Increase Public Understanding

Legally Informed Advocacy in Children’s Hearings

Grant: £9,600
September 7, 2018

The Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011, which modernised the children’s hearings system, was brought into force 4 years ago.The only section that is still not law is a requirement for the hearing to inform the child of the availability of children’s advocacy services.

In late 2017, the Scottish Government commissioned Who Cares? Scotland to develop a National Practice Model and Service Delivery Model for children’s advocacy. This work is almost complete, and the Scottish Government is now developing a procurement process and is aiming for the model to be in place by the end of next year.

This is therefore an opportune time to influence how the advocacy element of the Act is implemented, to ensure that legally informed advocacy in Children’s Hearings for all care-experienced young people is embedded into processes and practice.

Use of the law by voluntary Organisations Phase 3

Grant: £200,000
August 23, 2018

Strengthening the Voluntary Sector (STVS) is a well-known and highly regarded grants programme in the sector. The focus chosen for the new five-year programme is building on a belief that better use of the law presents opportunities for parts of the voluntary sector to enhance their ability to pursue their charitable purpose. In turn, better use of the law by the voluntary sector will help to amplify the law’s everyday relevance by situating it within a wider framework advocacy and social change. It also offers opportunities to unlock new sources of financial and other support for legal-related activity and to widen ownership and defence of the law at a time when it is under pressure.

Transforming access to justice

Grant: £40,000
June 20, 2018

Developing a chatbot that will provide basic legal advice on social care issues and so increase the ability of care workers to understand and use the law to support people with learning disabilities and their families.

Influencing Legal Aid Policy through Political Engagement

Grant: £99,814
June 20, 2018

Providing the Secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid together with extending cross-party policy engagement activities and the provision of direct training to MPs and parliamentary staff as part of informing and influencing policy.

Mainstreaming the Rule of Law in Parliament

Grant: £92,850
June 20, 2018

Devising and implementing a strategy to build legal capability amongst parliamentarians by helping them to understand how and when rule of law principles are relevant and how they can be used to improve legislation.

Wales Civil Society Forum on Brexit (Wales-CSFB)

Grant: £97,613
November 13, 2017

Wales-CSFB will focus on Welsh civil society’s engagement in Brexit. It has two key, mutually supportive aspects.

The first is to support civil society groups (CSGs) to engage actively in debate and inform decision-making around Brexit, by providing reliable and accessible legal expertise, timely information and a co-ordinating role.

The second is to inform academic work on civil society engagement with Brexit. This aspect will facilitate tailored legal expertise on Brexit for civil society in Wales. It will include a baseline statement of legal challenges and opportunities for civil society from Brexit. Academic work will be informed by insights from civil society on communities’ experience of debates around and consequences of Brexit.

The project is a partnership between the Wales Governance Centre (WGC) at Cardiff University and Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA).

An online educational tool: human rights in health and care

Grant: £100,000
November 13, 2017

This project builds on key points from face-to-face education to develop an online educational tool to help patient advocates, advisers, and health/care professionals to use human rights to support patients, securing their rights and protecting them from neglect or abuse and unfair treatment. Whilst people can use the tool to self-advocate, the target will be the many organisations/agencies charged with supporting patients, particularly those with mental health/capacity issues. This includes people living with dementia, autism and/or learning disabilities. Our interactive tool will enable patients/advocates/health workers to identify whether a person’s rights may be at issue and then take them through a series of practical steps and tools to resolve this pre-litigation (e.g. sample letters and worked examples).

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.

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.

LGBT Legal Matters

Grant: £14,460
November 9, 2016

There are three parts to this project:

1. Providing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voluntary and community organisations across the country with information, guidance, case studies and practical examples of how equalities and human rights law applies to their working environments, all contained within a new dedicated website.
2. As LGBT organisations are geographically spread the website will be backed up by a national programme of training on key legal areas in conjunction with LGBT lawyers to promote its best practice and practical use.
3. New links between LGBT organisations will encourage development of brokered relationships so more LGBT lawyers become trustees of LGBT organisations, or can offer pro-bono support, to embed legal knowledge in a very practical way.