Annual Report 2005-2006

Advancing peoples rights

Our work

The purpose of the Law Centre is to promote social justice and provide specialist legal support to advice giving organisations and disadvantaged individuals.
We deliver legal services to members in community care, employment, immigration, social security and mental health. We support the work of advice agencies through advice, casework, training, information, publications and policy development.

We aim to work closely with our membership of independent advice giving agencies and associate members including social services and probation offices, solicitors’ practices, trade unions and community based organisations.

We seek to promote the work of local, regional and specialist independent advice in partnership with adviceni and Citizens Advice. Our work is guided by our core values: professional, independent, accountable, responsive, committed to social justice and equality . Our main activities:

	Advice line open to members, Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 1.00pm.
	Casework and representation service. Strategic court work on referral from members.
	Training courses for experienced and new advisers.
	Frontline magazine four times a year, annual encyclopedia of rights, reports on changes to law and policy.
	Informed policy comment on changes to public policy and legislation.

Quarterly practitioner meetings on social security, community care, migrant workers’ rights and immigration where advisers discuss legal issues and practitioner developments.

View from the chair

New services to meet new challenges

This is an exciting time for the Law Centre. We have recently secured funding from Atlantic Philanthropies to provide a mental health legal advice service and a policy development unit. The latter is also financially supported by our core funder, the Department for Social Development. As part of the funding we have appointed Deloitte to set up an evaluation framework for both initiatives from their commencement. Staff numbers have increased by almost one-fifth and considerable preparatory work has been undertaken to ensure that management structures can absorb this growth seamlessly. As a result, we have been able to strengthen the Law Centre’s Senior Management Team.

These initiatives are both timely. The Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability has just completed its work. Wide ranging and ambitious, the review poses a challenge for the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to respond in similar vein and find the necessary resources at a time of major structural change to health and social services administration. The next two months will be vital to the development of mental health and learning disability services. Without initial momentum to carry forward the review’s recommendations, it is doubtful whether the impetus will be picked up at a later stage. The development of mental health services has often followed a serious breakdown in service delivery and care, adverse publicity and a consequent public review of what has gone wrong. Implementing the Bamford review would go against this grain and represent a much more positive backdrop to reform. By this time next year, we hope to have established at least two mental health legal clinics in institutional based settings. Initial discussions with programme managers and others working in the area of mental health have been positive. This work will sit neatly alongside the capacity building with member agencies and mental health user groups to ensure mental health legal advice is readily available to individuals.

We are also beginning to see the fruits of the new policy development unit. One of the first responses from the unit was a submission made to the Westminster Parliament’s Joint Commission on Human Rights inquiry into the treatment of asylum seekers. The response set out the impact that the current treatment of asylum seekers has on individuals and their families evidenced through specific case-studies. With the committee due to visit Northern Ireland as part of its work, it will give us the opportunity to elaborate on this response in a face to face meeting. A dedicated policy unit allows us to complement the experience gleaned through casework and other services. Moreover, the additional resources provide much greater scope to proactively address legislative and policy issues.
I am looking forward to seeing the work of both initiatives as they become more established.

Being the chairperson of an organisation that continues to develop is rewarding and challenging. I am lucky to have the assistance of a supportive and able committee and staff who bring to their work considerable commitment and skill. The annual report reflects the hard work of the organisation. I hope you enjoy reading it.
 

Director's report

A sophisticated relationship with government

Making a positive difference through our work is a challenge that drives the organisation forward. Meeting this challenge entails a complex and sophisticated relationship with government. In effect, the relationship can be both a partnership and adversarial depending on the circumstances. Our work on migrant worker issues is a perfect example of how this works in practice.

On the partnership side, the Law Centre and many other organisations have worked closely with the Department for Employment and Learning and the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to produce an information, research and employment enforcement strategy for migrant workers. The Law Centre chaired a joint voluntary and statutory sector working group to produce an action plan. The action plan has been endorsed by the Race Equality Forum and at the time of writing is due to be approved by the Permanent Secretaries Group.

A centrepiece of the information strategy is the publication of a rights guide aimed at migrant workers. Produced jointly by the Law Centre, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and ANIMATE, separate guides are aimed at long-standing European Union migrant workers, Accession State nationals and others coming to Northern Ireland under the government’s managed migration policy. Alongside publishing the guides in a number of languages, the strategy entails making the guide available on-line through the gateway of the government’s main information website. Moreover, government departments have agreed to distribute the guides through their own channels, including to a number of embassies abroad. This initiative will hopefully ensure that migrant workers have access to important information about public services, entitlements and legal requirements and where to get advice and assistance. The availability of the information on-line should also ensure a significant shelf life for the guides.

