areas. It means that schools around the country that are similar can get very different budgets, and children with the same needs can receive very different levels of financial support depending on where they go to school. Gloucestershire (including Cheltenham of course) is one of the worst-funded authorities in the country and is a member of F40, a group made up of poorly funded local authorities and has been making the case for a fairer funding system. Ministers have recognised the problem and promised to address it. We welcome this, together with the Government's confirmation that the additional £390 million awarded in 2015/16 as a “down payment” towards fairer funding will be included in the funding baseline for future years. We are now looking to the Government to deliver a truly fair funding settlement. At a time of spending restraint it is more important than ever that funding is allocated based on need. F40 has come up with a formula which would see the funding cake shared much more fairly. This has received a positive response from funding experts at the Department for Education. The f40 proposals would: • introduce a new national formula, based on a clear rationale and geared towards improving educational standards across the country; • include core entitlement at a pupil level, reflecting different needs and costs at various key stages; • use factors to reflect pupil level needs beyond the core entitlement, including deprivation and special educational needs, and reflect the needs of small schools that are necessary in a local authority’s structure; and • continue to use Dedicated Schools Grant, with blocks for mainstream schools, high needs and early years. Local authorities would be free to move funding between the blocks. We believe this formula can help deliver a solution. We want the children in our schools to continue to have a broad range of subjects to study, good resources to use, well maintained buildings, reasonably sized classes and excellent pastoral support. Fairer funding is integral to all of this, and we urge the Government to deliver it.

We the undersigned wish to express our concern that UNISON has not been given an opportunity to have a seat on the BBC 1 Question Time Panel over the last 5 years. Other Trade Union leaders have been given a seat on the Question Time Panel. Considering UNISON is the largest public sector union with 1.3 million members, this refusal to allow UNISON a chance to sit on this panel is unacceptable for a publicly funded broadcasting organisation. We are asking for a statement that the BBC rectify this omission and publicly announce that UNISON will be on future Question Time programmes.

I am 14 and waiting to get diagnosed. I have been on the waiting list for 7 months but I hear now it is 12months. It is affecting my school and home life. I have made it onto BBC South East Today

The NHS is internationally envied for its clinical excellency, efficiency and moral courage. Following the purchaser provider split and changes under New Labour in the late 1990's, the introduction of private contracting has diverted profits from services out of the NHS into wealth creating companies. Subsequently healthcare professionals and patients have seen and felt the NHS change for the worse. Since this Conservative party came into government they have undertaken steps to undermine the financial viability and safety of care provided by the NHS through an ideological choice of chronic underfunding. To quote Noam Chomsky, "that's the standard technique of privatisation: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital". They are now targeting staff and junior doctors. Following negotiations with the BMA doctors union, the department of health offered an unacceptable contract which would reduce patient safety, increase junior doctor fatigue, reduce recognized out-of-hours commitment, and significantly reduce take-home pay. When junior doctors refused the governments precondition to accept ALL of these proposals as a basis to a final contract as a condition of restarting negotiations, the BMA found themselves accused of ‘walking away’ from the table and informed that the contract would simply be imposed upon them in August 2016. Junior doctors, side by side with other healthcare professionals, work in an increasingly pressurised and under-resourced setting, and are known as the medical workhorse of the NHS. Their current working pattern is antisocial and labour intensive, as anybody who lives with or is friends with a junior doctor will know. Tiredness is compounded by a sense of disenchantment, which may explain why these professional healthcare groups did not feel energised enough to understand or stand up to the government on their introduction of the Health and Social Care Act in 2012. Legislation which is leading to the erosion of the NHS in the hands of a Jeremy Hunt, who prior to his appointment as health minister wrote of this ideological support for privatisation of the NHS. Junior doctors now face a situation where their self-perceived head to the ground and carry-on grafting attitude is being rewarded by a contract which is estimated to lead to a startling 20-40% reduction in take home wages depending on speciality, and longer and less protected shifts. The new system would provide us with the assurance of a 20 minute break per 11 hour shift worked. Fatigue from grueling shifts are acknowledged to cause impaired performance, a sobering and concerning fact for patients. We as junior doctors accept that our pay has declined against inflation for years. However, we are asking that this government's ideological CHOICE to devalue our profession, and take money and morale from junior doctors, when the financial privileges freedoms of the very rich and financial sector are protected, be acknowledged and challenged. We oppose government ministers with personal wealth of millions using our wages, which when compared to other peers with similar backgrounds in university and post-graduate years in training are modest, as another excuse to paint the NHS as 'unaffordable'. An NHS which is acknowledged as excellent in the care it delivers, and one of the most efficient services on the planet. This Junior Doctor contract campaign must form part of a wider effort to oppose the overarching plan to ultimately do away with the NHS. As things stand, in 20 years, I as a junior doctor will be working as a private consultant for a private health provider, possibly earning more than an NHS consultant, but paying for my own and my families healthcare in times of greatest vulnerability. I would not chose to be treated by, or treat on behalf of, private companies and insurance merchants for whom profit is the primary concern. A great many who earn less than me may go without the best chances of surviving illness due to their bank balance. I reject that future. I wish to work proudly as an NHS doctor, in the United Kingdom. I believe that patients also wish to be treated by a trustworthy NHS rather than a private company. An NHS staffed by motivated, valued and supported professionals and not by profit. Please sign this petition to support junior doctors, the NHS, and the public.

