It is exciting to see that the Harrow Law Centre has sought to bid for a criminal legal aid contract to provide greater support to vulnerable clients because of the need for holistic support for the many young residents moved from borough to borough due to their housing situation. The law centre recognises that engagement with the legal system without proper early intervention and legal support can lead to a downward spiral for young people. This includes mental health issues, prevention from continuing education, housing instability and a whole stream of other flow-on effects that can affect them and their families for life.

As a researcher and community lawyer for many decades in Australia, I have been examining how the ability to gain early access to legal support by people experiencing disadvantage, and their professional supports (including youth workers, counsellors, women's refuges, health and allied health professionals and social workers), can lead to improved outcomes. There are many synergies between the United Kingdom and Australia, including cuts to legal aid, poor resourcing, and cuts to the provision of services such as food banks, women's refuges, housing, disability, the elderly and mental health supports including youth workers. We have seen, in the last decade or more, additional administrative hoops designed to exclude people most in need, and resource constraints on our courts. Yet, despite this, in recent years due to a will, drive and a desire to build a compelling evidence base, breakthroughs are occurring.

The research tells us that many people do not know how to identify a legal problem and that it is very hard to navigate a complex and incomprehensible legal system. Therefore, having early access to legal support that is connected with a range of services can make a real difference. The laws we encounter affect everything we do in life: from finding income support, to families being unified and connected, to access to income support and housing. As the Harrow Law Centre has indicated, young people are vulnerable if their needs are not met earlier.

I have been undertaking a study in Australia for seven years, which is now one of the longest longitudinal empirical studies of a legal assistance program in Australia. This is one of many studies I have undertaken in the last two decades examining the impacts and effectiveness of gaining earlier legal support for people experiencing disadvantage. My studies have highlighted consistently that, by involving lawyers earlier alongside other support people, significant inroads can be made into improving the lives of people, averting crisis, and building legal empowerment and improved health, safety, and wellbeing. For example, my most recent report Going Deeper: The Invisible Hurdles Stage III Research Evaluation Final Report, published with Nottingham Trent University in June/July 2022, details the evidence base that when young people at risk of family violence received support with housing it could prevent eviction, rescue them from irresponsible loans, enable them to understand their rights in terms of family violence, highlight to police complexity, biases and missteps, and that pathways to employment can be made. All of this can happen through young people understanding their legal position by having lawyers negotiate in tricky situations.

I started as associate professor, clinical legal education and school research impact lead, at Nottingham Law School at Nottingham Trent University in June 2022. I have been talking to a range of social support services in the UK. All have indicated a significant appetite for enhancing their agencies’ ability to ensure legal empowerment, holistic client-centred practise, not just delivering just outcomes but also in improving and making progress towards the social and health improvements in people’s lives.

The combination of austerity, significant cuts to legal aid, and confusion as to how to navigate the complex service landscape in the UK compounded by Covid, has also compounded the situation. Agencies report people struggling and falling even deeper into poverty. I hope to bring a new energy to the UK, looking to the evidence base that exists elsewhere, to learn, to look at what might be improved and set up the opportunities, look at new models of practise and build on existing models of multidisciplinary practice. I seek to open a long overdue dialogue between the charity sector, civil society, funders, decision makers, government and our parliamentary representatives so that we can improve the outcomes for those who currently are so often left behind, are overwhelmed and have no voice. Watch this space.

 

Dr Liz Curran is associate professor and clinical legal education & school impact research lead at Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University

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