Annex A
COMMENTS FROM
LAPG MEMBERS ON
THE SPECIALIST
SUPPORT SERVICE
From Dowse and Co, East London
Our firm has recourse to Specialist Support
in welfare benefits, employment and housing issues and although
we can be held on line waiting for a connection for too long,
this is a reflection of the calls made on the advisors rather
than their inefficiency. Unfortunately, I cannot produce figures
for use as we do not keep them. But I personally have needed to
consult LASA and CPAG on obscure welfare benefits issues which
I have not been able to answer from the good library we have and
I have from time to time taken advice on employment issues in
recently changing law. I do not know the cost of these services
but I frankly do not trust the bean counting that produces the
formula "we intend to re-focus the money to deliver an increased
number of acts of advice and assistance direct to clients"
(LSC letter January 2006).
I have had uniformly good feedback from the
advice services and if others have not, they are not persistent
enough. It is a profligate waste of expertise to axe them.
From Otten Penna, Manchester
We have contracts in Mental Health and Community
Care Law. As far as I know, we've tended to make most use of the
Community Care services as we're developing our expertise in this
area (with the encouragement of the local LSC office who really
want us to continue with the contract despite our finding it isn't
to date financially viable). I have to say that I doubt whether
we will be able to continue with our community care contract without
the input of the SSS, because of the guidance they give and also
provision of subsidised courses we wouldn't otherwise be able
to afford.
We have two solicitors in our Community Care
department, both of whom have used the SSS on a number of occasions.
We have been greatly impressed, re-assured and enthused by their
input into cases and by training courses we've attended. We've
used Public Law Solicitors and the Disability Law Service for
help with casework (and attended courses provided by both). We
have found the advice and support given extremely useful and backed
up by case law, with copies of relevant cases provided, which
has been invaluable given financial constraints which restrict
our access to case reports. Their response has been immediate,
and they've suggested approaches to cases which we would have
overlooked. Both services have been incredibly thorough and clear.
I've used Scott Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair
on an unusual [mental health] case and again we were able to progess
the case more effectively as a result.
We're based in Manchester, which has only three
publicly-funded providers of Community Care Law advice, including
us and the CAB. There's a desperate need for more providers. The
SSS is a vital component in our development as Community Care
Law specialists and I think that axing the service is a threat
to suppliers like us who already have a contract as well as a
death-blow to suppliers who might provide a service if given the
right input.
From Fisher Jones Greenwood, Colchester, Essex
These specialist support services are used extensively
by fee earners at this firm who provide a range of legally aided
services to the public.
We obtained a Community Care legal aid franchise
in April 2004 and since then have been developing this service.
We are the only providers in the county. These cases arise where
there is concern is about the approach taken by social services
in the care of a vulnerable adult. Community Care law is remarkably
complex with many different sources of legislation and often 4
different funding agencies, Social Services, Social Security,
the NHS and in immigration cases, the National Asylum Support
Service. Advice from the Specialist Support Service was essential
to one intervention, involving the real threat of Judicial Review
to prevent one severely disabled resident in a nursing home being
removed against her wishes, against the wishes of her carers and
without the knowledge of her parents to a different nursing home.
We have used the Public Law Solicitors Community
Care support service extensively as we have developed our own
work and expertise, for casework advice, advice on recent guidance/policy,
merits for public funding, advice on drafting legal background
for letters before claim for Judicial Review proceedings, dealing
with the effect of recent House of Lords judgements on existing
cases and even tactical advice. Where a case has an immigration
slant, the service is invaluable as immigration caselaw and legislation
impacts upon the already complicated community care legislation.
Public Law Solicitors are sometimes involved
from the earliest stage of a case up to when funding is available
for a barrister to get involved. Their expertise, combined with
our own, has led to successful outcomes for nearly all of our
clients. For example, in one case, a destitute mentally ill woman
in her late 70s was living on the streets and begging in London.
She was in the country illegally, and following emergency Judicial
Review proceedings in the High Court, interim relief was ordered
by the High Court and before the hearing Social Services agreed
to accommodate and support her. In another case a destitute asylum
seeker was living on the streets in Kent, eating out of dustbins
and sleeping rough. Following a letter before claim threatening
High Court action, Social Services agreed to accommodate him and
specialist mental health services were also provided. In another
case a deaf without speaking asylum seeker who could not communicate
at all was housed by NASS in wholly inadequate accommodation and
he was receiving no support whatsoever. A letter before claim
threatening High Court action resulted in a community care assessment
being obtained, adapted accommodation being provided and support
and sign language classes being offered, funded by Social Services.
In yet another case advice was obtained on challenging
a refusal to grant public funding to obtain counsel's opinion
on judicial review, following further representations funding
was granted and a successful outcome obtained for the client.
