Low Commission: from inquiry to advocacy
James Sandbach, campaigns and research manager for the Low Commission, explains how the commission intends to take its work forwards.
The Low Commission’s report
Tackling the advice deficit: a strategy for access to advice and legal support on social welfare law in England and Wales has been very well-received in different quarters.
1Available at: www.lowcommission.org.uk/dyn/1389221772932/Low-Commission-Report-FINAL-VERSION.pdf. The report’s launch in parliament earlier this year, which I had the pleasure of attending, was positively buzzing with goodwill towards the commissioners’ hard work in coming up with a policy blueprint for social welfare law in the light of all the colossal difficulties wrought by the implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 and other funding cuts. It was acknowledged by justice ministers, Opposition spokespersons and senior legal figures that the commission had brought much-needed objectivity to the issues, delivered a robust and rigorous analysis of the challenges facing social welfare law providers and clients, and come up with a set of practical and comprehensive recommendations which look to the future rather than the past.
However, this should be seen as the beginning rather the end of the process of advancing a new strategy for social welfare advice and legal support. The commission is now embarking on an ambitious second stage of its work, seeking to get its ideas and recommendations taken up by policymakers and implemented in practice. Phase one of the commission’s work involved taking evidence from stakeholders in different sectors, visiting advice providers, testing ideas with policymakers, publishing background context papers, drafting emerging thinking and consultation reports, and pulling together a final comprehensive report with recommendations. By definition and good practice, this has involved a formalistic process of scheduled commissioner meetings, evidence sessions, consultation exercises and reporting procedures. This first stage of the work has now been completed with the publication of the final report. Tackling the advice deficit runs to over 120 pages and describes comprehensively the problems in social welfare law that the public faces and the difficulties they experience in getting advice and support. Most importantly, the report outlines 100 recommendations to government and others to improve the availability and quality of social welfare law services.
Moving to the next phase
So, what now? The commission has reported, and advice providers and other stakeholders are interested in what impact it will have on public policy towards the future of the advice sector. Lord Low and the other commissioners are determined that a year’s worth of research and policy work should not be left to gather dust and that there is a job to do to promote the report, engage policymakers and carry out necessary follow-up work.
So, this is where stage two starts: the commission intends to be proactive in continuing to gather evidence, communicating findings, engaging stakeholders and influencing policymakers in the run-up to the general election in May 2015. This will involve seeking endorsements from opinion-formers, making use of the media to promote the commission’s work and meeting key politicians involved in drafting party manifestos, ministers, shadow ministers, influential parliamentarians and civil servants responsible for implementing policy in this area.
Evidence-gathering
The commission plans to publish further evidence reports in the near future to provide a stronger evidence-base to support its recommendations, and will also be collating and publishing existing research as well as initiating research where gaps are identified. The stronger the evidence, the stronger the case that can be made to government.
In the pipeline we have a major report on the economic or cost–benefit case for the provision of advice and legal support, which will be published in around a month’s time. This is essential to support the central proposition of the Low Commission’s report that there should be a National Advice and Legal Support Fund with a ten-year horizon, as the funding model depends partly on achieving long-term savings from advice outcomes, early intervention and the prevention and sorting out of social welfare problems.
Political parties and the 2015 general election
The commission will also be setting out its stall at the main party conferences. Many of the key recommendations are for the next parliament rather than this one, and since the composition of the government in 2015 is entirely unknown, the commission needs to engage with a range of political figures who might emerge with ministerial or policy portfolios in this area. The commission’s work has been entirely independent and impartial in respect of the political parties and has aimed to develop consensual cross-party solutions based on the best evidence and expertise. The commission is also conscious that whatever the political colour of the next administration, there will be continuing constraints on public spending, so the approach must be based on making much better use of existing resources within government. With the general election just a year away, this is exactly the right time to be stepping up efforts to secure political buy-in and support for the Low Commission’s vision of a sustainable social welfare advice sector.
