We are concerned about the following aspects outlined in the plan. • The reduction of A&E Departments from three to two. Wherever this closure maybe we believe that it will simply put further pressure on A&E departments in other parts of the county. • Closure of community hospital beds. • The further privatisation and fragmentation of NHS services within the country. • Closure of hospital departments putting further pressure on other services • The redeployment of staff which poses a risk to nurses and other health care professionals pay and terms and conditions. We believe that these proposals pose a direct threat to NHS services within the County and therefore we stand united in our opposition to these proposals. Please sign our petition to oppose these proposals and to save our NHS

In a recent article by GScene Magasine, it was advised that Brighton based HIV charity The Sussex Beacon faces the prospect of closing services, including its ten bed inpatient unit, following a reduction in funding it receives from the NHS. The Sussex Beacon provides specialist support and care to people living with HIV through inpatient and outpatient services. It helps hundreds of people living with HIV each year and was rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission in September. Changes to local commissioning arrangements have led to a reduction in funding from some statutory funders. The Sussex Beacon has already lost funding with further cuts likely to follow in the near future. The charity costs over £2 million a year to run and the Charity Trustees say they cannot continue to absorb these cuts. While many people living with HIV are now able to live long and healthy lives, there are still many who need specialist services. Last year The Sussex Beacon’s inpatient unit had 233 admissions and was full for the majority of the year. It provided over 2,000 bed nights, relieving pressure on both health and social care services in Sussex. Please use #SaveTheSussexBeacon when sharing to help build momentum and to let the Sussex Beacon staff see what you are doing to help

Kinship carers are family members (aunts, uncles and grandparents etc) that take care of children whose parents, can no longer take care of their children. This may be due to the parents having drug or alcohol dependencies, being abusive or otherwise unable to cope with parenting. Kinship carers are often the preferred choice by social services when they need to re-home a child because it maintains the children's connections with their families. However kinship careers and the children they look after receive very little or none of the support given to those in foster homes or care. Kinship carers alter their own lives to care for family members children and this is a sacrifice that needs acknowledgement. I know first hand the struggles associated with kinship care and many families including my own are left with little or no support. We are driven by love for the children and a huge commitment to improve an often poor early life. due to legislation children that are not "looked after" by local authority are not able to easily access support services and this needs to change. Our children have suffered the same emotional heartache and turmoil as any other child in care. They need to be counted and acknowledged too.

Since this Government was first elected in 2010 they have had an ideological agenda to attack the most vulnerable in society, The cuts to social care being one of them. Norfolk county council are proposing to make cuts to the sheltered housing warden service to balance their books in the coming year. The people who use this service are some of the most vulnerable in the county, It is absolutely vital in keeping these extremely vulnerable people in a safe environment and helping them lead more fuller, happier lives. The county council believe this will save money but it will not. In fact - A warden can keep 60 residents in a safe environment for 12 months for the same cost of keeping 1 resident in a larger home and still isolated. A warden costs around £450 a week servicing up to 60 residents. The cost of just one person going into a care home is around £600 per week. We urge the County Council to take in to account the social and economic benefits that this service provides and reconsider these proposed cuts.

Many people over 65 are members of the 'baby boomer' generation retired with good occupational pensions as well as the state pension, often living in warm comfortable houses which they bought on mortgages much cheaper than they are now. They don't need the £100 to keep warm but there are others less fortunate and often much younger who can't even afford to rent a property never mind own one and some of them are sleeping on the streets in the winter cold. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/07/one-in-six-pensioners-is-a-millionaire-official-figures-show/ Many retired people, like me, send the money to charity but others never get round to doing it. Many others will just feed it into their frivolous lifestyle without a thought about how it could do more good elsewhere. Perhaps if they were given the option by the DWP to send it to a good cause instead much more of this money could be sent where it could really make a difference. Nudge Theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge_theory) now being used by various government departments could possibly feed millions in this direction. Even better, since if you give to charity yourself with Gift Aid the government adds another 20%, perhaps they should send £120 for each person who selects the option. Obviously it will take some time for the government to set this up if we do persuade them; certainly not before the middle of next year. So if you are reading this and you are a pensioner like me who can easily do without the payment, and you haven't already sent it to a good cause, maybe you could send it to a deserving charity too?

