November 2016

Access to Civil Justice Research Project

Grant: £197,515
November 30, 2016

This is a three year post-doctoral research fellowship, providing an opportunity for an exceptional candidate to conduct research on the theme of access to justice in England and Wales, based at the new Bonavero Institute for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford.

A primary goal of the Institute will be to develop a cohort of scholars and practitioners highly skilled in human rights law. In seeking to establish a fellowship in access to civil justice, the Institute recognises the urgent need for outstanding research in the field of access to civil justice in order to inform policy-making in this field. Another goal of the Institute is to foster collaboration between scholars and practitioners in the field of human rights. Access to civil justice is a field that will particularly benefit from such collaboration.

This project has two goals:

• to foster world-class research by an outstanding post-doctoral fellow;
• and to enable the post-doctoral fellow to pursue a scholarly career focussed on issues relating to access to civil justice in England and Wales.

Youth Justice Legal Centre

Grant: £100,000
November 9, 2016

This project is to enable YJLC,

• Become a centre of legal excellence in youth justice law;
• Improve standards of youth justice legal representation;
• Ensure youth justice is recognised as a specialist area of law.

YJLC has developed six business streams:

• Training Lawyers – by continuing to deliver youth justice legal training to barristers and solicitors;
• Research – partner with academic institutions and other organisations to improve knowledge and understanding of youth justice legal issues;
• Strategic Partnerships – develop relationships with academic institutions, commercial law firms and other partners to explore opportunities to provide training and work placements with us YJLC;
• Youth Justice Conference – launch the first youth justice law conference to build a community of youth justice lawyers and raise the profile and status of youth justice law;
• Youth Offending Team (YOT) Seminars – hold regional YOT Seminars to provide opportunities for YOTs and charity workers to improve their knowledge and understanding of youth justice law;
• Subscription – launch online membership providing resources for youth justice professionals including regular legal updates, legal materials and toolkits, a discussion forum and online training.

The power of law in her hands: Building the legal capacity of England's Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic Women’s Sector

Grant: £50,000
November 9, 2016

This project will deliver a legal education/capacity building programme to support the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women’s sector in England. The project seeks to address the current legal capacity gap in the sector, to build confidence in using law as a tool to achieve better social outcomes and remedies for BAME women victims of violence, to enhance the capacity of the BAME women’s sector to monitor State obligations under domestic and international human rights law.

The project has 4 work streams:

1. Legal Education.
2. Legal Access.
3. Legal Evidence Gathering.
4. Legal Advocacy/Stakeholder Education.

Ask CPAG – access to justice through technology for social security claimants

Grant: £21,300
November 9, 2016

This project will provide advisers with comprehensive, interrelated online resources to help navigate the government’s wide-ranging welfare reforms.

This online system will enable advisers to assess their clients’ entitlement to social security benefits and give them resources to challenge unfavourable decisions.

This will be done through three interrelated channels:

1. The expansion of Ask CPAG content, which provides tactical online support to advisers on problematic areas of social security law by developing two innovative online tools to assist advisers through ‘Guided pathways’.
2. The redevelopment of the online version of Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook.
3. The online publication of the Welfare Rights Bulletin.

A legal mapping and research project to produce a strong, non-partisan analysis of the legal implications of Brexit

Grant: £100,000
November 9, 2016

This project is to undertake legal mapping and research to produce a strong, non-partisan analysis of the legal implications of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, specifically from a human rights and equality perspective. The audience will be NGOs and charities in the rights and social welfare fields, Government bodies, the legal community, policy-makers and parliamentarians, and grassroots advice services.

There are swathes of legislation concerning human rights issues that will be affected either because the laws are reliant on the EC Act 1972, are contained in EU law with direct effect or because domestic law has been brought about as a result of EU requirements. The scope of this project will cover crucial rights including (but not limited to) equality, maternity rights, data protection, immigration, asylum, trade union protection, victims’ rights, freedom of movement and trafficking.

A docket of research documents around specific legal issues will be produced which will be shared with relevant organisations, as well as providing advice and information to the public and grassroots advice services.

Strengthening 21st Century Access to Justice

Grant: £91,287
November 9, 2016

This project builds on the recommendations from recent reports Delivering Justice in an Age of Austerity and What is a Court?, which informed the senior judiciary and Government’s thinking on system reform.

This project aims to ensure that the changes to the court and tribunals systems through digitisation respond to the needs of court users, and that ordinary people are provided with the tools to be able to take advantage of an improved, online justice system.

The project will involve on-going work with senior judges, law makers and Government officials on the adoption of modified dispute resolution processes by the judiciary and on reconfiguration of the court and tribunal estate centred on flexibility and IT enabled access to court buildings. It will also involve the establishment of a Working Party of JUSTICE members focussed on how ‘Assisted Digital’ might be enhanced to ensure that everyone, including the most technologically marginalised, can access justice online.

The Right to Participate

Grant: £98,000
November 9, 2016

This project will create an innovative interactive guide to increase disabled people’s understanding of their legal rights. It will combine new technology with best evidence on framing rights-based messages and support disabled people to see where the barrier they are facing has a legal solution.

This resource will consist of four main elements:

• The Right to Participate – introductory video presentation showing and describing disabled people’s rights across three dimensions of participation; Out-and-About, Employment and Education
• Take Action – guided pathways illustrating a range of possible ‘early intervention’ solutions and taking disabled people through the steps required to use the law, mount challenges and effect change.
• Forum - where disabled people can share experiences.
• Find Out More - further resources, links to our own factsheets, helplines, blogs, news updates and other sources of support

Implications of Brexit for Disability Rights

Grant: £9,750
November 9, 2016

This project will enable DR UK deliver a research paper examining the possible impact on disabled people’s rights of the vote for Brexit. This will include looking at UK laws that have a basis in EU law and what might be required to avoid aspects being lost or changed to the disadvantage of disabled people.

Aiming for 2020: Increasing PLE in Northern Ireland

Grant: £50,000
November 9, 2016

This project focuses on delivering the Lawyers in Schools and the Mock Trial Competitions, Smartlaw programme, together with the introduction of newly developed initiatives in Northern Ireland. All the SmartLaw initiatives are designed to increase young people’s legal capability by up-skilling non-specialist intermediaries – usually teachers and legal professionals.

Pro Bono Community

Grant: £30,000
November 9, 2016

This project is for continued support to provide specialist training equipping law students, trainees and lawyers with the skills and expertise to become effective volunteers and placing them in Law Centres and advice agencies. By training volunteers and providing them with volunteering placements it is aimed to increase the amount and improve the quality of free legal advice in the areas of law most likely to affect those in poverty or need.