Chair's introduction and
report
Devon Law Centre is a community resource offering free
specialist legal help to people on benefits and low incomes. The areas of law
we cover are Community Care, Education, Housing and Immigration.
As ever, this year has been one of ups and downs, and we continue to seek additional funding to secure and expand our services. This year, our difficulties have been exacerbated by the imminent need for the Centre to find new premises following the sale of Virginia House, within which complex the Centre is currently housed.
That said, there are a number of reasons to be
optimistic about the future of the Centre.
First, there has been a series of meetings between
ourselves, representatives of the Law Centres Federation and staff of the Legal
Services Commission (LSC). These have been extremely fruitful, and in
particular it is apparent that the LSC is committed to the future of the
Centre. This commitment has been underlined in a number of practical ways,
including the provision of guidance on various aspects of the Centre's
operations, and a one-off payment for additional administrative support.
In addition, we are actively engaged in seeking both
additional sources of funds and more members
of the management committee. We are also addressing the need to find new
premises.
The staff group is fully committed to the principles
and values of the Centre and they are pulling out all of the stops to make the
Centre a viable concern within very difficult circumstances, limited resources
and a climate that is not conducive to providing legal advice on the terms that
we would prefer. The feedback from agencies with which I am associated all sing
the praises of the workers. Not to put too fine a point on it, the closure of
the Centre would contribute alarmingly to an already shrinking supply of legal
advice within the City of Plymouth and the south west more generally. It is
thus of considerable importance that the Law Centre not only survives but expands
its area of activity and influence.
Chair of the Management Committee
Devon Law Centre people
Departures
The Management Committee took the difficult decision
to make practice manager
Management Committee
Volunteers
Staff
The year in numbers
Devon Law Centre has now
helped nearly 2,000 people. Between June 2001, when we opened, and the end of
July 2004, the Law Centre has handled a total of 1,987 cases, of which 1,069
were full cases (Legal Help, Controlled Legal Representation and
Publicly-Funded Legal Representation) and 918 shorter advice sessions (Level
One).
In the year under review, a
total of 322 full Legal Help or Controlled Legal Representation cases have been
opened, as follows:
Community Care 39
Education 34
Housing 177
Immigration 72
Total 322
new cases
In addition, caseworkers
provided Level One advice in 478 cases:
Community Care 31
Education 26
Housing 149
Immigration 272
Total 478
new cases
At the end of July 2004,
the Law Centre had a current caseload of 130:
Community Care 29
Education 22
Housing 45
Immigration 34
Total 130 cases open
Signposting
We have now started to
monitor calls and visits to the Law Centre which we cannot deal with. Between
January and July 2004, we received 328 such enquiries, an average of 47 per
month.
The overwhelming majority
of these enquiries require help outside our areas of law, in which case we
signpost the caller elsewhere and, if necessary, ask the referring agency to
amend the information they hold about our services. There is a particular
problem in this regard with calls for employment advice: it would appear that a
lot of our old leaflets and posters are still in circulation and we are working
to ensure that up-to-date information is held by all relevant agencies.
In addition, a handful of
such callers - five or less per month – have to be sent elsewhere either
because the caseworker has no spare capacity or because the caseworker cannot
see them in time to meet a deadline.
The opening of the
Community Legal Service Helpline will, we hope, reduce the amount of time we
have to spend on signposting.
Client satisfaction survey
Between January and March
2004, we ran our annual client satisfaction survey. The summary results were as
follows:
1.
125 cases were closed between January and March
2004: a client satisfaction survey form and stamped addressed envelope were
sent out with each closing letter.
2.
31 completed forms were received, a return of 25%.
3.
81% of respondents (25 people) expressed themselves
‘very satisfied’ with the overall level of service provided by the Law Centre;
and 87% (27 people) were either ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied.
4.
84% of respondents (26 people) were ‘very
satisfied’ with the explanations they received about the issues involved in
their cases; 90% (28 people) were either ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied.
5.
71% of respondents (22 people) felt they were
informed of developments ‘very well’; 87% (27 people) felt this was done either
‘very’ or ‘fairly well’.
6.
91% of those who answered the question (10 out of
11 people) were ‘very satisfied’ with the performance of their representative
at court or tribunal.
7.
100% of those who answered the question (30 people)
felt they were treated with courtesy by the Law Centre staff.
8.
One respondent felt s/he encountered some
discrimination in his/her dealings with the Law centre. The explanation given
for this was “The case was not resolved!!”
9.
87% of respondents (27 people) felt they would use
the Law Centre again.
10.
Clients heard about the Law Centre from a range of
sources. The most common were friends and relatives, Citizens’ Advice Bureaux
and solicitors. No clients heard about the Law Centre from our own publicity
leaflets.
11.
The following unsolicited comments were also received:
Administrator
Legal Services Commission
Devon Law Centre is funded
entirely by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) under the terms of the Not-For-Profit
Contract. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the LSC for their
continued support.
Housing
The last year has continued
to be very busy. The housing caseload is very wide ranging, from
straightforward eviction cases to homeless appeals dealing with complex points
of law. The Law Centre is currently awaiting consideration by the Court of
Appeal of a case dealing with the role of the Courts in homelessness appeals.
We coordinate and represent
on the Plymouth County Court duty scheme which has continued to be successful
in resolving is
Despite the continued
limited funding we have achieved a number of successes over the last year. By way of illustration we give two examples.
