August 2014

Digital Platform

Grant: £26,000
August 8, 2014

For over 40 years the British Institute of Human Rights, a UK-wide independent human rights charity, has worked to bring human rights to life in the UK. Understanding how universal human rights work, and how they can be applied to everyday interactions with public services (such as health, social services and education) can and does make a real difference, especially to those individuals and groups whose voice is seldom heard. Its education, research and advocacy work supports people and organisations to realise the potential of human rights to empower people and to transform organisations. The Foundation funds will be used to create a new digital platform to engage, educate and empower the public on their legally protected human rights in everyday life:

• the role these laws play in our constitutional arrangements; and
• how the law works in everyday situations outside the courtrooms to help improve people’s lives and interactions with the state/public officials.

Future Advice

Grant: £150,000
August 8, 2014

The project is to create capacity within LCN and expertise in Law Centres to secure funds from the EU and to share good practice with the wider advice sector. A three-year time frame is required for the project because it can take up to one year from the announcement of a new funding ‘call’ to notification of a successful bid.

Future Advice

Grant: £30,000
August 8, 2014

Development funding for the Secondary Creditors Pilot (SCP) aimed at testing the viability of extending a Debt Advice service offering to secondary creditors.

The output to be a report on each of the pilot participants based on an agreed assessment framework, as well as an executive summary, which can then be used by Fair Money Advice and Barclays to assess the viability and value of the business idea.

Perspectives and priorities for the Retail Bank has meant that the pilot focus has now shifted towards Barclaycard customers.

Future Advice - All Party Parliamentary Group

Grant: £20,000
August 8, 2014

For Secretarial and other support for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid.

Understanding, Capability, Confidence and the Experience of Civil Law Problems

Grant: £82,900
August 8, 2014

The grant will fund research and a report comprising a detailed secondary analysis of the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Panel Survey (CSJPS), specifically issues relating to capability, self-help and understanding (of the law and ‘legal’ services). It will be a key tool in providing the social context of legal problems and legal understanding/education, and in particular, exploring how experience and understanding interact with other aspects of peoples’ lives. Crucially, it offers the ability to examine the public’s perspective, whether or not ‘legal’ problems are experienced and whether or not problems involve legal advice or formal processes.

The Youth Justice Legal Centre

Grant: £86,400
August 8, 2014

The Just for Kids Law charity aims to transform the lives of children and young people through the rule of law and child-centred advocacy. Many of the vulnerable young people it works with have multiple and complex needs; these include physical and mental health problems, unstable immigration status, unstable accommodation and weak or non-existent support networks.

The charity advocates on behalf of clients in school exclusion hearings, at police stations, in the courts and in other formal and informal settings. The aim is to ensure clients receive a fair hearing, are properly supported and have access to essential services (such as a placement in school or suitable accommodation).

The Foundation grant will be used to create a YJLC website to share it unique knowledge base with as many people as possible, and provide a comprehensive resource about children in the criminal justice system to professionals, lay people and young people.

The Low Implementation Project

Grant: £45,900
August 8, 2014

There are many settings in our community where people can identify individuals who need informal advice, such as GP surgeries, community centres, faith groups etc. This project will provide an online information source for social welfare law practitioners in three areas of social welfare law – employment, housing and community care. It will cover topics such as housing, employment and community care law including self-help guides on common legal problems.

LAG was instrumental in establishing and supporting the Low Commission on the Future of Advice and Legal Support which aimed to address the challenges facing social welfare law. The LIP will be active in the run-up to the general election seeking to inform the political parties and public opinion in support the recommendations of the Commission. This grant will allow LAG to engage additional public affairs and PR resources to raise the profile and engagement with this project.

The JUSTICE Student Human Rights Network

Grant: £40,000
August 8, 2014

JUSTICE is an all-party law reform and human rights charity working to strengthen the justice system – administrative, civil and criminal. Its vision is of fair, accessible and efficient legal processes, in which the individual’s rights are protected, and which reflect the country’s international reputation for upholding and promoting the rule of law. This includes “promoting education and conducting research into the law, including current proposed practices and administration and reform of the law”.

The Foundation’s grant will enable the charity to build a dynamic student website to arm students with the necessary skills and experience to engage with law reform when they enter practice.

Street Law

Grant: £7,500
August 8, 2014

A project to work closely with pupils from less advantaged backgrounds to help ensure that, firstly, they have a better understanding of the law and how the law affects them and, secondly, that if they want to become a lawyer they have the best possible understanding of the law and the legal profession. Street Law is considered to be the best way to introduce law to school pupils – one that ties in with careers, with skills development, with raising aspirations, and that fits neatly with Curriculum For Excellence and the National Assessment Resource (NAR) Flow Chart.

Remodelling Advicenow

Grant: £123,000
August 8, 2014

Law for Life: the Foundation for Public Legal Education merged with Advicenow website in June 2013. The LEF’s grant will be used to update this website on a new platform to enable new media and technology, eg, smart-forms, video, e-learning, infographics, process navigation charts, and web apps. The update will bring Advice Now’s problem-solving approach to a new audience and provide a potential revenue stream. The remodelling will also present the site much more clearly as a resource for volunteers dealing with litigants in person and intermediaries as a resource for guiding their clients.