The WRAG is a group of people with lived experience of mental health conditions. They have experience, past and present, of using mental health services, receiving benefits and working. This manifesto is supported by North East together (NEt), the North East regional network for people with lived experience of mental health conditions. Work capability assessments are part of a rigid system which relies on the assumption that just because a person can force themselves to carry out tasks, be around people and cope with unexpected events then it means they can and should do that in the workplace. It does not take into account the way that mental health is a fluid, uncertain concept and that a timeline of recovery cannot be predicted in the way that one recovers from a broken leg. We as human beings progress best when we feel able to go at our own pace and make choices about how we increase activity in a way that is meaningful to us. This is where work capability assessments get it wrong and are counter-productive. The tough regime and low benefits available on Job Seekers Allowance increase pressure on people with mental health conditions. JSA robs a person of their security as life becomes a constant battle to make appointments, attend meetings and apply for jobs in the fear that if they don't they will be sanctioned and their basic access to food and shelter will be compromised. This system creates a vicious cycle for us all; we feel disempowered, helpless and disrespected. It breeds anger, anxiety and meaninglessness. It disincentives progress and recovery. The DWP takes the view that the country needs to get back to work, and yet it has rolled out a vicious and unsupportive programme which delays people's recovery and made it harder for people to get back into the workplace. The DWP clearly has not responded to the evidence of increased mental health difficulties, reliance on food banks and suicide linked to the changes in the welfare system. They would probably claim that the system is working as unemployment has decreased, though how long can an employment boom based on zero hours contracts and self-employment last and it is at the expense of harming a huge number of people who are struggling with their health; who want to help themselves and yet are left feeling distressed and helpless in an unsupportive system that doesn't want to hear the shades of grey in "work capability". Our Manifesto What we, people with lived experience of mental health conditions, users of mental health services, carers, families and friends need: No More Work Capability Assessment • Create a fairer system: one that treats people with mental health and physical conditions equally. • Recognise that people cannot recover while living on or below the poverty line. • Stop sanctioning those affected by mental illness. Fund Services that Meet Our Need • Commission services that support wellbeing as well as respond at times of crisis. • Provide recovery focused services that provide continuity of care across all parts of our lives. • Encourage, stimulate and invest in services that are user led or co-produced. • Resource independent support for service users to be involved in the commissioning, design and improvement of the services they use. • Commit to parity of esteem between physical health and mental health care and make sure people with serious mental illnesses have the same life expectancy as those without. Support us in Meaningful Activity • Support us in activities that enable recovery. This could be via therapy, peer support volunteering, education or paid employment or something else. • Value our contributions to communities in the roles we choose. • Support to help us into employment should be available for as long as the individual needs it. Make Mental Health Everybody’s Business • Everybody has mental health. Promote wellbeing of mind and body. • Educate children about mental wellbeing in schools from starting school. • Promote programmes that encourage employers and employees to treat people with mental health conditions with more respect whether they are customers or members of staff. • Support people with lived experience to lead, deliver and be involved in these initiatives. • Make Workplaces More Mental Health Friendly by raising awareness of mental health conditions with managers and employees. Everyone has a place in society

Cancer patients in Staffordshire should know that the people caring for them are in the business of saving lives, not making money. There’s no justification for privatisation on this scale, ordinary people in Staffordshire haven’t been properly asked what they think, and if this deal goes through, we’ll be stuck with it for 10 years - and it could open the door for sweeping privatisation of our NHS across the country. As someone who lives in Staffordshire, I don’t want our healthcare in the hands of profit-hungry private companies. This contract is an untried, untested 10-year-long experiment and we can’t let this happen. If our CCGs don’t pull out of this deal, our money will be profiting shareholders rather than improving care. Let’s stop this in Staffordshire, and put the brakes on privatisation across the country.

1)The Breast Cancer Unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd , Bangor has been created over many years by a team of highly motivated , highly skilled and passionate staff that go above and beyond to offer the best care available to the patients and families of Breast cancer sufferers. It cannot be destroyed by this callous move. 2) Time, Distance and expense of travel for patients and loved ones make this move unacceptable . It removes support contact from patients who are already experiencing unbelievable fear, upset and pain . A major part of the repair and healing process during this time is provided by this support. It cannot be removed from the patient's reach as it destroys any concept that the NHS is there to treat and care for all members of the community.

This is important because the mismanagement within the NHS has reached epic proportions due to budget cuts and staff shortages. The staff that are there are so overworked that they are getting really exhausted, depressed and are looking for other avenues to get out despite their passion for the job at heart. In the last few years the system has deteriorated to such an extent that nurses feel that the current system is failing them. Nurses are currently 4 times more likely to commit suicide, and doctors twice likely to kill themselves, than people outside the healthcare profession - such are the current stress and depression levels in our healthcare system. I am appalled to see that bankers are getting millions in bonuses, while our humble nurses are being grossly exploited and are being taken advantage of their good and helpful nature. I think we as a nation need to at least treat them well and improve their working conditions here - they did not come into this profession to be PUNISHED. As a nation, we the people of United Kingdom, demand better working conditions for our healthcare staff.

