Current medical data from a significant NHS England study shows that diabetics, especially Type 1 diabetes which is not directly related to obesity, are at significantly increased risk of dying from Covid 19 (more than 3 times higher than a non-diabetic for Type 1, and more than 2 times higher for Type 2). The risk is such that the leading diabetes charity Diabetes UK is calling for the government to ensure employers either continue to furlough diabetics or allow them to work from home even with the easing of lockdown restrictions. This plea has been ignored, and so thousands of diabetics will be forced back to work and to a massively increased risk of death. It is a blatant disregard for their own official medical data and for human life. My husband is a Type 1 diabetic and has been for over thirty years, very rarely missing a days work and contributing hugely to his workplace - I do not want to see him sent to his death because the government refuse to acknowledge the facts and put appropriate shielding advice in place.

Because deaf and hard of hearing people rely on lip reading

Dear Prime Minister I believe that the #CoronaVirusBill presents a real and present danger to the lives of disabled people. The government’s plans for disabled children and adults during the crisis are effectively rolling back 30 years of progress for disabled people. The government’s plans are to: remove disabled people’s rights to social care change the duties to meet children’s educational requirements to a ‘reasonable endeavours’ duty attack the civil liberties of disabled people and erode their rights to support I am asking the government to work closely with disabled people’s organisations and families of disabled people to protect their human rights in a time of crisis. I implore you to fight for the hard fought rights of disabled children, young people and adults and their families and to amend the schedules in the Bill that remove social care and SEND duties and threaten the civil liberties of disabled people. To explain my reasons for writing to you, please see my understanding of negative social implications of the #CoronaVirusBill on the lives of disabled people and their families: Yours sincerely Maxine Pieri What does it mean for disabled adults? The Bill suspends every duty in the Care Act, 2014, including the duty to meet the eligible needs of disabled people (Section 18) and their carers (Section 20). Under the #CoronaVirus Bill, Local Authorities will only have to provide care ‘if they consider it necessary’ for the purposes of avoiding a breach of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). There is no human right to social care or positive obligation under the ECHR to meet care needs. Other changes set to be introduced through the #CoronaVirusBill will allow health bodies to delay carrying out an assessment for eligibility for NHS continuing care What does it mean for disabled children and young people? Duties for young people transitioning to adult social care have also been suspended. The Secretary of State for Education will have power to disapply the duty on schools and other institutions to admit a child to a school where they are named on an EHCP. The Secretary of State will be able to vary provisions of the act, such as the core duty to procure provision set out in an EHCP, so instead of being an absolute duty it becomes a ‘reasonable endeavours’ duty, creating a lesser entitlement for up to two years. What about the Mental Health Act? The power to recommend individuals be detained under the Mental Health Act will be implemented using one doctor’s opinion instead of two, making it easier for people to be detained. The proposed bill will temporarily allow the extension or removal of time limits in mental health legislation which means individuals might be released into the community early, or find themselves detained for longer. Under section 5, emergency detention for people already in hospital would extend from 72 hours to 120 hours, and nurses’ holding powers would extend from 6 to 12 hours. Under sections 135 and 136, police powers to detain a person found in need of immediate care at a “place of safety” will extend from 24 hours to 36 hours. Under section 35/36, the cap on how long someone can be held in hospital while awaiting a report (currently 12 weeks) will be lifted. What about the rights of disabled people? Local authorities will have a duty to uphold disabled people’s human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, BUT the threshold for a breach, in terms of not providing care and support is high, which means that disabled people will be left without care and support. Lack of care and support will have a significant impact on disabled people’s well-being, but may not be considered to reach the threshold for their human rights to have been breached – they will NOT have a right to care and support. Sources of information Watch @stevebroach, Public Law Barrister talk about the impact of the Bill here: https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/steve-broach-public-law-barrister-on-the-coronavirus-bills-implications-for-disabled-children/ Read this Twitter thread for more information: https://twitter.com/JamieBurton29/status/1240781535340568577 Statement from National User Survivor Network: https://www.nsun.org.uk/News/covid-19-and-human-rights Current hashtags: #CoronaVirusBill #CoronavirusBillUK

On 19th March you and your fellow councillors will be voting on whether to make potentially devastating cuts to the special educational needs budget, which will impact children across the borough. We are calling on you to vote against it. We believe these cuts will prevent schools from properly supporting children with special needs, such as autism, Down’s Syndrome and learning difficulties, and in doing so negatively impact the education of all children in the borough. If these cuts are made, you risk failing in your legal duty under the Children and Families Act 2014 to provide access to education for all children – making the proposals both unethical and likely unlawful. What's more, we believe these cuts are a false economy. Reducing support for children with special educational needs means many will struggle to cope in mainstream education, resulting them falling out of the system completely either through exclusion or school refusal. Parents will then be forced to seek alternative specialist provision, which will cost the council far more in the long run. The proposal is to make a 10% cut to vital top-up funding for children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, as well as cutting the annual budgets of special schools by 1.5%, the maximum allowed by law. Waltham Forest Council will also introduce an unsustainable two-tier system in which new children requiring support face an, as yet, undefined new process. Previous attempts to cut the budget were abandoned after families and schools voiced concerns about how cuts would harm children’s education. Many schools remain uneasy about the cuts, choosing either not to vote or to abstain from voting for them. You should also take note of the high level of community support against cutting the special needs education budget. This is exemplified by the fact that £3,000 for the purposes of taking legal action against the Council was raised through crowdfunding in a matter of days. Furthermore, Waltham Forest SEND Crisis, a grassroots campaign group formed by families, carers and professionals, now has over 300 members. A young person has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability that calls for special educational provision to be made for them. This can include children with sight or hearing problems, Down's syndrome, learning difficulties, autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, anxiety, depression, as well as children with a physical need requiring additional equipment and support. The extra support children with SEND require is vital to them being able to access an education. You and the other Waltham Forest Councillors must vote against these cuts on 19 March, as they will hurt the children you have a legal duty to support. We implore you to follow the lead of other UK Councils and push back to central government.