Communications, public engagement and support
There is also an important job to do with communications, public engagement and building both a network of advocates for the report’s recommendations and an alliance of supporters among charities and community groups. The Low Commission is clear that it is not a campaigning organisation but an expert group: it will not be running a campaign. However, as the commission moves into phase two of its work, it will become increasingly engaged with public campaigning platforms and political discussion to influence the policy prospectus for public advice and legal support services. Many of the commission’s stakeholders, including bodies representing advice providers, are active campaigners around access to justice and advice, and we will be working with them to encourage a wide base of support for the commission’s recommendations. We will also be launching more public engagement with the commission’s work, perhaps through focus groups.
My own role as campaigns and research manager for the commission is to bring together, develop and drive forwards the practical day-to-day work of this advocacy programme. If readers look at the commission’s upgraded and refreshed website they will be able to see the progress made.
2See: www.lowcommission.org.uk. We will keep supporters updated on this site with details of events, activities, innovations in the advice sector and monitoring of financial and other data on the impact of the cutbacks in advice and legal support services. Communications will also be sent out through a variety of channels, such as stakeholder newsletters and social media.
Fertile ground for a major policy rethink
So, how successful will the commission be in meeting its objectives and delivering the aspirations of the report? The commission does not pretend that its recommendations are magic-bullet solutions, but the ground is fertile for a major rethink of policy.
First, the Advice Services Transition Fund, set up in October 2012 by the Big Lottery Fund to support local not for profit providers of advice services, is running out, so any new government will need to address this as a priority issue. Second, the exceptional cases funding scheme (LASPO Act s10) for out-of-scope areas under civil legal aid has proven to be dysfunctional, with approvals for exceptional funding falling well below Ministry of Justice estimates. Yet, the demand for social welfare advice continues to grow, especially as benefit claimants transition into universal credit, while further changes in the areas of social care and pension entitlement will also add to demand.
Finally, government emphasis on ‘digital by default’ significantly alters the way in which individuals are expected to interact with the state, and accentuates the strategic role for independent advice and information provision to assist public navigation of new systems, both through advice and public legal education. So, the commission’s recommendations on how government agencies, local authorities and advice providers can work together to improve their online channels are particularly important.
Conclusion
High-quality and appropriately tiered advice and information provision through web-based services, and real interaction with advisers, which is accessible through the places and communities (real and virtual) that typically people turn to for help, are no longer ‘nice to have’. Yet, there is less and less funding – for example, through the legal aid budget – to support these facilities.
To take the debate beyond the rights and wrongs of legal aid reform, the commission’s central proposition is that, with ongoing austerity, rather than having a funding mechanism purely for legal support, there is far more value in having a single, strategic funding mechanism which supports the full spectrum of education, information, advice and legal support. The commission believes that we can get significant traction by engaging politicians on this agenda.
The commissioners
The Low Commission was established in 2012 to examine the funding and future of social welfare law advice and support. The commission is entirely independent of political parties and advice organisations and has been supported by the Baring Foundation, the LankellyChase Foundation, the Barrow Cadbury Trust, the Legal Education Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Trust for London.
The Low Commission is chaired by:
Lord Colin Low CBE. Lord Low is a former law lecturer and was made a life peer in 2006. He is a vice-president of the Royal National Institute of Blind People and president of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment. Lord Low has undertaken important roles in a wide range of other organisations, including the Disability Rights Commission.
His fellow commissioners are the following:
Amanda Finlay CBE
(vice-chairperson) was formerly a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Justice, responsible for legal aid and legal services strategy
Bob Chapman
Member of the Welsh Committee of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council and of the Board of Consumer Focus Wales
Mark Gamsu
Visiting professor at Leeds Metropolitan University
Vandna Gohil
Programme Manager for Voluntary Action Leicestershire, and former director of Voice4Change England
David Hagg
Chief Executive of Stroud District Council
Steve Hynes
Director of Legal Action Group
Pam Kenworthy
Legal director, Howells Direct (part of Howells LLP)
Vicky Ling
Independent consultant working with firms of solicitors in private practice and not for profit agencies
Susan Steed
New Economics Foundation and Centre for Markets and Public Organisations, University of Bristol
The commission will be supported by James Sandbach. Lord Low, Amanda Finlay, Steve Hynes, Bob Chapman and Vicky Ling have formed an advisory group for phase two of the commission’s work.