The Government is currently preparing its Spending Review for the next 5 years and adult education is under threat. Without continued Government support for adult education, many courses across the country will simply not be sustainable and will disappear. Thousands of hard working and hugely motivated adult students will be denied the chance to improve their lives. We need you to help fight to protect this investment in our people and our communities. Please sign this petition. This campaign is being led by the Workers' Educational Association - the UK's largest provider of voluntary adult education - for and on behalf of everyone involved in adult and community learning.

London and Quadrent over the years have gone from being a caring organisation providing social accommodation to those in need. It seems however that in recent years they have become very much about making profit, investing in redevelopment homes that are part buy/rent. They have been very underhand and lied on several occasions to long term residents of the small estate in Sydenham SE26 and seem to be railroading this development through Lewisham Council.

Until the locals decide upon a solid direction we can facilitate we are; creating an urban garden in the front of the building, constructing a free library/bookshop and free shop, organising free workshops/Skill share's and teaching trade and also providing a free cafe/space to come and just have a chat. We would like to create a housing co-operative within the community driven framework. We intend for this to empower disadvantaged young people to take control of their lives in a secure, exciting and dynamic manner. All within a voluntarily sustained social centre. Creating a 3-Dimensional community hub!

Junior doctors are on the front line of the NHS, working long hours with few breaks, meeting huge demands, and regularly making life changing decisions. From new graduates up to senior registrars, we cover a wide range of roles in patient care and many have over a decade of experience and numerous qualifications. Despite earning a wage that is already lower than many university graduates who spend less time in training and have less responsibility, the government has decided to introduce a new contract from August 2016. This would mean working more hours, expected to exceed 90 hours per week, removal of safeguards that currently prevent hospitals forcing doctors to work extra hours unpaid, and reduction in salary. This will lead to hospitals being run by doctors who are exhausted, demoralised and therefore not safe to look after patients. The government have chosen the easiest target in the healthcare work force to impose this unfair new contract on, and are depending on their compassion and goodwill to continue working despite making working conditions worse. They are using an empty promise of providing a "7 day NHS" to make people believe healthcare professionals do not provide services at the weekend. If this is allowed to continue the same treatment will be given to senior doctors and eventually other healthcare professionals such as nurses, radiographers, health care assisstants to name a few. Ultimately this will lead to hospitals staffed with employees who are overworked, underpaid and unhappy, or who have to leave their job for one with a wage they can survive on. The effect this will have on patient care is unthinkable. With current demands for emergency services, GP appointments, waiting times for elective surgery etc already at an all time high, this change will inevitably make things worse for staff and patients. Avoidable sickness and death rates are predicted to rise, particularly for those who cannot afford health insurance and medical fees. This is one of several moves supported by the conservative government, many of whom have stocks in private medical firms, which will culminate in the dstruction of the NHS. This paves the way for them to privatise health care in England. The same people have caused a media blackout, to prevent this hitting the headlines and keeping the public in the dark. Every single one of us and our loved ones will seek medical help eventually, so we have a responsibility to prevent this from happening. Sign this petition, write to the government with your views, make this problem known as widely as possible. Tell the government their treatment of hardworking junior doctors and the resulting detramental effect on the NHS is unacceptable. If the worst happens and the junior doctors take industrial action, they need your support and for you to understand it is as much in the publics interests as their own. Healthcare isn't a privilege for the rich who can afford it, it is a right for everyone in this nation. Earning a wage that reflects your level of training, hours worked and responsibility held is also a right that is about to be revoked for junior doctors. Please sign and help now

As stated above there are many people that find it very difficult to walk to bus stops outside Zebon Copse, especially in very bad weather.

