To be embraced by someone you don't know is an extraordinary, moving, and amusing thing. Lemn Sissay
The magic of the law is its ability to create change. Here. Now. And for the future. In our legal work, the resilient and courageous client empowers the lawyer to make those who should listen and act, do so. The co-working relationship between “strangers” nurtures and saves lives. It is uniquely inspiring. Just for Kids Law lawyers have spent their careers creating spaces for this special public service, ensuring government plays by the rules when protecting and supporting the most vulnerable children and young people in our communities.
Legal magic is out of reach to most due to costs or the risk of going to court. Buying a home, divorce or wills is often the reason to access a lawyer. For the vulnerable the law is a public service and lifeline. Legal Aid and Advice Act was established in 1949 and, like our NHS, designed to support our communities, provide for and keep our homes and care services, and to ensure our dignity is respected, recognised and a reality.
Legal aid is an essential public service privatised in law firms and is now beyond decline. Government money has not increased in 30 years. Private firms, driven by profit and not outcomes, can no longer provide legal aid services. It is not profitable. The Law Society launched a campaign to save Civil Legal Aid, outlining how many areas of the country had become legal aid ‘deserts’ with 7 in 10 people denied access to civil legal aid practitioner in their area. So, children and young people needing legal help, are left without this essential service, save in the rarest cases.
We can't change the past, but we can shape the present and create a better future. Lemn Sissay
Children whose “parents” are the local authority or who rely on the authority to support them at home, or protect them from harm, are left in desperate situations. Just for Kids lawyers have met children in care who, without discussion or notice, are placed in strangers’ homes (or even caravans) many miles from their home area, school and communities. They are left in dangerous situations with abusive and neglectful family or foster carers. In some cases, children are left to sleep on park benches or to beg to stay with a friend’s family on a sofa or bedroom floor.
There are children who are forced to commit crimes by adults to pay for food and clothes. Some are detained (illegally) by their local authorities. We have too many times seen that children’s care is left unplanned, uncertain and their wishes and feelings unheard. They are prevented from learning at school, pursuing sports, playing with friends and making new friends. They don’t have the lives, love and nurturing to make them into confident and hopeful people. The impact of further neglect by those whose job it is to nurture and protect traumatised children and young people, is unworthy of our commitment in law to kindness and compassion to the most vulnerable.
Choose compassion over judgement; you never know what battles others are fighting Lemn Sissay.
The situations that children experience can sometimes lead to poor (rarely horrible) outcomes for them and others in their communities. Mental health, medical and criminal justice services are needed to intervene, further compounding and spreading the trauma, and diverting scarce resources away from positive things. As we all know, early help, support and care, can avoid so much time and money.
The thing is that these situations that children endure are totally against the law. As a country we have held many inquiries and reviews about dreadful situations that children have experienced. We have created acts of parliament, regulations and legal guidance to make sure that services protect and nurture our children who need a capable, present and loving parent. That’s why special(ist) lawyers need to get involved, from time to time, to remind local authorities about the law and to do the right thing.
The decline of legal aid means that children in these situations, and those that are supporting them, cannot get a lawyer to help. It is not profitable for solicitors to do so.
Just for Kids Lawyers Aika, Shauneen and Chris, are relaunching the charities community care law service to rescue this vital public service, and to honour our country’s legal commitment to children, no matter their experience, background or community. They are not driven by financial targets but by outcomes for the children and young people they are working with. Using the law (and the courts if necessary) they will do their best to ensure that the dignity, lives and futures of children and young people, are respected and they are provided with the best opportunity to enjoy their childhood and become kind and compassionate friends, neighbours, parents and colleagues.
This is what the law envisages should and must happen. Using legal magic, the Just for Kids Law legal team will tell the story of how this essential public service can save lives and communities and make the difference for children and young people.
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