Politicians hear case for reform of social welfare law provision
The Low Commission took to the road to attend the conferences of all three main political parties to explain why change is essential to ensure those in need have access to advice and support.James Sandbach reports.
The Low Commission held fringe meetings at all the main political party conferences, in Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. In addition, Lord Low and I also met parliamentarians, councillors and activists; contributed to numerous other fringe meetings, including those of StepChange and the Money Advice Service on debt issues; and attended discussions on welfare, organised by Child Poverty Action Group, the Centre for Social Justice, and others. Large meetings were organised by the Care and Support Alliance and the Local Government Association, on local government priorities and community care and wellbeing services.
There were also numerous bespoke fringe meetings on the crisis in rented housing, fringe meetings organised by disability charities, and meetings on workplace rights, supported by trade unions, and others. Each conference held debates hosted by the party’s legal associations – some were held jointly with the law reform organisation Justice - and the Law Society also held fringe events and receptions. Citizens Advice held receptions to celebrate its 75th birthday.
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Lord Low: solution-focused proposals
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Labour conference, Manchester
One of the first meetings the commission attended in Manchester was with the Society of Labour Lawyers, which was launching a book on justice (including a chapter from former LAG director Roger Smith) calling for a new strategy and mission statement for the civil legal aid system. The issues were discussed with Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan MP and Shadow Attorney-General Emily Thornberry MP at a packed meeting.
Our fringe meeting the following day featured our chairman, Lord Colin Low, Yvonne Fovargue MP, LAG director Steve Hynes, and Shadow Justice Minister Andy Slaughter MP. While it became clear that Labour’s frontbench were not going to make any binding commitments on extra funding for advice services (or to reverse any of the legal aid cuts), they supported the Low Commission’s proposals on developing an advice strategy and exploring ‘quick-win’ options, like extending the life of the Advice Services Transition Fund.
There was also a packed evening meeting for the wider advice sector, organised by the Justice Alliance, which saw frontbenchers being put under more pressure to address the issues. Andy Slaughter, however, made it clear that if Labour was forming the next government, there would be no ‘going back in a tardis’ to the pre-Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 era, as so much had changed since then. Instead, it would take a staged approach to reform in civil justice, starting with tackling the most dysfunctional parts of the LASPO Act system – the domestic violence gateway, and the exceptional funding scheme. It would then move on to addressing other problems around litigants in person in the family justice system, and then finally to capacity issues in other areas of legal aid, such as social welfare law, for which there was a strong hint that they were predisposed to the Low Commission’s proposals. It was also made clear the frontbench could not commit to making any further resources available.
Conservative conference, Birmingham
At the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, our panellists sharing the spotlight with Lord Low included Justice Minister Lord Faulks QC, Solicitor-General Robert Buckland MP, and Conservative lawyer Phillip Taylor, as well as Law Centres Network director Julie Bishop. All of the panellists were extremely warm towards the Low Commission’s agenda, especially our proposals around legal literacy and early intervention methods and approaches. Again, no commitments could be made; the only potential step being taken at the moment was Robert Buckland’s willingness to ask officials in the Attorney-General’s office what more could be done to promote ‘legal literacy’ work (or public legal education) with stakeholders and departments across government. Phillip Taylor was preparing a report for the Society of Conservative Lawyers on how the civil justice system needed to be reshaped from the judiciary downwards to make it more user-friendly.
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Shadow Justice Minister Andy Slaughter MP speaking at Low Commission launch earlier this year
We also met with key members of the Local Government Association Conservative Group, which supports Tory councils. There was strong recognition from its members of the impact of cuts on local services and on the voluntary sector: many of the councillors we spoke to thought that their councils had a far better understanding than the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of issues on the ground, and who needed help. They felt more resources and responsibility should be devolved to councils to address this.
We also spoke to a number of backbenchers, and our partners at the conference, the public relations group Weber Shandwick facilitated introductions to a range of other senior Conservative politicians. As a result, the Low Commission’s proposals are now being discussed at the highest level.
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Liberal Democrats conference, Glasgow
Finally, to the Lib Dems’ Glasgow conference. One of the very first debates in the main hall was a welfare reform motion, challenging much of the current direction of DWP policy, for example on sanctions, work capability assessments and the roll out of universal credit, and the work programme. One of the party’s younger activists, Joshua Dixon, proposed an amendment committing it to implementing the Low Commission’s recommendations. Family Justice Minister Simon Hughes (who spoke at our fringe meeting the same day) said that following Dixon’s proposal, as a matter of process, the Low Commission’s recommendations would now be taken into account when the party’s manifesto is being written.
As well as hearing from Lord Low and Simon Hughes, our fringe meeting also heard from Suzanne Fletcher MBE (a prominent Liberal Democrat activist and former councillor in the North East) who was retiring from Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) work after 35 years as a volunteer. Suzanne made it very clear that the growing complexity of welfare and immigration law means that the CAB model cannot work effectively, unless volunteers have the back-up of specialist advisers.
Summary
The Low Commission has drawn the following conclusions after our engagement with the party conferences:
•There is support and recognition across the spectrum that the Low Commission’s proposals address a real gap, are achievable, solution-focused, and modest in public spending terms.
•However, no party is prepared to commit to spending more on civil legal aid, or on improving civil justice. Meanwhile, all parties talk about the need to reduce demand on the justice system, offering alternatives to litigation, and getting decisions right first time. Our forthcoming research will look at the accuracy of DWP decision-making.
•The language of ‘localism’ has become part of political parties’ thinking, with greater expectations that local government will lead public services delivery, but in different and innovative ways to cope with reduced resources.
•A cross-party consensus is emerging that one area that may need extra resources is the intersection between health and social care services, in order to cope with the demands of an ageing society. All parties agree these services need to be more integrated. In forthcoming Low Commission work, we are encouraging the advice sector to become more engaged in the health and social care economy.
•Political parties’ policies and manifestos are driven internally, often by small and tribal partisan elites, rather than through meaningful engagement with civil society, which is making it harder for initiatives like the Low Commission to gain traction with those responsible for producing manifestos and policies for the next parliament.
•‘Spend to save’ arguments – many of which are well evidenced (see for example our report The business case for social welfare advice services) – work in principle, but less so in practice, when it comes to dealing with the silo structures of government.
We are continuing to follow up on leads and discussions from the party conferences and widen our engagement with thinktanks and other policy stakeholders. However, well-supported charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with dedicated public affairs and media operations can also make a difference to the way politicians address issues – the concerted campaigns of the Care and Support Alliance to push improvements in social care up the agenda are a good example of this; and the work of development charities in pushing government to maintain its international aid commitments is another. This underlines the need for the social welfare law sector to build wider relationships with different NGOs and social change movements where there is common ground. This, too, will be the focus of our efforts in coming months.
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■ James Sandbach is campaigns and research manager to the Low Commission on the Future of Advice and Legal Support. The commission was set up by Legal Action Group, but is independent. It is chaired by the cross-bench peer Lord Colin Low:
www.lowcommission.org.uk