This campaign is now calling for the present owner of Castle Toward, Argyll & Bute Council, to protect this treasured Scottish icon from development. We want and seek to work together to restore the Castle, to be the flourishing hub for youth arts and sport that it once was. This campaign will demonstrate that within the ethos of Culture for Life, this project can attract funding from Scotland, the UK and further afield. From renowned conductor Sir Simon Rattle to Andy Scott, sculptor of the world famous Kelpies, our campaign has united more than 100 artists, musicians, and actors to tell personal stories of how their time at Castle Toward proved career defining. This new and independent campaign is not aligned with any political interest or previous activity. Its aims are simply to bring prosperity, increased visitor footfall, credit and artistic prominence to Argyll and Bute. Please visit our website for further information: www.iheartcastletoward.com

We're going to see Iain Duncan Smith next month and we want to take this petition with us with as many names as possible. You may not get why we're so wound up about it. Let me share a few stories (all real, local people). Before I do, lets just remember what tax credits are for. They are contributions from the government towards the cost of ofsted registered childcare so that work is possible. Many users of tax credits are single parents but many are also in couples. They are for people for whom work would not be possible without assistance towards childcare (which by the way has to be paid one month in arrears and is subject to fines for late payment). One woman was told that her tax credits would stop because her daughter doesn't exist. The fact that said daughter was crying in the background whilst her stressed and bewildered mother was trying to sort it out whilst wondering how she was going to pay for childcare was irrelevant. Another woman was told that her tax credits would be cut to £85 a month (a contribution towards an £800 childcare bill for 2 children representing well over half of the whole family's take home pay.)This was because concentrix concluded that a previous childcare provider had not been ofsted registered and therefore this lady was in debt to them for falsely claiming help towards childcare that year. Of course the provider had been ofsted registered, we may never know what information concentrix used to reach their conclusion but our member had to shoulder the full responsibility of proving her case, all the while on reduced tax credits and even had to arrange a meeting with her employer to explain that work would not be feasible if she couldn't prove her case. The member is now vindicated but the stress she was wrongly put under was extremely serious and unnecessary. Another member was subject to a thorough investigation of her circumstances after which concentrix reached the bizarre conclusion that her total childcare costs for 2 children were £4 a week....totally validates any claim that the government and their agencies are out of touch with real life...if such a cheap provider exists I want their details! I could go on....case after case, story after story - already vulnerable people being made to feel desperate, hopeless and quite frankly criminalised. Please, if you agree with us, sign and share to say this is not OK. Perhaps there's a case to be made for people to be investigated as benefit fraud happens - but the way it is being done is unnecessarily negatively impacting people who could do without it!

You know when it's lunch time and you are walking down the street, wondering what to eat, and you stumble across either a McDonalds or a freshly made falafel from the market? What is your gut instinct? Which one do you choose? Falafel, right...? Because McDonalds is pumped full of pesticides, chemicals & toxins and NOBODY wants that inside their body... again, am I right? Well luckily you had a choice here. You could have chose either the toxic waste or the delicious, freshly made, goodness. You had a choice. Well the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) is taking away our freedom of choice. What this agreement means is that the standard of food quality in our supermarkets will degrade. Meat, Vegetables, Fruit - the essentials - will be GM'd, pumped full of chemicals & injected with antibiotics. The British Government want to lower its standard of food by creating an agreement with the US to implement their standards. So remember that choice between McDonalds and Falafel? Well, now it's tea time and you have no choice other than to eat McDonalds for dinner. We want Bristol to be free from this hell, do you? If so, Stand Here for Change. https://www.facebook.com/Standhereforchange?fref=ts http://www.iatp.org/documents/10-reasons-ttip-is-bad-for-good-food-and-farming