{"id":6694,"date":"2022-03-14T17:33:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=6694"},"modified":"2023-04-20T09:52:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:52:55","slug":"going-to-downing-street-to-hand-in-our-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/going-to-downing-street-to-hand-in-our-petition\/","title":{"rendered":"Going to Downing Street to hand in our petition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lizzie, who leads our campaigns, tells us about a trip to Downing Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, a few of us from Sense joined with some passionate Sense campaigners to visit Number 10 Downing Street. We were there to hand in our petition calling for disabled people to be heard<\/a> in this year\u2019s public inquiry into Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

38,931 people signed the petition \u2013 an incredible number, and we\u2019re hopeful it\u2019ll make a difference. If you\u2019re one of the nearly 39,000 people: thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The petition calls for three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Disabled people to be heard in the inquiry and called to give evidence<\/li>
  2. Disabled people to be represented on the panel leading the inquiry<\/li>
  3. The inquiry to be run in an accessible way<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"Landscape
    Outside the gates of Downing Street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Sense campaigners Saihan, Emma, Hugo and his mum Claire, all have experience of the challenges disabled people have faced throughout the pandemic. They travelled to Parliament to hand our petition to Number 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Landscape
    In front of number 10 Downing Street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"Landscape
    We got to hand in the petition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Channel 5 news spoke to 11-year-old Hugo who has CHARGE syndrome<\/a>, a rare genetic disorder that affects different areas of your body. His mum Claire spoke about the challenges their family has faced throughout the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “Overnight, all of Hugo\u2019s usual care that we get at home stopped, and we were left with no support.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “The Covid Inquiry is really important to us. As one of the hardest-hit groups, disabled people should be at the heart of the Inquiry. For us it\u2019s important that disabled people\u2019s needs are looked at when the inquiry starts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Landscape
    Claire and Hugo taking a look at the National Covid Memorial Wall\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    At the end of 2020, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that of the Covid-19 deaths that happened between January to November, 6 in 10 deaths were of disabled people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On the way to Downing Street, we stopped at the National Covid Memorial Wall to remember the many people who\u2019ve lost their lives throughout the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Landscape
    Emma stands in front of the memorial wall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Emma has congenital rubella syndrome<\/a>. She said she hasn\u2019t felt supported by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “We\u2019ve been isolated and lonely and not had the support we need. I want to see this acknowledged during the inquiry and make sure that disabled people are represented and included.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Landscape<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"A
    Hugo’s whole family came along to support him on the day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Handing our petition to Government means that we\u2019re step closer to making sure disabled people are heard in the upcoming public inquiry. This is not over yet. We\u2019ll be continuing to campaign on this issue in the coming weeks to make sure disabled people\u2019s needs are prioritised in future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Lizzie, who leads our campaigns, tells us about a trip to Downing Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[118],"class_list":["post-6694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-lizzie-green"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6694"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=6694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}