Yanni has pica, severe learning disability, nonverbal autism, extreme hyperactivity/ADHD. His parents have offered to offset the loss of the tree at a local community park, by replanting three trees. His little sister will no longer need to help monitor her older brother in the garden. https://www.wharfedaleobserver.co.uk/news/18178970.mothers-fight-keep-son-safe-removing-protected-tree/

Because of the detrimental impact the dysfunctional Special Needs System is having on families

We now have in excess of 80 club members with nowhere to socialise on our prior club days. Breaking friendships and social skills...please sign our petition and help keep us open

STS Lord Nelson is one of two tall ships owned by the charity Jubilee Sailing Trust, which takes mixed-ability crews to sea, changing people's lives. Following a recent emergency appeal to raise £1 million in a week, they raised about £1.2 million, but then very shortly decided to de-commission Lord Nelson. Many of us consider this to be a huge mistake, and wish the ship to keep sailing, doing what she does best.

Service users says: "This is awful news. Birmingham vision has been providing fantastic services to people with sight loss in Birmingham and is the only remaining centrally based Sight loss organisation." " I have enjoyed all of the social activities and all of the sporting opportunities that were made possible by them and if it wasn’t for him, I would never have had the opportunity to go driving, walk out onto Villa Park twice, take part in activities such as foot golf and cricket and the  The fact that he brought me out of the social isolation I was in before I signed up as a service user back in 2016 My thanks also goes out to the wonderful person who put on wonderful social events during the last three summers and kept the pub night going for everyone to enjoy and this was a great social hub as I had met people there who I’m still communicating with now and I’m sure that they will use their social and independence skills to go out and enjoy life. When I first read this post, the first thing came to my mind was that there will be a lot of empty days in the new decade and this will hit home during the summer months as without the great service that Birmingham vision provides, there will be very little opportunity to enjoy the events that I have mentioned in my post and this is a great shame because Thomas Pocklington have buried the people that it once encouraged to flourish and be confident and independent and I can’t imagine life without the services of Birmingham vision and the company of their excellent staff." "This is truly heartbreaking! I volunteered once with the pub quiz and really saw what great work you do. What is to become of all the social isolation that this might bring? I can't really understand how such an important group is not worthy of funding. Just sad." "I'm GUTTED! This is so sad Birmingham Vision work so hard and have helped me and so many other Visually impaired people to deal with living with sight loss. I have made lots of friends through all the events that have been organised . They have made me not feel so isolated. I feel for all the staff that have worked so hard. I am going to miss this group so much!!" "I am totally shocked to hear this sad news! Without Birmingham Vision I would not have the confidence I have today. The wonderful staff have shown us that being visually impaired doesn't mean we have to feel isolated. I too have made some great friendships through the groups, and days out that the hard working staff have arranged for us. Thank you so much for your hard work. ❤" "I can honestly say I’ve really enjoyed getting to know every single person every single member of staff you are all amazing Birmingham Vision chose my life and helped me so much and made good friends with all the staff and many of the service users I have gained lots of confidence and getting out and about and everyone has as well we will all miss you as you are all lovely people and being in your company is always a great pleasure". "OMFG! Are you freakin' kidding me? WHY is it not worth the funding? This group has given me a social life, provided opportunities to visit places & most importantly make new friends including all the staff. It is OUR little community, don't we have a say?"

In 2017 I was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder cancer. I live with Spinabifida and am a wheelchair user because I'm paralysed from above the waist down. It is not legally possible to prove, but it is my sincere belief that had I been examined earlier in the year using a hoist and adjustable wide treatment bed, my cancer may have been discovered sooner. Disabled people and particularly paralysed people, don't always feel changes in their body, so require better than average monitoring. This equipment would provide that extra safeguarding and would protect disabled people from developing further physical issues that cost huge amounts of tax payer's money to address and great distress.

Victoria uses a wheelchair and has been awarded transport for eight years, but now that she is 16 the funding has been stopped. I'm more than happy to pay towards the bus but Victoria's place has still been refused. The city council have said that travel assistance up to 16 is statutory but only "discretionary" for those of sixth-form age. Without transport Victoria who has a mental age of around 6, faces having catching two buses to get to Selly Oak Trust School everyday. Victoria uses a wheelchair for long distances. Victoria finds it difficult to understand danger or cope with busy places. It is extremely important that Victoria is allowed to carry on using the bus.

For many disabled people this is the ONLY accessible route into the station. First Transpennine are suggesting that disabled people should call a mobile number and wait for a member of staff to open the gate. This will result in: • People being left, possibly on their own and feeling vulnerable, whilst they are waiting to be permitted entry. • Longer journey times –people would need to get the station earlier. • Unfair treatment – disabled people need to do something different to non-disabled people to gain access to the station. This will also impact on non-disabled people too!!! • Inconvenience, especially for occasional users, for example people going on holiday, with luggage and children, who are arriving by taxi, will have to wait for the gate to be opened or walk around the station. • Waiting time at the drop off point is 20 minutes – negotiating the closed gate will inevitably take longer than this now when picking someone up, increasing the risk of a financial penalty. The closure is being trialled to protect station staff, but disabled people shouldn't suffer because of this. Alternate solutions should be found that don't result in disabled people being left without access.