James Kenrick from Youth Access reported that 75,000 of them have been deprived of legal aid since the introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 last year, in areas such as immigration, welfare benefits, employment, debt, and private family law. He also highlighted the wider failures of the legal system to protect young people.

Joel Carter from Just for Kids Law, who conducted research published by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, reported that young people often had no idea that the problems they faced were a legal issue (see pages 12–13 of this issue).

Anita Hurrell, legal and policy officer at Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC), presented evidence of children falling out of scope, especially in relation to leave to remain and immigration cases. She added that CCLC had been able to continue some services without legal aid, and these had seen a marked increase in demand: the Child Law Advice Line (funded by the Department for Education) fields over 1,000 calls a month; the Migrant Children’s Project advice line and outreach legal advice in children’s centres (funded through trusts) receives 100 queries a month.

Both Anna Edmundson, policy and programmes manager at Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), and Sally Ireland, principal policy adviser at the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, made the point that the UK government signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 25 years ago. The convention commits signatories to upholding the rights of all children to have protection from abuse, enough to eat and a decent home, decent education and health care, and the right to a say in decisions that affect them.

They warned that these rights are now being undermined by the number of children falling outside the scope of legal aid. CRAE was particularly concerned about the proposed legal aid residence test and its impact on children who need help the most but are the least likely to be able to prove 12 months’ lawful residence. The planned changes to judicial review would make it harder to redress injustice when public bodies make bad decisions.

Howard League legal director Laura Janes highlighted how changes to legal aid in prison law have left children in the youth justice system unable to challenge bullying, mistreatment, or to ensure they receive the help they need to turn their lives around.