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

What do we do?

We deal with the law of every day life

DiscriminationDebt

EmploymentFamily

Health and Community CareHousing

ImmigrationPublic Law

Welfare Benefits

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

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.

Challenges

We make people aware of their rights

We make people aware of their rights

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

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

Kristina’s story

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

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

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

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

Ping Ping

Families with multiple and complex needs

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

Campaigning for policy change

Central England Public Interest Litigation Unit

The Future

Early Action Neighbourhood Fund