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Board awards funding to five new legal advice projects with focus on mental health, disability, housing, employment and advice in rural areas Wednesday, 2nd November 2005
Amongst those who will benefit from the five projects are people with mental health issues in Fife, people living in rural and island communities in the Highlands and Argyll and Bute, rough sleepers and young people in Edinburgh, and disabled people living in North and South Lanarkshire. Five solicitors will be employed directly by the Board to work in partnership with local advice giving organisations. The projects are:
Jean Couper, Chairman of the Scottish Legal Aid Board said: “I am delighted to announce the launch of phase two of our innovative legal advice projects through which we will continue to open up access to legal advice by delivering services in new and different ways and in non-traditional settings. Communities across Scotland will benefit from these five projects as the Board addresses priority subject areas such as mental health, disability, employment and housing. They will also enable us to test out and improve new methods of delivering legal advice and improving access to legal services within remote and rural communities.” She continued: “The evaluation of our phase one projects highlighted the many new and creative ways in which we can successfully deliver legal advice in Scotland. From providing legal access and support to homeless people on the streets of Edinburgh, to improving the legal advisory capacity of organisations like Citizens Advice Bureaux, our solicitors opened-up legal advice channels for communities who previously had little or no access. In addition we identified models that worked well and could be replicated elsewhere in the country. I look forward to monitoring the progress of our five new projects and to hearing of their impact and success”. Each of the solicitors employed will be responsible for their own limited amount of casework; advice and support to clients through their advisors within their respective organisations; delivering training, and increasing the organisations capacity to deliver legal services. In addition, the solicitors will be responsible for building stronger operational links between local advice organisations and private practice solicitors and stimulating co-operation between different local organisations. The funding has been allocated under Part V of the Legal Aid ( Scotland) Act 1986 that provides for the Board to employ solicitors to act for people receiving legal aid, to give advice and assistance and to work with local organisations. Kaliani Lyle, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Scotland comments: "Following the extremely successful evaluation of our first Part V project with the Scottish Legal Aid Board, we knew our efforts to enhance access to legal services in the Highlands were working.” "We are delighted that the Board has approved our phase two application and that we will be able to retain the much needed expertise of our SLAB solicitor Ian Dickson in Inverness. We will be able to extend the reach of the project to include clients of Lochaber CAB whilst continuing the invaluable advisor training programme that Ian has put in place.” "Also during phase two, we hope to tailor this programme to give individual CAB advisors the opportunity to gain in-depth legal knowledge of issues particular to their own community, enabling them to deal more effectively and confidently with case-work that, prior to our partnership with the Scottish Legal Aid Board, they would have been less able to." Tam Hendry, Director of Streetwork UK agrees. He says: “Prior to Part V, Streetwork UK had limited ability to deliver legal advice. Through our SLAB solicitor Norman McKay, our ability to offer legal advice has increased dramatically to the direct and positive benefit of numerous clients. Phase Two will see Norman continue to take on casework for homeless people as well as prison outreach work, relationship building and training but will also see us tackle a unique and ambitious initiative in the creation of a Virtual Law Centre. This would see the formation of a signed up pool of legal practices and advice agencies dedicated to improving access to services, encouraging appropriate referrals and increasing the likelihood of representation of individuals within the vulnerable and disenfranchised community that Street Legal serves”. Recruitment for the other three projects will begin on 3rd November 2005 and it is hoped that solicitors will be in post by the end of February 2006. Each pilot will run until March 2008 during which time it will be closely monitored and evaluated. - ENDS -
JOURNALISTS PLEASE CONTACT:
NOTES TO EDITORS 1. Factsheets available include: 2. Further information suitable for features, such as project profiles, case studies and photography, as well as contact details for a spokesperson for each project are available on request from the Board. 3. The key difference with Part V projects is that the Board will employ the solicitor who works in the advice organisation. The Scottish Executive funding meets the costs of the solicitors and running costs of the projects, such as administration. 4. Legal aid allows people who would not otherwise be able to afford it to get help for their legal problems. Legal aid and advice and assistance can only be accessed through a solicitor. The Board’s mission is to promote the development and delivery of appropriate access to quality legal assistance for those eligible, in a cost-effective manner. In 2003-2004 £146 million was spent on providing legal aid.
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