I have heard news of two interesting pilot projects this month. One project around asylum looked at the benefits of frontloading advice and ensuring good decisions at an early stage in asylum cases. The second looked at going one step further, by eliminating the need for advice in the first place.
The report of the Radical Advice Project undertaken by AdviceUK makes interesting reading and draws some very useful conclusions, the main one being that much of the demand for advice is ‘failure demand’, caused by failings in public service administration. Those of us in the sector know that the majority of the work that we do involves correcting wrong decisions by the DWP, housing benefit departments, HMRC …….. The list goes on.
The government believes that the advice sector is inefficient and that efficiency savings must be made. This was one of the reasons fixed fees were introduced in the first place. But, what both these reports find is that really it is the local/central government departments that should be getting their act together and that extra resources spent at an early stage getting things right will actually save huge amounts of time and money further down the line.
How refreshing!
It really saddens me to report that our welfare benefits Appeals Team will be closing in October after 24 years of invaluable service, helping so many clients with their complicated cases and appeals.
Over the past few years we have managed to deal with everything that the Legal Services Commission threw at us, but regrettably we have now had to call it a day. It is ironic that in my first blog in April I mentioned how the LSC’s new fixed fee regime was wreaking havoc on voluntary sector advice agencies.
I knew it was going to be difficult making the contract work, especially for specialist providers such as ours, but I did not envisage how tough it would be and the huge impact it would have on our own services.
We are not the only agency who has had to terminate or cut down on advice service provision. It seems that every week I’m hearing news of another agency who has decided to reduce or give back their LSC contracts. They are just simply not viable.
It’s deplorable, because advice services are needed now more than ever with the impact of the ‘credit crunch’ and also the implementation of the Government’s new Welfare Reform agenda. According to the Government’s own research it is estimated that an extra 26,500 appeals will be lodged per year because of these reform changes. Where will these people go to get help with their appeals?
This blog entry begins in the pub- where all truly meaningful encounters take place. I was having a drink there with a contact who also works in the voluntary sector when he suddenly said, “By the way- I saw your blog the other day. It’s good. What’s your next entry going to be about then?”
When I first started this blog I was, like most bloggers, a little nervousabout whether anyone would read it.However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by not only how many people have seen it, but also how easy it has been to pick up a conversation on whatever the topic of the latest post was. So I’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog and to comment on it, whether on the blog itself or in person.
In fact, the blog has reminded me that one of the things I really enjoy about working in thevoluntary sector is that there is often a highly imaginative and open-minded approach about ways to connect and communicate with people. It just shows that you don’t have to spend millions on communications- the most important element is thinking creatively about how to reach out, engage with people, and share ideas (as I’m delighted to say Rightsnet, alongside the fantastic people who form its online community, have been recognised for.) http://www.lasa.org.uk/cgi-bin/publisher/display.cgi?2244-6108-21151+news
Times are tough in the voluntary, as well as other sectors, right now- and they may get worse for all of us before they get better. But we need to keep supporting and sharing ideas with each other more than ever. So next time you see me on here (or even in the pub), come and say hi.
The Government’s new approach to race relations and issues of how we all live together in a highly diverse society is called “Community Cohesion”. Great. Of course we all want to live in a cohesive society where there are strong and effective relationships between people of different backgrounds.
But the reality of the proposal is anything but cohesive, as anyone who’s read the government’s community cohesion consultation document knows. Essentially the government is now trying to dissuade funders from providing funding for single issue or single ethnic groups on the grounds that such funding encourages separation rather than “cohesion”. Lasa have published a paper in response.
In times of crisis people seek help from within their own community. Sometimes it’s the only place where they can get advice. And for marginalized groups that advice can then be a springboard into the mainstream.
The government’s approach goes against almost all of the evidence about how immigrants and refugees settle successfully in the UK. To withdraw funding from all these groups is the wrong answer to the wrong question.
I read in yesterday’s Guardian that Ed Balls has, finally, conceded that the credit crunch “is impacting on family finances … in a way no one anticipated”. Read more here.
Talk about too little too late. I want Labour to finally move on from their infighting and really think about the people who they’re supposed to be helping. Alistair Darling’s new package of tax cuts and compensation for those who lost out on the abolition of the 10p tax rate sounds good. But in reality those on the lowest incomes who lost £230 as a result will only gain £120 from higher allowances, according to the Guardian.
As the cost of living rises and the economy lurches from one crisis to another, more and more people are slipping into poverty without adequate support. Tax cuts and some compensation are one thing; access to free legal advice when you lose your job or your home is about to be repossessed and you can’t afford a lawyer is just as essential. Our chair, Liz Sewell, recently appeared on the BBC to talk about this issue.
It’s a tough time for Gordon Brown. But it’s an even tougher time for the people who need help most.
I’m driven to start my first blog by the headlines about the impact of the new Legal Services Commission contract on industrial relations at Shelter. They’re not alone – the new contracts are wreaking havoc in voluntary advice agencies throughout the country. I think it’s time we fought our own corner a little harder.
Way back in 2006 we told the LSC that replacing hourly payments with fixed fees was going to be a recipe for disaster. The new fixed fee for a welfare benefit case is a princely £164 – equivalent to three hours of our casework and just twenty minutes of that of a corporate lawyer. Our average time to complete a case is six and half hours. I would say ‘you do the maths’ but the maths doesn’t add up.
The most desperate clients will inevitably suffer as hard-pressed agencies are forced to take on easier, quicker cases just in order to survive. And, as everyone involved in providing voluntary legal advice knows, there a precious few safety nets left for those clients we can’t take.
Times are hard; for government, funders, the LSC and public alike. I know that choices have to be made. I accept that ‘value for money’ is more of a mantra than ever before. So fine, let’s talk about value for money. Last year lasa’s success rate at tribunal was 85% – as opposed to a 40% success rate for clients who aren’t represented. And we know how economically devastating the fall-out from failure at tribunal can be.
I don’t think advice centres can wait until things get even worse than they are. I think we owe ourselves and, most importantly, our clients a bit better than that. It’s time to get proactive about telling the media exactly what the impact of these new contracts really is.
Posted by lasaceo 
Posted by lasaceo 
Posted by lasaceo 