The NHS is being taken apart. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 abolished the legal duty on the government to provide key NHS services in England, and took marketisation to a new level. We need a law to reinstate that legal duty, stop marketisation and privatisation, and to re-establish accountable public bodies. Without a law, the process now rapidly underway will continue. This is why barrister Peter Roderick and public health Professor Allyson Pollock drafted a NHS Reinstatement Bill in August 2014. This Bill was put out for consultation, and dozens of individuals and organisations responded. The consultation on the proposed NHS Reinstatement Bill ended in December 2014. Revised to take account of the consultation results, the Bill proposes to fully restore the NHS as an accountable public service by: -reinstating the government's duty to provide a comprehensive universal health service, -reversing 25 years of marketization in the NHS by abolishing the purchaser-provider split, -ending contracting, -making the NHS TTIP-proof and -re-establishing public bodies and public services accountable to local communities. You can find out more about the bill here: http://www.nhsbill2015.org/nhs-reinstatement-bill-new-version-published/.

My petition is to force the Health secretary Jeremy Hunt to publish the Stuart Rose report on NHS management before the general election. This is obviously a politically motivated cover-up as even the Tory head of the health select committee Sarah Wollaston said ” his department’s refusal to publish a damning report on NHS management before the general election was not acceptable”. Sarah Wollaston, a former GP who took over the chairmanship of the committee last year, said “it was not reasonable or right that a report by former Marks & Spencer boss and Tory peer Stuart Rose, which was commissioned by Hunt a year ago and completed in December, was being kept from the public”. The only reason for not publishing is that that Rose’s report is strongly critical of management systems in the NHS – findings that are potentially damaging for the Tories before an election in which the NHS is centre stage. The NHS is one thing that most people believe must be protect from the private sector and the Tory’s.

Morale is very low in the Ambulance service. Although they are one of the services responding to 999 calls they are NOT classed as an Emergency service and are paid less than Fire & Rescue staff or the police. The work they do should be properly recognised in the pay they receive. Recruitment and retention are major problems and staff shortages result in them frequently working well over their 12 hour shifts.

It is unacceptable that people have to run the gauntlet of smokers to get into some of the above buildings, It is unhealthy, unpleasant and totally off-putting, not to mention the attendant cigarette ends scattered around.

Barts Health NHS Trust is the biggest hospital trust in England, running six hospitals including Whipps Cross, Newham University and The Royal London. It has the biggest health PFI and the biggest deficit. We the undersigned note that: a) Barts Health NHS Trust is in financial crisis with a £93m deficit, the Chief Executive recently resigned, and pending reports on the quality of care and worsening A&E waiting times soon to be released; b) Barts Health NHS Trust is paying £43m a year in interest payments to private investors on the PFI contracts; c) This is a main cause of Barts Health’s deficit and its £58m of cuts last year, including the loss of 10% of posts and the downbanding of staff; d) The PFI contracts make our hospitals outsource key services (like domestics services and catering) to private providers; even when it is more expensive. Barts Health saved 7% of the costs of some services provided under the PFI (or £4m per year) by bringing them in-house. - Learn more about Barts PFI at www.peoplevsbartspfi.wordpress.com - Learn more about PFIs at www.peoplevspfi.org.uk

Mental health services in Sefton are currently provided by Inclusion Matters, a locally run company. Their staff provide a high-quality service. South Sefton CCG and Southport & Formby CCG have decided to commission the service from cheaper providers from April 2015. The contract for the service has been awarded to two organisations based outside Sefton: Cheshire and Wirral Partnership and Insight UK. Staff have now been informed that the new providers plan to make staff redundant. This is despite previous assurances being given by the providers to the CCGs that they would provide a service of the same consistency and quality. South Sefton CCG and South Formby CCG have made a poor decision based on cost, not quality of care. The decision will impact on jobs and on the accessibility and quality of the service. For the good of vulnerable people, committed staff and the local community, the CCGs should reverse their decision and put care before cost.

Hartlepool hospital has systematically been stripped of it's A&E department and virtually all of it's clinical and surgical services, on a vague promise that an alternative hospital would be built on land at Wynyard. Now, the North Tees and Hartlepool Trust, our local Hartlepool MP, Iain Wright and the Hartlepool Borough Council are all on public record saying this will never happen. It was completely foolhardy and indeed negligent of Hartlepool Borough Council to allow the sale of this land to happen under these circumstances. I believe it was complete madness to allow a perfectly good training hospital to be stripped of it's staff, resources, assets and have the very land it sits upon sold from under it, without a cast iron guarantee of a replacement. I feel that this has been done surreptitiously, without the prior knowledge, consultation or consent of the people of Hartlepool

It has been proven that alcohol consumption at Scottish football matches leads to increases in violence and domestic violence. The ban has the backing of leading anti-abuse charities and has made football family friendly and reduced cases of violence, it should not be reversed.