Legal Update: Legal aid cuts limit access to justice

Two years on from drastic cuts to legal aid, the incoming government is being called on to urgently review legal services for children, young people and families. The parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights concluded, in its 24 March report on the UK's compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, that: "The govermnent's reforms to legal aid have been a significant black mark on its human rights record during the second half of this parliament." The committee stated that there are "firm grounds for a new government of whatever make-up to look again at these reforms and to undo some of the harm they have caused to children".

The Joint Committee on Human Rights is not alone in its concern about access to professional support in legal matters concerning children's rights; matters that can have life-changing implications. Another parliamentary body scrutinising policy and legislation, the House of Commons Justice Committee, published a report on 12 March, containing the results of its inquiry into the impact of changes to civil legal aid. The committee recognised that children "are inevitably at a disadvantage in asserting their legal rights, even in matters which can have serious long-term consequences for them". The committee recommended that: "The Ministry of Justice review the impact on children's rights of the legal aid changes and consider how to ensure separated and trafficked children in particular are able to access legal assistance."

Calls for action

These are welcome calls for action and back up those made by the Office of the Children's Commissioner, children's organisations, lawyers and young people themselves. A manifesto called "Make our rights reality", developed by hundreds of young people and launched by the campaigning coalition JustRights, powerfully argues that something must be done to ensure respect for children and young people's rights and their protection from harm. In the manifesto, young people stress that they want to be able to help themselves as far as possible, but simply do not understand their rights and do not know where to turn for help.

One 19-year-old's view expressed in the manifesto is that: "You are not told anything, you have to find out things for yourself and it isn't easy, you get conflicting information. I looked online and at some forums and there was different information, so I didn't know what was right until I saw an adviser."

Another 16-year-old said: "They don't want us to know because they don't want to get into trouble. It's a lot less work for them to deal with if we don't know what to ask for." And another emphasised the importance of having a solicitor: "I don't know what I would have done without my solicitor. They are not respectful towards you unless you have a representative."

An urgent review

Coram Children's Legal Centre and many other organisations working for children's rights firmly support calls for access to legal aid to be urgently reviewed by the incoming government after the election. The cuts to legal aid brought in two years ago have affected children's rights across many areas of their lives - in education including school admissions and exclusions, in private family law including arrangements about where children will live and contact with their parents, in immigration where even a child on their own in the UK may have no access to a lawyer, in prison law where not even children with disabilities or mental health issues were excluded from cuts, as well as in housing law, social security law and other areas with significant consequences for children's safety and welfare.

Legal Update is produced in association with experts at Coram Children’s Legal Centre ?www.childrenslegalcentre.com

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