Prison leaders, from local to national, presided over an “abject failure” to provide a safe, decent and purposeful regime at HMP Liverpool, according to Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. In a report outlining jail conditions that experienced inspectors regarded as the worst they could remember, Mr Clarke said it was “hard to understand how the leadership of the prison could have allowed the situation to deteriorate to this extent.” Inspectors found squalid living conditions, with dirt, litter, rats and cockroaches, and an environment in which drugs were easily available and violence had increased. Mr Clarke added: “While much of what we found was clearly the responsibility of local prison managers, there had been a broader organisational failure. We saw clear evidence that local prison managers had sought help from regional and national management to improve conditions they knew to be unacceptable long before our arrival, but the resulting support was inadequate and had made little impact on outcomes for prisoners.” HMP Liverpool is a local category B prison serving the Merseyside area. A traditional local jail with “a very strong sense of local identity”, it held 1,115 men at the time of the unannounced inspection in September 2017. It was last inspected in May 2015. Since then, the prison had deteriorated in terms of respect and purposeful activity and these elements were poor, the lowest possible assessment, in 2017. Safety and resettlement work, the two other key inspection tests, were judged as ‘not sufficiently good.’ However, Mr Clarke said, the bare statistics “do not adequately describe the abject failure of HMP Liverpool to offer a safe, decent and purposeful environment.” He identified key issues: Violence of all kinds had increased. Over a third of prisoners felt unsafe at the time of the inspection, and 71% felt unsafe at some time. Nearly two-thirds of prisoners said it was easy or very easy to obtain drugs. Drones carrying drugs and other illicit items were a substantial problem. Staff had recovered 32 drones in the six months before the inspection, more than one a week. Half of the prisoners were locked in their cells during the working day. There were also significant failings in the leadership and management of activities and in health care. There was a backlog of some 2,000 maintenance tasks and it was clear that facilities management at the prison “was in a parlous state.” Mr Clarke added: “The inspection team was highly experienced and could not recall having seen worse living conditions than those at HMP Liverpool. “Many cells were not fit to be used and should have been decommissioned. Some had emergency call bells that were not working but were nevertheless still occupied, presenting an obvious danger to prisoners. There were hundreds of unrepaired broken windows, with jagged glass left in the frames. Many lavatories were filthy, blocked or leaking. There were infestations of cockroaches in some areas, broken furniture, graffiti, damp and dirt. “I saw piles of rubbish that had clearly been there for a long time, and in which inspectors reported seeing rats on a regular basis. I was told by a senior member of staff that it had not been cleared by prisoners employed as cleaning orderlies because it presented a health and safety risk. It was so bad that external contractors were to be brought in to deal with it. In other words, this part of the jail had become so dirty, infested and hazardous to health that it could not be cleaned.” Mr Clarke was particularly troubled by the case of one vulnerable man with complex mental health needs being held in a cell that had no furniture other than a bed. “The windows of both the cell and the toilet recess were broken, the light fitting in his toilet was broken with wires exposed, the lavatory was filthy and appeared to be blocked, his sink was leaking and the cell was dark and damp. “Extraordinarily, this man had apparently been held in this condition for some weeks…It should not have needed my personal intervention for this man to be moved from such appalling conditions.” Inspectors could see “no credible plan” to address these basic problems. Mr Clarke said: “Although there are several change projects underway at the prison, none of these will address the basic failings that were so painfully obvious at HMP Liverpool. I was particularly concerned that there did not appear to be effective leadership or sufficiently rigorous external oversight to drive the prison forward in a meaningful way. This report makes it crystal clear that leaders at all levels, both within the prison and beyond, had presided over the failure to address the concerns raised at the last inspection.” Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service, said: “The conditions which Inspectors found at Liverpool were unacceptable and effective measures should have been taken to deal with the issues at a much earlier stage. We are committed to fixing this, have already made changes where we can, and have today published a comprehensive action plan to address the Chief Inspector’s concerns.Following the Inspection we took immediate action to rectify the situation. A new Governor has been appointed and a strengthened management team is in place; capacity has been reduced by 172 places; over 700 prisoners now have a named Prison Officer as their ‘Key Worker’; cleanliness has been improved and the maintenance backlog has been almost halved. Liverpool has a dedicated staff who are committed to providing a safe and decent environment for prisoners. The Governor will get the support she needs to deliver the action plan and make the changes necessary to substantially improve the performance and conditions at the prison.”

