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Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

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Page 1: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Access to Justice for All

The work of Central England Law

Centre

Page 2: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Who are we?

www.covlaw.org.uk www.birminghamclc.org.uk

UK’s largest Law Centre41 staff including 9 solicitors

Page 3: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

What do we do?

We deal with the law of every day life

DiscriminationDebt

EmploymentFamily

Health and Community CareHousing

ImmigrationPublic Law

Welfare Benefits

Page 4: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Coventry• 50% of Coventry’s population live in the

top 34% most deprived UK areas• 27.4% of children in Coventry live in

poverty• The gap in life expectancy between the

most affluent and disadvantaged in Coventry is 5.1 years for men and 5.9 years for women

Page 5: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Birmingham• Sparkbrook second most deprived ward in

Birmingham - area within which is within in most deprived 5% nationally.

• 77% of population defined as non-white in the 2011 census and 42.5% were born overseas.

• 22.5% of households are overcrowded • 18.8% unemployment.

Page 6: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Challenges

Page 7: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

We make people aware of their rights

Page 8: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

We make people aware of their rights

Page 9: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

We work for change

• Its all about people and their lives

• Timely intervention• Inter-connected

problems and whole household

• Joining up our services with others

Page 10: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Kristina’s story

• Referred from CRASAC• Physical and mental

health problems meant off sick from low paid work for months and debts built up

• Scared because perpetrator had moved in near-by

Page 11: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Kristina’s story

Page 12: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Maintaining dignity for Mary

• Referred from Coventry Carers’ Centre

• Mary lives with her daughter in a 3 bed house with an upstairs bathroom

• She has several serious health issues and, after a fall, is now reliant on a wheelchair

• She was provided with a commode, which gave her no privacy but the local authority had told her this met her needs

Page 13: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Protecting people in work

• Our client was a checkout assistant in a supermarket on sick leave

• Received 23 weeks of SSP then no further payments or contact from her employer

• Our client was left with no income and her employer not responding to her

Page 14: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

New lives and keepingfamilies together

• Our client is a Gambian national in the UK with spouse and 3 children

• We represented him at Tribunal twice - in Stoke and in Birmingham -before the Home Office eventually granted him indefinite leave – complex area of law including Human Rights and Section 55 elements as well as failure to apply Home Office policy

• Client’s children can now register as British Citizens

• We are continuing to act for the client’s wife to regularize her stay

Page 15: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Challenging discrimination• Sara, a care worker, told her

employer that she was pregnant at 24 weeks

• She requested a risk assessment be carried out

• Employer told her ‘can’t you just stop work?’ and made her take her accrued annual leave

• Given a backdated risk assessment and told her maternity leave would begin immediately  

• Client not eligible for SMP due to insufficient length of service so left with no income

Page 16: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre
Page 17: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Ping Ping

Page 18: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Families with multiple and complex needs

Page 19: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

One family

• Client engaged after many months of work with MDT worker

• Joint visit with MDT worker at client’s home

• Client suffers mental health problems due to years of domestic abuse

Page 20: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Campaigning for policy change

Page 21: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Central England Public Interest Litigation Unit

Page 22: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

The Future

Page 23: Access to Justice for All The work of Central England Law Centre

Early Action Neighbourhood Fund