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Making the case for a national advice strategy
It’s in all political parties’ interests to ditch the toxic debate over LASPO and move towards a new funding settlement. James Sandbach outlines the findings of the Low Commission’s pre-election report.
The Low Commission’s second report, Getting it Right in Social Welfare Law, was launched at the beginning of March with the aim of setting a policy framework for the next parliament. Since the publication of the commission’s first report in January 2014, we have been determined to see results from our work: there are critical unmet needs for advice and legal support, and we require new solutions from both the government and the advice sector to meet them. We have met with senior figures in all three main parties to put the case for a national advice strategy that works across government both nationally and locally, and taken our recommendations to party conferences and other policy-making forums.
Our new report gives an impetus to our earlier recommendations and contains new proposals for the post-May 2015 government to take on board. However difficult the financial climate, there is plenty of credible evidence to show that it would be a good investment for the government to fund advice and support early intervention as this is cheaper than dealing with problems later on, either in the legal system or though other public services. Therefore, any new strategy must be backed up by an advice and legal support fund. We have shown how a combination of funding across government, involving small changes in policies and priorities, could work to repair the damage of over £100 million a year having been taken out of social welfare advice as a result of legal aid cuts and other reductions.
It is in the interests of all parties to move beyond the toxic debates over the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 towards a new funding settlement. The report contains a broad spectrum of evidence as to why such a funding settlement is needed, cross-referenced with the recent findings of numerous parliamentary and other bodies, such as the National Audit Office and select committees.
Findings and proposals
The Low Commission’s report contains new research from frontline advisers, GPs and MPs, all of whom report growing problems with benefits, housing, debt and other social welfare issues, and a weakening of the overall capacity of advice agencies to deal with them. In particular, the report highlights failures in the ‘mandatory reconsideration’ process for redress over welfare benefit decisions, as well as wider problems in accessing redress over public service failures.
The report also sets out evidence of links between social welfare advice needs and ill-heath (especially mental ill-health). It outlines how health and social care commissioners and providers can work in partnership to ensure their service users can also access advice for welfare, housing and debt problems.
Finally, the report explores some of the new approaches to tackling unmet needs and improving the capability of the advice sector piloted by partnerships supported by the Lottery-based Advice Services Transition Fund. We have called for the continuation of this funding stream.
Reception and response
Senior figures from each of the three main political parties came together for the report’s launch. MPs Simon Hughes, Dominic Grieve and Andy Slaughter all agreed that the challenge for the next administration would be to make what money there is go further. Justice minister Hughes welcomed the ‘important and timely’ report, saying he would take its proposals back to the Ministry of Justice for attention, fully supporting key principles such as early intervention, better decision-making and public legal education. He saw potential for improving expenditure, perhaps through a process in which the government would match funding allocated by, for example, the Big Lottery Fund.
Grieve, former attorney-general, found the report ‘remarkable and interesting’, and ‘containing a lot of real value’, prompting a need to think creatively about new solutions. He saw scope for better integration of advice services, plus opportunities for identifying small sums of money that could go a long way to making improvements. He also thought public bodies should deal with complaints at an earlier stage. The Low Commission, he said, was ‘talismanic in looking in new ways at problems which have been around for a long time’.
Slaughter, as shadow justice minister, believed the report to be ‘a superb piece of work’. While party commitments would await the publication of the manifesto, he said he would sign up to an early review of LASPO and to the importance of looking at developing strategies for advice work across all government departments. He felt there had been ‘a destructive and fragmentary approach to all these areas over the last five years, and the next five years needed to look at a much more constructive process’.