Access to Justice: Liverpool Advice Strategy
With a new government in place, it is time to focus on tackling the access to advice crisis by developing advice needs assessments, and access to advice strategies both nationally and locally.
Since 2010 austerity measures, welfare reform, changes to legal aid, and reductions in local government funding have halved the advice sector, creating advice deserts in some areas, and leaving people in other areas struggling to access advice on welfare benefits, debt, housing, immigration, employment law, and social care when they need it.
Liz Reed, Network Development and Project Coordinator, Liverpool Access to Advice Network
People experiencing a problem that they need free advice for are more likely to be unemployed, people with long term health conditions or disabilities, individuals living alone, or single parents. Many people are facing interconnected multiple issues – e.g. a decision to reduce someone’s benefit entitlement, can spark a chain of events that leads to them falling behind on their rent and then being evicted.
In Liverpool, information and advice services are available from a fragile, diverse ecosystem of organisations. The pandemic and the cost of living crisis have compounded the impacts of austerity, welfare reform and changes to legal aid, resulting in an advice sector that is under-resourced, not meeting demand, and struggling to recruit, train and retain staff. The LATAN Demand for Advice and Capacity report (1) (September 2023) shows that 95% of advice organisations in Liverpool have experienced an increase in demand (with most reporting an increase of 20% or more), the number of complex cases increasing, and 90% of organisations not having adequate resources to meet this demand. Organisations described how they have been forced to withdraw or limit services, leading to clients that are angry, upset and anxious because of the length of time it has taken to access the advice they need.
Access to advice saves money
The advice sector provides significant social and economic benefit to both individuals and communities, by reducing health inequalities, keeping people in work, and keeping people in their homes. Free advice saves the public purse an estimated £8,000 per year for each client that receives specialist advice, a significant sum given that changes to legal aid policy that aimed to save money resulted in additional workloads for the courts; pressures on the health service through people living in poor housing and not being able to access advice, and; pressures on local authorities, particularly in relation to providing temporary accommodation (2).
Advice Needs Analysis
More funding is needed both nationally and for local authorities, that can be channelled to advice organisations, to start to tackle the access to justice crisis. But funding alone isn’t enough.
One of the first key steps to reversing the access to advice crisis is identifying the level and scope of advice needs nationally and locally. Undertaking advice needs analyses can provide the data needed to plan investment in the advice sector.
Whilst developing an advice needs analysis can be complex, time-consuming, and fraught with issues around predicting increases in need, it isn’t impossible.
In December 2023 the Welsh government published an advice needs analysis and predictive model for social welfare law in Wales (3) over the next few years.
Based on advice levels in 2022/23, the report identifies that the demand for advice will rise significantly particularly for housing, debt and welfare. It also highlighted that “Total levels of advice need are high – there were an estimated 916,000 advice issues in 2022/23, …… This figure exceeds current levels of service provision, so it is likely there is significant unmet need in the population.”
In Liverpool, since 2010, the local authority has seen a reduction in government funds of approximately £500 million – one of the highest ratios of funding cuts for any local authority. Cuts include the reduction of voluntary sector funding from circa £19 million per year to £1.7 million in 2024, which has significantly impacted the advice sector.
Advice organisations in Liverpool are struggling – faced with clients that are blaming the organisations themselves for not having the resources to support them as soon as they need advice. As the increase in levels of demand for advice looks unlikely to slow down yet, there is a need more than ever for an advice needs analysis for Liverpool, and an advice strategy developed in response to that advice needs analysis.
Access to Justice Strategy
In autumn 2022 the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Access to Advice Network (LATAN) members co-produced an advice strategy identifying guiding principles that that can inform the development of a robust, collaborative-based access to justice strategy for Liverpool.
The Access to Justice: Liverpool Advice Strategy (4) identifies that:
Development of a long-term network funding strategy is needed to increase advice provision in Liverpool;
Organisational collaboration will help maximise advice capacity and the use of scarce resources;
Consultation with the advice network on the suitability of the advice planned for the targeted population will be beneficial for new Council programmes and initiatives; and
Inclusion of appropriate independent advice and identification of resources for this work as part of programme design will help all Council projects meet their strategic goals.
With the LATAN Network and the LATAN Advice Strategy, Liverpool City Council is well placed to be the first city to develop an access to justice strategy, but there needs to be a commitment to co-design, collaboration and rebuilding the Liverpool advice sector in order to do this.
About LATAN
Liverpool Access to Advice Network (LATAN) was formed in 2020. Made up of over 120 advice and gateway/support organisations, LATAN is a community of practice for the advice sector in Liverpool, harnessing the skills, knowledge and infrastructure of advice and support organisations to help residents access free, quality, independent advice at the earliest possible point.
LATAN exists to maximise the effectiveness of scarce resources within the advice sector in Liverpool through collaboration between organisations.
More information on LATAN is available at www.liverpoolaccesstoadvicenetwork.org.uk
Download Strategy (PDF)
References
(1) Demand for Advice & Capacity, LATAN, 2023 - www.liverpoolaccesstoadvicenetwork.org.uk/research
(2) Defending the public purse: the economic value of the free legal advice sector, 2021 - https://atjf.org.uk/supporting-free-legal-advice-would-save-treasury-4bn-next-year
(3) A Needs Analysis and Predictive Model of Social Welfare Information and Advice Services in Wales, Alma Economics, 2023 - www.gov.wales/social-welfare-information-and-advice-services-wales
(4) Access to Justice: Liverpool Advice Strategy www.liverpoolaccesstoadvicenetwork.org.uk/research
