Evidence submitted by the Law Centres
Federation
LEGAL AID—A
PUBLIC SERVICE
TO TACKLE
SOCIAL EXCLUSION
AND PROTECT
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
INTRODUCTION
The Law Centres Federation is the national body
representing 57 community Law Centres. They were established in
1969 and are independent, not-for-profit, quality assured legal
service providers. Law Centres are accountable to their local
communities and dedicated to achieving social justice. They employ
solicitors, advice and community workers and are able to represent
clients and communities, as well as carrying out social policy
work.
We believe that community legal services should
be viewed as a public service—a public service available
to all those who need legal advice on social welfare law. For
example, the UK National Action Plan on Social Exclusion[1]
includes access to justice along with access to healthcare and
education. If seen in this light, it becomes clear that more resources
are needed to make the Community Legal Service effective.
The Community Legal Service can enable the Government
to meet some of their key objectives. It can tackle inequalities,
promote and protect human rights, help eradicate poverty, create
opportunities and help people out of social exclusion.[2]
The Community Legal Service has an important
role in upholding human rights and has the potential for linking
up with the proposed Commission for Equality and Human Rights
to help eliminate discrimination, and help build "a new,
inclusive sense of British citizenship and identity in which shared
values of respect, fair treatment and equal dignity are recognised
as underpinning a cohesive, prosperous society." One
of the guiding principles for the new Commission is "improving
support for individuals through better and more accessible provision
of services, particularly advice and information".[3]
The Community Legal Service with its close links to the local
community provides the opportunity for human rights abuses to
be tackled at grassroots level and could complement the work of
the Commission.
Not-for-profit agencies are firmly based in
the communities they serve; are accountable to those communities
and by involving local people in service provision, help create
a community able to stand up for itself and engage in local policy
making. Legal and advice agencies empower local communities.
Community legal services need to be seen by
Central Government as an integral part of new policy initiatives
and funded accordingly. For example, the Legal and Advice Sector
has an important role to play in helping regenerate local areas
and contributes to the Government aim of regenerating deprived
neighbourhoods.[4]
A vibrant Legal and Advice Sector can ensure
that Government's policies are effective on the ground. New legislation
and policies should be "advice proofed" or "rights
costed" with each Government Department taking some responsibility
for the funding of the new advice needs legislation creates.
The Law Centres Federation's long-term aim is
to establish a national network of Law Centres and welcomes this
Inquiry.
1. What evidence is there of the emergence
of "advice deserts"?
The key issue that needs to be addressed is
the lack of expert legal aid advice, "legal advice deserts",
areas without any specialist suppliers available and able to take
up complex cases and cases requiring representation in the courts
or tribunals.
The fact that "advice deserts" still
exists after the setting up of Community Legal Service Partnerships
three years ago to plan future provision, is disappointing. The
reasons why these gaps in provision exist are complex, but are
mainly to do with the funding limits of the legal aid system and
the historic patterns of supply. LCF would argue that particularly
in the areas of civil law other than family and matrimonial, which
takes over 60% of the civil legal aid budget, coverage across
the country has never been good.
Despite the aim of bringing additional funding
in from local authorities and others, Law Centre funding has remained
insecure and under threat. The LCF has during this time tried
to establish new Law Centres in some of the "advice deserts",
but has encountered considerable difficulties in securing new
funding from local authorities. Law Centres cannot be sustained
with Legal Services Commission contracts alone.
To compound the problem, it is difficult to
tell what provision there is in any detail. Counting the number
of suppliers in an area of law is a very broad brush approach
and can mask the fact, for example, that two out of three suppliers
of housing advice have limited hours or matters starts.
In addition some areas that appear to have adequate
coverage, there are acute pockets of poverty giving rise to real
shortages of legal help and assistance. It is in these areas of
deprivation that many people are socially and economically excluded—the
very people whom we aim to assist.
In some areas described as having adequate coverage
there is a real shortage of legal experts. The number of contracts
masks the level of service available.
It is difficult to draw conclusions on the extent
to which people are willing to travel to get legal assistance.
For many, the expense of travelling will be prohibitive. In other
areas people, for example, in rural areas who may be used to travelling
to obtain services, may be able to access advice from their nearest
town. To some extent the use of technology may overcome some barriers,
but there will always be those who are unable to access help either
by using technology or transport. For these people face to face
advice needs to be available. One solution was founded in Cumbria,
where the Law Centre operates a justice bus, to tour the county
to give advice directly to the public.
LCF RESEARCH
LCF has a program of developing new Law Centres
in areas of the country in which there is unmet need. As part
of this program we undertake research in the availability of legal
services in areas in which there is shortage of the type of specialist
services Law Centres offer.
We found that in the North Kent town of Chatham
there was a significant shortage of suppliers in housing law and
that clients were being referred to solicitors either in London
or Essex. This would involve a journey of two to three hours costing
at least £12. Despite this, the LCF was unsuccessful in its
application to the LSC for contracts to help establish a North
Kent Law Centre, as the LSC felt that there was sufficient coverage.
For a number of years the two Law Centres in
the North East of England have been aware that there is no provision
of specialist legal advice suppliers in Northumberland. LCF conducted
research around Alnwick in Northumberland and found no suppliers
in housing, employment, community care, welfare benefits or debt.
Members of the public requiring specialist help in these areas
of law either have to travel to Newcastle or the town of Morpeth.
Alnwick has no train station and the journey by bus takes at least
1.5 hours.
