Posts Tagged ‘law for life’
Public legal education: news from Law for Life
While the importance of public legal education is widely accepted in principle, it is left to the work of a pretty small charity, Law for life: foundation for public legal education, to continue to fly the flag for this important project.
The aims of the charity are to increase access to justice by providing everyone with an awareness of their legal rights together with the confidence and skills to assert them.
Most people struggle to cope with legal issues, and often don’t know where to go for help. Being able to cope with family and housing issues, sorting out employment and benefit matters or difficulties with goods and services is crucial. These issues are the cornerstones of everyday life that can become drivers of poverty and inequality if left unresolved.
To address these challenges Law for Life
- publishes the online Advice Now information service that draws together the best up-to-date information about the law and rights available on the internet;
- creates effective materials (leaflets, videos) that provide practical help on how to manage and resolve life’s legal problems;
- delivers community-based education and training projects focussing on housing, welfare, consumer, and employment issues with an emphasis on skills;
- offers consultancy to other organisations.
Updates on the work of Law for Life are provided in regular newsletters, the most recent of which was published on 30 June 2020.
For further details about Law for Life, see https://lawforlife.org.uk/
Advice Now is at https://www.advicenow.org.uk/
The Law for Life Newsletter is at https://mailchi.mp/42bebf74018a/8wt2tlhi1o-3120242?e=f65948d0ee
This has links to the full archive of Law for Life Newsletters.
Public Legal Education: the Solicitor General’s vision
In the past, the Attorney-General tried to promote the cause of Public Legal Education. This role seems now to have been delegated to the Solicitor-General.
In October 2018, the current post-holder, Robert Buckland MP launched a new ‘vision’ to which he hoped interested organisations would sign up.
The Press Release stated:
The statement creates a shared vision for the PLE community to aspire to which will help drive forward legal education initiatives. The statement reveals 7 goals for where PLE might be in 10 years’ time.
The goals are:
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PLE will be supported by a robust evidence base, showing what the need is and what works best.
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PLE will be of high quality, maintained to ensure that it remains accurate and accessible and useful for the people who need it.
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PLE will be universal and reach across all demographics, prioritising children, young adults and vulnerable groups
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PLE will be scaled up through delivery by the legal community
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PLE will harness technology and be delivered through innovative methods, both on and offline
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PLE will be embeded into public services and government departments
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PLE will be understood as beneficial and utlised by other sectors
Whether much can be achieved without additional investment in the development of PLE must be a moot point, but I suppose that a statement such as this is better than nothing. The statement was launched at an event organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Public Legal Education and Pro Bono legal work.
See https://www.gov.uk/government/news/our-vision-for-legal-education
Martin Partington: Introduction to the English Legal System 15th ed 2021
Oxford University Press Learning Link Resources
Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System 