Miss S came to us for
advice at the Plymouth County Court duty scheme. She was a Council tenant and
was due to be evicted a few days later. She was accompanied by her social
worker who explained that her children were in the care of social services but
were due to be returned to their mother shortly. When we went through the
papers we realised that there were less than 3 weeks rent arrears as previous
housing benefit is
Miss P was a
French–speaking refugee bringing up four children on her own; she was granted
an introductory tenancy of a Council property. However, the property was
filthy, the shower did not work, there was a thick layer of grease over the
kitchen and Miss P felt that her children would be at risk if she moved in. The
Council failed to provide an interpreter when she signed the tenancy so she did
not understand the terms or nature of the agreement. Her social worker was
liaising with the Council to remedy the problems with the flat. Miss P did not
realise that she would not be entitled to housing benefit if she did not move
into the flat. Rent arrears accrued and she was served with Notice of
termination of her tenancy. She sought advice from the Law Centre. We submitted
an appeal against the Notice and represented her at the appeal hearing. The
Council agreed to waive the rent arrears so that she could remain in her
tenancy and recommended that an interpreter be arranged to explain the tenancy
properly.
Solicitor
Immigration
The Law Centre continues to
assist clients with a vast range of immigration issues including asylum
seeking, citizenship, leave to remain under the Immigration Rules and leave to
remain under European law. Clients come
from all over the South West although the majority are
Telephone advice is given
to clients via the Citizen’s Advice Bureaux network for those who are unable to
attend the Law Centre.
There have been a number of
major changes in immigration legislation over the past year, with more to
follow, which makes for a challenging work load. Strict limits on the amount of time to be
spent on a case were introduced in April 2004, and the LSC require that all
immigration advisers and volunteers be accredited by April 2005, which
necessitates taking no less than three exams.
There has, therefore, been a great deal of pressure on the Immigration
Adviser.
Whilst a number of clients
have been granted full refugee status or Humanitarian Protection in the
In April 2004 the Legal
Services Commission removed devolved powers from the majority of immigration
advisers with the effect that it is now rarely possible to assist clients with
an appeal against a Home Office refusal.
This usually means that clients have to prepare their case and represent
themselves without the assistance of legal advice and almost always results in
a negative result. We are pleased to
report that we have managed to persuade the LSC to allow us to represent in all
but two deserving cases.
The scope of work under
European law has increased since the enlargement of the European Union to
include rights for members of the 10 Accession Countries in May this year and
the Law Centre has been able to advise clients on their rights and those of
family members. One particular case
involved a client being told by the Home Office that she could only stay in the
The Law Centre has also
successfully assisted minor children in establishing their age despite strong
resistance from the Home Office with the result that they have now been able to
remain in the
In two recent cases, the
clients had been granted refugee status but the Home Office had not issued
their status papers. We were able to arrange for these to be issued, thus
enabling the clients and their families to prove their status, to work and to
recommence an ordinary life.
A great deal of thanks go
to
Immigration Adviser
Community Care and Education
Community Care
Community Care continues to be very busy with clients
spread throughout the area although predominantly from
The most common problems are delay in assessments and
incomplete assessments or care plans, which either do not deal with all the
client’s problems or are not specific.
We have helped by corresponding with Social Services on the client’s
behalf and by attending meetings or care planning conferences with clients to
advocate on their behalf.
One problem which appears to be on the increase is
that of young (15 or 16 year old) people who are on their own for a variety of
reasons and for whom Local Authorities (three different ones in the last six
months) consider that their only obligation is to provide basic accommodation. This is no doubt because of lack of resources
in Children’s Services and the need to target the most serious cases. However these young people are often very
vulnerable and we have been able to remind the Authorities of their additional
obligations towards them under the Children Act.
As always, pressure to achieve LSC hours and lack of
alternative funding has meant we are unable to do any policy, education or
outreach work. This is frustrating as a little work with providers or service
user groups would enable us to discuss recurring themes such as the above and
help to open up better channels of communication with a view to changing
practice in a non threatening way. However, we have had many successes during
the year.
Mr S is an 18 year old failed asylum seeker with
epilepsy and other physical and mental health problems who had been dispersed
to
Mr M is an adult with learning difficulties and
multiple physical disabilities who lives on his own near Newton Abbot, but with
a care package in place and with his parents nearby. They contacted us in great
distress when Social Services severely cut his day care services. After correspondence from the Law Centre,
services were not only restored but a much increased package of services was
agreed which led to a substantially increased Direct Payment.
Education
As last year, much of our work concerns exclusions
from school and school attendance problems, frequently relating to children who
have special needs, but whose needs may not have been officially
recognised. We have been able to help
persuade LEAs to issue Statements of Special Educational Need and obtain a
suitable school place in several cases.
D, a 14 year old boy from
Cases involving the preparation of applications to the
Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) continue to
increase. Such cases are usually complex
involving a lot of documentation, the obtaining of reports from experts such as
Educational Psychologists and Paediatricians and drafting very detailed
statements of the case. Unfortunately LSC funding is not available for
representing clients at the Tribunal hearing which means we are unable to offer
a complete service to some of our most needy clients We prepare clients as well
as possible to represent themselves at the hearing, but funding for Tribunal
representation would be of great benefit to many.
We recently had an unusual case which had a very
satisfactory outcome. Ms M qualified as
a midwife in