April 2017

Immigration Capacity Building

Grant: £15,000
April 12, 2017

The project seeks to address the acute shortage of good quality immigration lawyers who are able to work within low-income communities to:-

• explain people’s legal rights to them in a clear and meaningful way, and help them to exercise those rights
• assist community organisations to understand key legal issues and to maximise the impact of the help they provide to their beneficiaries
• provide training and support to promote good practice.

All Party Parliamentary Groups

Grant: £21,131
April 11, 2017

A project to provide a Secretariat and support service for the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Public Legal Education (PLE) and the APPG on Pro Bono, and work in tandem with the Civil Justice Council’s Task Group on PLE.

This project will

1. Maintain a database of MPs engaged, keep records, minutes, organise meetings, agendas and email lists, liaise with relevant Parliamentary authorities on registration, notices, and compliance.
2. Organise an advisory board of stakeholders, comprising of representatives from PLE organisations, to set the agenda, priorities and work programme for the APPG.
3. Deliver projects for the APPG.
4. Work in an integrated way with the Civil Justice Council, the Pro Bono APPG, and within the context of a wider strategy for the promotion and delivery of PLE working with professional bodies.

Meeting the legal needs of adults with life limiting illness

Grant: £89,811
April 11, 2017

The legal needs of people with life limiting illnesses (PwLI) such as cancer and dementia are complex, poorly understood, and poorly integrated into care packages, potentially leading to negative end-of-life experiences and costly implications for health and social care. This project will be the first known study to generate an insight into the breadth and impact of legal needs faced by PwLI and their carers, and to address those needs via an educational intervention. The study will scope the extent of current legal needs and legal service provision, and will develop strategies for measuring the impact of meeting legal needs.

Findings will be used to develop, implement and evaluate an educational package for health, social care and legal professionals involved in the care of PwLI. The package will draw on proven immersive learning techniques, supported by expert educationalists in the field. The study will be underpinned by, and already has, commitment and involvement from a key stakeholder group incorporating solicitors, clinicians, voluntary sector, patients and carers.

Virtual Law Centre

Grant: £82,011
April 10, 2017

The Virtual Law Centre is a Skype based service providing specialist legal advice from pro bono solicitors and barristers based in Bristol to clients in more rural areas of the South West who do not have access to pro bono services. The project is hosted by Avon and Bristol Law Centre working closely in partnership with Citizens Advice North Somerset and Citizens Advice South Somerset whose clients will be accessing the service. The project aims to develop to include more partners and provide a comprehensive network of pro bono advice across the region.

The aim is to start with family law and employment with one off advice sessions but build up to an end to end casework service as the project develops.

Focus will be on helping the most vulnerable people to resolve their legal issues quickly and helpfully, with clients being supported on to further services where needed. The aim is to provide a much needed service in areas where people have no access at all to free specialist legal advice and representation.

Suffolk Law Centre

Grant: £32,000
April 6, 2017

The aim is to develop a Centre that provides legal services in housing, asylum and public law and advice and assistance in areas of discrimination and employment law. The Centre will continue to work closely with both local solicitors and law students to host pro bono services that add value to what the Centre does and that helps develop the next generation of social welfare and asylum lawyers.

The aim is to tender for a contract to deliver Legal Aid services and then to provide those services in a way that reaches out across a geographically dispersed and diverse set of communities (through significant outreach projects and through partnerships with local organisations).

The aim is also to build awareness of rights and to ensure that, as far as is possible, those in need of legal advice can find it locally and for free.

The current legal advice clinic services at ISCRE, along with their funding, will be transferred to the Law Centre allowing ISCRE to focus again on its core business.

LAG Digital First Strategy- Phase II

Grant: £86,400
April 4, 2017

Implementation of the second phase of the digital first strategy developed by LAG will enable all of the content from LAG’s books, Legal Action journal and Community Care Law Reports to be made available through a new website. This will give enable LAG to bundle the content to sell on a subscription basis.