Consultations

Deadline 28^th March

Variations in sex characteristics (VSC), sometimes referred to as ‘intersex’ or ‘differences in sex development’, is an umbrella term used to describe physical sex development which differs from what is generally expected of males or females. These variations are present from birth and may be chromosomal, gonadal, anatomical or hormonal.

Depending on the individual case, these differences may be visible at birth or untraceable until puberty, or even later in life. Research from clinical experts suggests the ‘number of people born with atypical genitalia may be as high as 1 in 300 births, but the birth prevalence of a condition that may lead to true genital ambiguity on expert examination may be as low as 1 in 5000 births.’

The call for evidence is designed for VSC individuals, their parents, carers, and legal guardians, and professionals and service providers to share their views and experiences on:

• Terminology – the terms people prefer using to describe having variations in sex characteristics
• Healthcare – how decisions are made around medical interventions and how healthcare services could be improved
• Education – how people with variations in sex characteristics experience school and how the education system could be improved
• Support services – what support, if any, affected individuals and their families receive and how support services could be improved
• Issues faced in day to day life – people’s experiences of being in the workplace, of claiming benefits and using sport and leisure services
• Sex assignment, birth registration and correcting birth certificates – whether people have changed their birth certificate if the sex was incorrectly assigned at birth and parent’s experiences of registering a child’s birth
• Any other issues they have faced and want to raise

For more information go to the Government website

Deadline 1^st February

This draft quality standard from NICE is open for consultation until 1 February 2019. It includes the proposal that pedestrians, cyclists and those who use public transport should be given priority when new roads are built or upgraded. The final quality standard is expected to be published in June 2019.

For more information go to NICE

Deadline 6^th April

This proposal was set out in Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2.

This consultation asks what you think about:

1. restricting volume-based price promotions of HFSS food and drink that encourage people to buy more than they need, for example, ‘buy one, get one free’ and free refills of sugary soft drinks
2. restricting the placement of HFSS food and drink at main selling locations in stores, such as checkouts, aisle ends and store entrances

This consultation also seeks your views on:

• which businesses, products and types of promotions should be included in the restrictions
• definitions for HFSS products, price promotions and locations in stores
• how businesses can put this into practice and whether they will face any difficulties

For more information and to take part go to the department for Health and Social Care

Deadline 4^th April

This consultation contains proposals which would strengthen the pensions protections that apply when an employee of a Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) employer is compulsorily transferred to the employment of a service provider.

The proposed amendments to the LGPS Regulations 2013 would, in most cases, give transferred staff a continued right to membership of the LGPS. These changes would bring the LGPS in line with the government’s October 2013 Fair Deal guidance that applies in relation to transfers from central government.

For more information go to the Government website

A recent piece of work conducted internally by the MS Society identified a number of core groups that were under-represented in MS Society research. In view of this they have enlisted the help of ClearView Research, an agency that specialises in reaching the hard to reach, to help them to hear the views and experiences of people from these under-represented groups and also to find out why they do not engage with the Society, or how the Society might better engage with them.

They want to hear from everyone with MS, but particularly if you are aged 18-50 years, live with MS in a rural area, are newly diagnosed, would describe yourself as Black or Black British and Asian or Asian British, are severely affected by MS,or are LGBTQ+

The survey will be in the form of a telephone interview

For your convenience, the phone interview can occur at any point between Monday and Sunday between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm.

The interview should take between 15-20 minutes to complete.

The registration form will take less than 2 mins to fill out.

For more information and to volunteer to be interviewed click here

For more information about the MS Society go to their website