I was wondering if you could help me and my family I was born in Chesterfield and me and my family have always been hardworking members of the community.I met my wife in 1994 and married in 1996 and I adopted our oldest child and went on to have another daughter who was born partially sighted epileptic and deaf in one ear everything was going well we were having a few problems trying to prove the oldest daughter had learning difficulties and the education authorities put it down to misbehaving things got worse and eventually she got in with the wrong crowd and getting into trouble with the law etc.

 However things changed in 2009 when I was diagnosed with MS I carried on working for the company I had worked for 21 year from the age of 16years then unfortunatey  the company went into liquidation, with my goverment reduncy i invested with a freind and he set up a ltd company and we contracted to the local council of which the work dried up and he was forced into liquidation in 2012. During this period the oldest daughter fell pregnant and it was out of the question that her and her then partner were able to keep the child and we got a residence order and then a special guardianship order we had to jump through hoops and at one point go to court against the social services we then had a 12 months order giving the social service permission to drop in anytime to check the father of the child was not at our home I recall one night 11.30pm we had a call and the lady turned round and apologised  and when she seen our home and situation stated she should not be there we are proud homemakers and our children are priority. Things settled down and I set up a company on my own then I 2014 the oldest daughter did it again this time giving birth to a baby girl this time it was a a completely different story social services paid for court obtaining the special guardianship order etc and now we have two beutiful children in our care we were paid a special guardianship allowance of £230 for the two a week obviously my wife had to give up her job and I was trying to keep going. Over the years I had obtained a property that was mortgaged and one I was doing to rent out my father inlaw and mother inlaw were in a property that was in a state he had been a victim to the coalite plant financial collapse at shuttlewood and lost his pension redundancy everything and then diagnosed with COPD we let them move into our home and we moved In to the other property sadly losing my mother inlaw to cancer in 2013. In 2015 my health started to fail struggling and getting In to debt to try and juggle everything to keep everyone provided for unfortunately the poor decision was made to sell the house we lived in and rent one to get rid of some debt. Once the house was sold we moved into rented accommodation and requested assistance from social services to get a social housing to no avail not even acknowledged us as time went by a couple of bad contracting jobs and been victim to extortion from a debt collection company I had hired to collect some money owed to the company the money had gone.This forcing me and my family  to move into our house with my father inlaw at the end of 2016 this was a two bedroom property with 5 occupants again we requested help from social services for housing and financial assistance  to no avail by this time my health was deteriating and in February 2017 I had to slow working down. 

Unfortunately this had a major knock on effect and resulting in me declairing myself personaly bankrupt and losing our home to the insolvency practitioners. My support network is around Newbold and as is the children schools we appealed this to the housing department and were put on the list, only to be railroaded into accepting a property some 6 miles away from our support networks schools doctors etc with no choice in the matter we accepted to put a roof over their heads. We moved in early October my wife taking the kids to school daily and trying to make the best of things, but then local yobs started hurling things at our property and stealing kids christmas trimmings to the point we now have the situation the little girl screams if a door is shut will not sleep on her own and the little boy wont go to bed on his own ive ended up under the mental health and my physical health is going down hill. In december when the snow was on the floor I went to the toilet and heard a thudding sound on the window I started to come down stairs my right leg give way i grabbed the stair rail and ripped the tendons in my arm  my wife was out with the little ones and my support network couldn't get to me. A short while after i contacted social services to speak to the social worker for help and they said she wasn't in, what they didn't realise is I was going past returning from Walton hospital and the social workers car was parked on the entrance of the car park I stated on the phone I had seen her car. A while later I recieved a phone call fom the social worker saying she had only nipped into the office and she would be intouch on tbe 27th December after speaking to her manager still waiting. So now we are trying to make hensmeat our kids can't go out because they are to afraid and im so anxious I've discussed leaving.

I've requested financial assistance from Derbyshire social services to help with kids clothing getting them away and trying to sort a new rented home and been told we will get nothing as we get the full special guardianship allowance and this funding is only available to foster carers whom get between £300 and £700 per child per week and support. All me and my wife have done over the years and kept two beutiful children out of care and to be treated like this it's disgusting I'm ashamed  to think this is the society we live in. 

The reason for this petition is to request a full review for kinship carers and request they are given the same support as foster carers and accept that things change beyond our control in people's lives we do it for the love but support is required from time to time. We ar not social scroungers our situation has been forced upon us through illness and trying to do the right thing all we want is a decent home within our support network wth a downstair toilet.

Thankyou and regards 

Scott