North Kent and Northumberland are both areas
in which the Law Centre model developed in Surrey (see next section)
could be applied to provide specialist legal services across a
wide geographical area.
2. What action is being taken to ensure that
there is access to legally aided advice in all legal specialisms?
Under the CLS, the casework services Law Centres
offer have expanded through the contracting system. All Law Centres
are quality marked at specialist level and hold contracts. In
some areas of the country in which the LSC has identified gaps
in provision, new Law Centres have been established. These Law
Centres are in Devon, Trafford, Stockport, Bury and Surrey. They
were all initially established and managed by LCF before being
transferred to local management committees. The last one, Bury,
was transferred to a local management committee in October 2003.
It is LCF's view that it is not possible to
establish Law Centres or indeed an adequate "Community Legal
Service" offering full services with the LSC as the sole
funder. This is because the LSC funded work is limited to eligible
clients and to work within scope. The main reasons for arriving
at this view are:
— The public's expectation of a Law
Centre service is that they will receive at least some initial
advice regardless of means or whether their case is within scope.
— Law Centres are concerned with resolving
legal problems that clients and communities face. Individual casework
is not necessarily the only method of resolving such problems.
— Traditionally, Law Centres have represented
clients who whilst they might not pass the Legal Aid means test
have cases with a wider public interest, such as a discrimination
case and/or a case in an emerging area of law which if taken on
would set a useful precedent.
— In areas of social welfare law other
than welfare benefits it is often difficult to get the concentration
of clients necessary to meet the contract hours required by the
LSC.
— Without funding available for tribunal
representation, members of the public are less likely to be successful
at a hearing and caseworkers become "deskilled" if they
only undertake LSC funded work.
The Surrey Law Centre receives money from LSC
contracts, a grant from the Commission under the Partnership Innovation
Budget (PIB) and a grant from local government. It works as a
regional supplier of expert legal services and as a second tier
support agency to other suppliers in the area to improve the quality
of legal services to the public. The Surrey model could be a way
forward to filling the gaps described above, but it would be dependent
on finding extra grant income in place of PIB as this is only
for three years and the LSC has reduced the budget from £15
million to £6 million a year over three years.
3. How can the Department for Constitutional
Affairs and the Legal Services Commission provide incentives for
legal aid practitioners to continue legally aided work?
Law Centre practitioners have a strong public
service ethos. They have traditionally accepted lower rates of
pay than the private sector, as they are strongly committed to
the client groups they serve and enjoy the range of work they
can undertake in a Law Centre. Stability of funding is the main
issue that needs to be addressed if Law Centre practitioners are
be recruited and retained in a salaried service.
It should be noted that the LSC's scheme to
fund training contracts has been well received by Law Centres
and has the potential to expand the numbers of practitioners undertaking
legally aided work, providing they can be retained in the Law
Centre service.
4. Is the perception that legal practitioners
are moving out of legally aided work correct?
LCF acknowledges that the Law Society has compiled
persuasive evidence around this point. However, it our contention
that in areas of civil law, other than matrimonial and family,
there has always been a significant shortfall in private practice
provision. Services in welfare rights, debt, employment, immigration,
housing and other areas of public law to a large degree have not
been funded by the Legal Aid scheme, but by other government departments,
local government and NGOs.
It is a deliberate policy of the LSC to reduce
the number of suppliers they contract with for administrative
convenience. In addition, many suppliers have made the decision
to withdraw from legal aid work, as the administrative burden
of applying for a quality mark has not been justified for the
volume of work.
5. Can the requirement for legal aid be reduced
by the resolution of some legal issues on a more informal basis,
through the Citizens' Advice Bureaux, long distance services or
otherwise?
The UK has a very large number of advice providers
in the private, public and voluntary sectors, which work to resolve
legal issues without recourse to law. LCF would argue that a balance
needs to be struck between such services and independent legal
services that can provide help in the minority of cases that cannot
be resolved informally.
6. Would a salaried service or the provision
of Law Centres be a viable solution to lack of provision, either
in areas without sufficient practitioners or elsewhere?
Law Centres work in all areas of civil law and
are a viable alternative to private practice to provide legal
services. As discussed above (reply to question 2) the experience
of the five Law Centres established with LSC funding has demonstrated
this, but this is qualified by the need for additional "non-legal
aid" funding to provide the wider range of services to the
public.
7. What would the comparative funding costs
of a salaried service?
Law Centres can be developed with Legal Services
Commission contracts, but this is mainly dependent on there being
the concentration of clients necessary to meet the contractual
hours, and other funding being available to provide the services
described above. LCF estimates that a Law Centre requires a minimum
of around £100,000 in income in addition to LSC contracts
to do this. The LCF's trustees recently received a report from
LCF's director that estimated that the LCF over the next three
years needed a fund of around £2,000,000 to support the shortfall
in funding of some existing Law Centres and to develop the new
Law Centres required to fill the gaps identified.
Steve Hynes
Law Centres Federation
January 2004
1 UK National Action Plan on Social Exclusion 2003-05
published by the Department of Work and Pensions in July 2003. Back
2
See Legal and Advice Services: A Pathway out of Social Exclusion
published jointly by the Lord Chancellor's Department and the
Law Centres Federation in November 2001. Back
3
Quote taken from the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor,
Lord Falconer in his announcement of the Government's Plans to
set up a Commission for Equality and Human Rights November 2003. Back
4
See Legal and Advice Services: A Pathway to Regeneration
published in November 2003 by the Department for Constitutional
Affairs, the Legal Services Commission and the Law Centres Federation. Back
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