access to justice for all the work of central england law centre
TRANSCRIPT
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