I am a mother to a 10 year old son who's severely disabled after contracting meningitis at 11 months old, My child has always been small enough for me to allow him to join in with his siblings & other children using the parks equipment like slides, swings, roundabouts. Seesaws, ect whilst being on my lap. Unfortunately he's now a 10 year old lad who needs hoisting with no upper body control this is making it difficult for me to be able to hold him on the equipment whilst he plays. There's equipment to suit children like my child so they don't have to miss out and can enjoy playing in the park along with other children his age, I'm asking for the local councils to support this cause so children don't have to feel isolated in their own communities

Remote villages need access to frequent reliable transport links to towns. Anyone who does not drives will be isolated and cut off from doing normal things in society

I Believe this is important because at the minute carers either have to get the disabled person or elderly to go with them with a companion disabled concession card or Cost a lot to the bank balance out of the limited funds each week. This means going shopping for the disabled or elderly with out spending the small amount of carers funds

There are over 320 million people worldwide who suffer from a form of colour blindness, mostly males (8% of the population). Having dealt recently with HSBC bank, they do not seem to be up to date with how to deal with people with this form of disability. We need to change their attitude. They have redesigned their cards to all be similar across 30 countries but with different colour combinations. I have been told on the telephone that the grey business debit card I have will not or cannot be replaced with any other colour. The card to me is silver with a shiny silver lion and silver embossed numbers making it impossible to read (like the image above but imagine it being laminated, shiny). Many people have already said they have cards with such issues and they are not colour blind so this needs to be addressed by all banks.

Disabled drivers and people being transported in the UK are put at a serious disadvantage by people abusing a scheme that does not serve the people it was set up for. The government will say it for individual councils to police the Blue Badge scheme but even when councils weren't so strapped for cash at the most 3 councils in the UK had blue badge inspectors. Since the councils have had their budgets slashed do you think they can afford to police this? It needs overhauling at point of issue.

Fun for all is an exciting project for the family which organises trips and fun activities for families living in Redbridge with a disabled child aged 0-18 years. A small charge is made for the activities but it is often a fraction of the full cost. Some of the trips offered are Theme Parks, London, Ice Skating, Swimming, Zoo & More. Without this service many families wouldn't be able to do these activities as they wouldn't feel confident taking a child with special need out in public.

This is important because there are lots of disabled people in Poole, who have no mobility at all. They can not sit on a toilet, an need to be lifted out of their wheelchair to be changed. They are expected to be put on a dirty toilet floor to be changed which is not acceptable, let alone hygienic! This is neither safe for the disabled person, or the carer that is having to lift them in and out of their chair! I.e weight issues. Many families can not/ will not use certain places because there are no suitable changing facilities which is discrimination!

The no1 and no3 bus service is due to be discontinued leaving rural villages with elderly residents, working people and students without transport to Chelmsford town centre, Southend town centre and Rayleigh station. This isolates service users and stops transport to doctors surgeries, colleges, universities, train stations and hospitals.

Libraries are important to all age groups in the County. They a focal points for local communities and in the modern era provide a large range of essential services. These include the loan of books, careers advice, IT training, Newspaper Reading Rooms, Group Activities for Young parents and children, Access to Computers and photocopiers, archives for researchers, local information. Libraries are important hubs in local communities providing information on local services, activities and groups. Closing local libraries will isolate communities and individuals, especially the elderly and disabled.

A Wiltshire wide concessionary fares scheme should be considered by Wiltshire Council. Many of these young people are in full time education and have no access to there own transport. And in many cases if there is public transport the price is beyond there reach.

As people's budgets are getting more and more squeezed, more and more people are going without their vital medication. According to the Prescription Charges Coalition, 1 in 3 people with a long-term condition has been unable to pick up their medication, adding more costs to the NHS. As England is the only part of the UK which has prescription charges, it's time to do away with them once and for all!