An open letter from an 87-year-old lady who uses the centre: Dear people of Bicester, I've lived in Bicester for 50 years. My husband passed away 15 yrs ago. I have no family left and my mobility is not what it used to be. I attend the Bicester Health and wellbeing centre located near the garth park two days a week. This place is my only lifeline. I get to see friends and I get looked after so well that I really don't know where I would be without the place. Oxfordshire County Council are proposing to close this centre and others throughout Oxfordshire! What will I do? I will be stuck looking at four walls every day with no human contact. Who will prepare me a cooked meal, help me with my medications and just check my general health. I'm so upset that this is happening. I won't see my friends again. I will be all alone all day every day. Me and my husband have worked hard all our lives, paid our taxes and this is how vulnerable people are being treated. You are all younger and we need you to fight for us as no one will otherwise. Please think of your elderly relatives and think what would they do if they didn't have you? I don't like being alone and it scares me to think this is now my future, being alone and vulnerable. Please help us in this fight to save the Bicester Wellbeing Health and Wellbeing centre. You or your relatives might need them one day!

28000 low income families have been underpaid in tax credits from 2011-2014. HMRC are refusing to pay monies owed. Caring for a disabled child is a full time job and often compels parents to give up work. Money and time are tight and checking the Government is paying what you are owed is one task too many. The denial of these tax credits has already caused great hardship. To receive it now would make an incredible difference to challenged lives.

I care for my elderly father on a full-time basis, the living wage is £7.20 an hour, but the government only pays me an allowance of £62.10 a week for over 35 hours work. That works out as less than £2 an hour. It's really hard to survive on this paltry amount. I’ve worked all my life, but unfortunately last November I had to stop work to care for my 83-year-old father. I care for my father for over 35 hours a week. It’s extremely hard going as I have to do everything for him, his shopping, washing his clothes, giving him his medication and taking him to hospital. As a carer you end up entirely devoting your time to someone else and are all trying our hardest for a paltry - 62.10 a week. The government have introduced a 'living wage' of £7.20 an hour, I want this to be extended to carers so people are paid fairly for the care work they do.

The Dover Soup Kitchen was founded by Steph Perrow in 1991, and their mission statement is that it is a resource for the homeless, vulnerable, elderly, lonely, and the needy. It provides free meals, hot drinks, clothes and bedding, and creates a sense of belonging and community. This soup kitchen helps many people every day without judgement or stigma it is a safe haven for many of the vulnerable in our town. It would be tragic if Dover lost this precious service especially in this age of austerity where more and more people are struggling, more people are losing their homes and many end up on the streets through no fault of their own. Please pledge your name to this petition so we can let DDC know that we will not stand for their actions and let's fight for those vulnerable people who cannot always make their voices heard. Thank you for reading.

Disabled people face many challenges daily. They face the reduction of support, training, employment opportunities. Daily they face discrimination, and now another reduction in ESA, which will have another negative impact on their daily lives. STOP this attack now!!!

These plans stem from REFORM and the Green Paper https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/work-health-and-disability-improving-lives/work-health-and-disability-green-paper-improving-lives You can further object to these plans here https://consultations.dh.gov.uk/workandhealth/consult/ The consultation ends February 2017.It is not clear what the Government's timetable for rolling out these changes are.I have heard reports that some disabled people are already being assigned to work coaches.The government has announced plans to employ a further 500 advisors( to work as work coaches).Trials are intended to go ahead next year when a certain number of claimants of the support group will be asked to attend work coach sessions. We have information that charities are being invited to work for the DWP.The mental health charity MIND have expressed an interest. http://mentalhealthresistance.org/ The government proposes to reduce the benefits of the severely disabled and to subject them to a punitive regime whereby they are forced to aim towards finding work whether they are able to or not. They will be forced to be subject to conditionality whereby they get paid benefits on condition that they attend work coach sessions ,if they do attend their benefits will be cut to JSA levels and governments propose that they can then be subject to sanctions like many unemployed people who are not ill suffer under already. This will affect seriously ill and disabled people,some of whom already are being found wrongly fit for work and have committed suicide. This is inhumane and violent treatment and abuse of incapacitated people. We cannot allow this nor allow the government to dress these proposals up as support for the disabled or any form of empowerment. It is designed to reduce the welfare budget by 12 billion and is part of government strategy to dismantle the welfare state. It is extreme far right policy not Conservatism. Please object to this and get all your friends to object to it. I am one of those affected by these changes, I am physically and mentally disabled having many chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypothyroidism and a mental illness and a spinal misalignment, I am also currently being investigated for possible uterine cancer. I cannot survive on JSA or work and any employer would consider me unemployable. Here is a link to a short video where Charlotte Pickles unveils the plans to attack disabled people and cut their financial support. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p6iBqsuiyk

It impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of so many claimants who have long term illness, disabilities or mental health issues. Article 3 of the Human Rights Act states that it is illegal to subject people to inhumane or degrading treatment. Althoughno causal link between Work capability assessments, deaths and suicides can be categorically proven , there is evidence of hundreds of deaths for people subject to benefit sanctions made after these assessments . Endthis inhumane practice now! Call upon the PM to abolish these degradinginhumane assessments now