From Christina Fakhouri, East London
The withdrawal will directly affect the aims
of the Community Legal Service, which include the provision of
service to those in need who are unable to access services. This
is because for many organisations, the only way they can help
vulnerable groups, such as the mentally ill, is to provide a holistic
service covering key inter related areas such as housing, welfare,
debt, community care, mental health. Vulnerable persons are often
not able to go to more than one organisation or indeed more than
one individual within an organisation. The specialist support
services can therefore enable a provider to weave a completely
holistic patient approach to the client with complex needs.
The Community Legal Service undertook its own
research into the benefits of its specialist support services,
in which I participated. The feedback was positive enough for
the providers to be granted new contracts.
I have personally used the service on many occasions.
Mostly I have sought advice in relation to welfare benefits which
is a specialist area of mine, from LASA. This has enabled me on
many occasions to take on emergency cases involving complex points
of law and seek instant advice on issues. By doing so I have helped
individuals to retain important benefits.
From a third East London practitioner
Our firm has used the service provided by specialist
counsel at 2 Garden Court Chambers on many occasions in matters
which are complex and where time is of the essence.
We have contracts in immigration, welfare and
housing and deal with situations which become critical and therefore
urgent very quickly. For example, where a person is being threatened
with destitution or removal directions at very short notice and
a second opinion is required on recent untested legislation before
action can be taken to prohibit the action by the executive or
administrative authority.
Given that this is exactly the sort of client
who does not have access to funds and given that unless we can
cite tested case law public funding is likely to be refused (even
if consideration could be given to it quickly which in our experience
does not happen) the support we receive from such a specialist
service is invaluable for our clients. By being able to discuss
our views and have them confirmed by specialist counsel, we have
been able to act very quickly in a number of cases and thereby
prevent clients from being removed and/or from being made homeless
and destitute.
I should add that we have no doubt that there
are "advice deserts" which exist. We have clients who
come to East London to see us from all over the country because
there is nothing that they can access closer to home. If there
is a service available locally, they are unable to access it because
there is a waiting list and the particular matter on which they
seek advice is of its nature urgent.
In our experience, a client does not travel
hundreds of miles to see a solicitor if there are adequate publicly
funded services close to home.
It is of concern that these services are now
being threatened. I have now doubt that there will be clients
falling within this vulnerable group of people who will be deprived
of access to justice as a result.
From Laurence Singer, a family mediator and solicitor
in Buckinghamshire
I specialise in Family Law. There are other
matters such as homelessness, debt and welfare benefits which
frequently affect clients who are separating or divorcing. I can
give a certain level of advice with "Tolerances", and
by having a Support Service of experts in the field means I need
not refer the client to someone else. If I have to refer, even
if it were in-house, this will involve the specialist caseworker
needing to see the client again, obtain similar details I already
have, possibly liaise with me to keep me informed (and probably
discuss the implications on the aspect of the clients problems
I am dealing with, and there would be considerable duplication
and increase of costs. Remember, each time a client tells their
story, time is taken up, and moreover clients are generally unable
to focus easily on just telling the case worker what they need
to know.
The advantage of there being a Specialist support
service is that it enables the client to have just one case worker
who can co-ordinate all aspects of advice to that client.
Furthermore, even if a greater number of matter
starts could be issued, case workers still need back up where
advice is necessary at a detailed level.
If that back-up is unavailable, then the quality
of advice will be severely diluted.
Finally, having a specialist service means the
"front-line" caseworker can be anywhere in the country.
If this service is lost, the hapless client may otherwise need
to make a long journey before getting the advice he needs.
Remember that on Legal Help we are generally
dealing with the most disadvantaged and inarticulate members of
society. They are the last people we want to send from pillar
to post in getting the advice they need.
From Hywel Davies, solicitor, Bala, Gwynedd, Wales
It was with dismay that I read of the imminent
withdrawal of the Specialist Support Service for Legal Aid Practitioners.
Solicitors have for years been urged to specialise. The drive
for specialism has, in turn, tended to make us uninformed in spheres
of work outside one's own field of work. Small offices offering
Legal Help to the disadvantaged and impoverished have drawn great
support from this Scheme. The rate of remuneration available does
not allow for detailed research outside one's own field of work.
The Specialist Support Scheme has provided a much needed support
for the busy legal practitioner, outside his own field of work
when a particular problem needs an answer outside his own specialism.
It is the most disadvantaged of our communities who will suffer.
From HLC Hanne and Co, South London
Without Garden Court, for example, providing
an excellent level of knowledge over the telephone concerning
immigration matters, I would be compelled to prepare a written
application for a funding certificate taking at least half an
hour and then would need to ask for at least £200 to obtain
an opinion and time to read that opinion and then consider the
impact on a client's case. This is a very conservative estimate
based on a simple matter. The JCWI line is also very useful for
matter where I may not need a barrister's opinion but I have another
solicitor to give me their opinion on a matter that is either
relatively new to me or that I have conflicting advice on from
current guidance and for a second opinion.
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