It is important because as children their feet grow at significantly different rates and it is largely parents who have to pay for this. It is unfair that zero rate VAT stops at 6 1/2 whereas children as young as 11 or 12 can have size 8 or 9 plus. Once children are legally independent at 18 then this should attract VAT, but not before.

Many people, elderly or disabled, cannot climb in and out of a bath. In social housing if the bath has been removed then it has to be replaced at the end of a tenancy, even if it's been replaced by a modern walk-in shower although showers are acceptable in private housing. Please stop this law that came into force when showers did not exist. It's outdated, expensive and should be changed.

Cash strapped families with young children are already suffering with increased child care costs during the school holidays and to make it worse a lot of them can't afford a holiday abroad because the prices are so ridiculously high. They can shoot up hundreds of pounds over 24 hours! So I am petitioning the office of fair trading to try and get something done about this.

Currently if you are a university student and living in rented accommodation you can receive a maintenance loan. The councils in UK include this as an income when evaluating a housing benefit claim! I have also found out the even if you do not take out a maintenance loan the council includes it, so a student would have to take one out anyway. This is a loan to be paid back after graduation, not an income.

Daffodils Outdoor Nursery is a family run business which has just registered with Ofsted to provide childcare for children in the Arthingworth and surrounding areas. We are a unique nursery following an outdoor approach to learning and offering something different to families in the area. Someone has put in an application for permission to open a nursery directly opposite ours. It has come to our attention that a previous application for permission to build 27 houses was rejected, and that the change in application to incorporate a nursery is in fact a ploy to gain permission for a housing development. As a brand new business, we do obviously have concerns about the sustainability of two day nurseries in such a small village. But we also have concerns about the increased traffic more housing and another nursery will bring, as well as the change to the village that a large housing development will have. We urge you to please consider the application and the motives behind it, and to consider the detrimental affect it will have on not only us as small family run business that has not yet had a chance to establish itself, but on the beautiful village of Arthingworth as a whole.

Elmbridge is a community full of young families but we don't have a suitable playground in the area. We would like a play area where families can meet with friends and have picnics, with equipment that children of all ages can enjoy.

Right now, one in ten women lose their job when they have a baby here in the UK. This isn't acceptable. Pregnant women and mothers now face more discrimination at work than they did a decade ago according to research from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Here's what the Women and Equalities Committee recommended should become law: 1.The Government should publish a strong, specific communications plan for the awareness-raising and attitude-changing work it has agreed to undertake 2.Employers should have to do an individual risk assessment when they are informed that a woman who works for them is pregnant, has given birth in the past six months or is breastfeeding. 3.The right to paid time off for antenatal appointments should be extended to temporary and people on zero-hours contracts. All maternity rights should be reviewed to make them more equal regardless of the type of working contract you have. 4.The Government should increase protection from redundancy so that new and expectant mothers can be made redundant only in specified circumstances. (Paragraph 70) 5.The Government should review the three-month time limit for bringing a tribunal claim in maternity and pregnancy discrimination cases and should substantially reduce tribunal fees. 6.The Government should monitor access to free, good-quality, one-to-one advice on pregnancy and maternity discrimination issues and assess whether additional resources are required. Maternity rights should protect every woman in the UK. They should protect us from suffering discrimination in the workplace, due to pregnancy or maternity. They should make sure we aren’t passed over for promotion due to being on maternity leave, or that our employers block us from accruing any holiday whilst we’re off work. Let's make sure they our maternity laws are changed for the better, to protect all women.

this is important as it is the closest science can at present allow a lesbian couple to have a child as close to biologically both of theirs as possible. The non biological parent is carrying the biological parents child and feels like a part of the ''making our baby' process. At present it can cost lesbian couples thousands of pounds to do this and only the rich couples can afford it. Allowing the same rights to lesbian couples to that of heterosexual couples on NHS including Reciprocal IVF would allow the poorer couples the chance to also have a family.

Because we have generations of parents and children who are unable to cook and are not aware enough of how to provide healthy and nutritious food to their families, hence the health issues and sometimes misguided use of wages or benefit money on poor quality foods by some parents. It is the responsibility of more than the Education Minister. Jamie Oliver tried hard to help with this but even he needs more support to make it work.

To allow the safe passage of innocent men, women and children out of Aleppo, cease the slaughter of innocent civilians and medical staff and allow crucial supplies to these beleaguered people. There are over 60 million refugees globally, people displaced by war and under constant and brutal attack. In my trips to the Jungle in Calais ( France) I met and heard some of the harrowing stories of many innocent and decent people and marvelled at some incredible feats of bravery. All of these stories affected me deeply, especially those concerning the children - hundreds of unaccompanied minors. We all deserve the right to a safe home. The number of displaced and traumatised individuals worldwide is a disgrace and Aleppo is rapidly adding to an already unmanageable crisis. I like many millions of others, want this to stop.

There are a huge number of working families in the UK who spend an exorbitant amount of their income, sometimes up to 50%, on nursery fees alone. This can often result in one parent, usually the mother, simply not returning to work because of the expense. The loss of child benefit and other financial assistance to most working families has not helped. There is little incentive to return to work for many women because of the cost. Childcare costs will only spiral further with the increase in the minimum wage (affecting salaries paid to nursery staff). The government must help these families by providing this tax break.

Haringey has the expertise and resource available to provide a good home for many more than four families. It only remains for the Council leadership to submit a request to the Home Office. Why have they refused to do so? The VPR scheme was established by central Government in 2014, and in September 2015 David Cameron promised to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees during the lifetime of the current parliament. The refugees are currently in UNHCR camps in countries neighbouring Syria, and have particular vulnerabilities such as disabilities, or having survived torture, which mean they cannot safely stay in the camp environment. Each refugee is funded to a total of £20,000 over five years, which is channelled through the local authority to pay for the costs of resettlement. So, a family of five would be funded to a total of £100,000. Four such families would be funded to a total of £400,000. These funds are already available to provide important wrap around care and support to refugees arriving through the VPR scheme. Resettling refugees through the VPR scheme would give them the opportunity for a new start. But Cllr Kober and Haringey Council are still refusing to resettle even a small token number of refugees. They claim that central Government funding is inadequate and that they must wait until negotiations via the GLA are concluded. We agree that central Government’s role in dealing with the refugee crisis has been wholly inadequate, but there are funds available now. Eleven other London authorities – including Camden, Islington, Barnet, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, and Kingston – have started resettlements. We do not agree with using vulnerable refugees as political bargaining chips in negotiations. We must provide support for all those we can, right now. We call on Cllr Kober to take action immediately to bring this about. Four families by Christmas! Please sign the petition if you agree. Further information: https://refugeeswelcomeharingey.wordpress.com By signing this petition your details may be placed in the public domain (e.g. they may be published on the Council’s website).