Social Welfare: first community legal advice network to launch in Cornwall




The Legal Services Commission (LSC) plans to set up around 30 community legal advice centres or networks (CLACs or CLANs) in London by the end of 2011, its regional director for the capital said this week.



The commission's vision for the supply of social welfare law advice in London emerged as it unveiled a deal with Cornwall County Council to create the country's first CLAN.



Speaking to the Gazette, LSC regional director for London Martin Seel said that the aim was to co-operate with each of the 33 boroughs in London to deliver a service based around social welfare and family law work. He added that working with local authorities, which already provide legal services through various sources, made sense in that duplication would be avoided.



The LSC's determination to roll out CLACs and CLANs in the capital comes despite the difficulties it faced during the tenders last year to set up flagship centres in Gateshead and Leicester, where it received a combined total of just three bids.



The Gateshead centre is expected to open later this year after a successful joint bid from the local law centre and Citizens Advice, but plans to open in Leicester have been put on hold after the only bid submitted was rejected.



Mr Seel said: 'After a shaky start in Leicester and Gateshead, we're working with the people who actually provide the funding. CLACs and CLANs are simply terms. Call it what you will, we're aiming for integrated legal services working out of the boroughs, with transparent commissioning and service standards set around access and quality.'



Attempting to allay the fears of black and ethnic minority high street firms who see no roles for themselves under the new regime, he added: 'If particular ethnic and other communities need to be reached, then that becomes part of the tender document, and the successful bidders will be those best placed to deliver. Diversity issues are central to our plans.'



Speaking at a conference on legal aid at the Eden Project, government minister Vera Baird said the partnership between the LSC and Cornwall County Council 'will develop [a] pioneering approach to delivering legal aid advice in Cornwall, and will use innovative methods of ensuring that legal advice is available throughout Cornwall, regardless of where a person happens to live'.



Jonathan Rayner