The action plan is important and illustrates the value of government and voluntary sector co-operation. However, many concerns remain about the treatment of migrant workers. For example, the legislatively driven lack of welfare support available to some migrant workers who subsequently lose employment remains a significant problem which cannot be addressed through good quality and accessible information. As a result, on the adversarial side the Law Centre is taking a test case on the right of Accession State nationals to social security entitlement where employment is lost. In a nutshell, the argument is that the Accession Treaty which paved the way for the expansion of the European Union derogated from certain aspects of European law. However, other parts of the EU Treaty and regulations governing freedom of movement for workers and equal access to social and tax advantages remained intact. On this basis, Accession State nationals who lose work during the first twelve months of arriving in the UK or fail to register their work under the Home Office Workers Registration Scheme should be able to claim means-tested benefits. The legal outcome would have significant ramifications for migrant workers from Accession States beyond those coming to Northern Ireland.

This year has seen the organisation gain further external recognition. We successfully gained Investors in People re-accreditation and achieved Lexcel, the casework practice management standard administered by the Law Society of Northern Ireland. The reports of the independent assessors for both benchmarks were extremely positive and a testimony to the work of all the staff in the Law Centre.

I am confident that, thanks to the staff and management committee, the organisation will continue to thrive and make its mark.

A busy year
 

Casework milestones

Social security

Increasing use of European law

We were successful early in the year in a test case at tribunal level challenging the amended habitual residence test which is applied to workers from eight of the countries which acceded to the European Union in 2004. Unfortunately, the tribunal’s decision was appealed and was overturned by the Social Security Commissioner whose decision is now likely to be considered by the Court of Appeal.

Our client is a Polish national who worked for over twelve months but was not registered under the Home Office Worker Registration Scheme. Following a breakdown in her relationship, she gave up work to look after her daughter and was turned down for Income Support on the ground that she did not have a right to reside for the purposes of the habitual residence test, effectively due to her failure to register her work. The Law Centre had successfully argued at tribunal that the Accession Treaty 2003 does not derogate effectively from all the social protection provisions in European law.

It was argued that the current arrangements discriminate against A8 workers in terms of access to social assistance and are therefore contrary to European law. The Commissioner found that the tribunal had erred in its interpretation of European law in our client’s favour but has granted her leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Ongoing tax credit challenges

This year, a number of clients have received demands for overpayments of tax credits to be paid back to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), leaving them facing significant hardship. When the Paymaster General announced in November 2005 that recovery of overpayments would be suspended while a dispute process was ongoing, we promptly requested suspension of recovery in all the cases in which we were representing.
However, recovery continued until we wrote threatening judicial review actions to force HMRC to suspend recovery in line with its policy. Several cases have now been through the disputes process and we have ensured that overpayments of more than £30,000 have been written off.

Immigration

Detention and removal challenges

We were successful in getting leave to apply for judicial review of a decision by the Home Office to remove our Eritrean client and her children from the UK. Our client had initially claimed asylum in Malta but had experienced a number of difficulties there, including separation from her children. She came to Northern Ireland and asked for her claim to be considered here but despite our submissions as to why she should be allowed to stay in the UK to have her claim considered, arrangements were made for her removal.

As part of the legal challenge to the removal decision, we obtained a court order for the family to be brought back to Northern Ireland from Scotland. We then obtained bail to allow her to be reunited with her husband in Belfast. The Home Office has now, as a result of our submissions, agreed to allow the asylum claim to be considered in Northern Ireland.

Irish born children and European law

We have two cases concerning the right of parents to stay in the UK with Irish born children whom they are able to support financially through either employment or business income. These cases are a challenge to the current immigration rules and it is argued that, in several ways, the rules flout the letter and the spirit of a key ruling of the European Court of Justice. Most significantly, it is argued that the rules contradict the Court’s explicit finding that the origin of the primary carer’s resources is immaterial, in that they effectively preclude resources deriving from employment.

Our initial success in one case before the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has been appealed by the government and we appealed the second unsuccessful decision. We await the outcome of these appeals.

Migrant workers

We represented five nurses from the Philippines who had problems as a result of what appeared to be their employer’s failure to make an in-time application to extend their work permit. The consequence of this would normally be that the nurses would have to leave the UK and be very unlikely to get permission to re-enter as they would be regarded as having breached immigration rules by staying even for the short period after the expiry of their permit. This would have meant that their plans to work in Northern Ireland and make a life here would be at an end.

We drafted an application asking the Home Office to exercise discretion in their favour and as a result the nurses were given limited leave to remain to enable them to find alternative work permit employment. 

Employment

Unfair dismissal

While most of our employment cases settle without the need for a full tribunal hearing, this year we did establish unfair dismissal at a tribunal hearing for a client who had been dismissed from his job in a garage and settled the case for £7,000 prior to a remedies hearing.

A number of cases referred to us involved the employer not using the statutory dismissal procedures. In one case, where a man was dismissed for behaviour which took place before an internet use policy was introduced, a settlement of £2,500 was agreed. Another case was settled for £5,000 without issuing tribunal proceedings after early negotiations with the employer’s solicitor. Our client was a 64 year old building clerk of works who was dismissed in his last year of employment before retirement. Again, the employer did not follow the statutory dismissal procedures.

Migrant workers

Many migrant workers remain in a vulnerable position and we successfully settled an unlawful deduction of wages case for two Polish clients who had their final pay packet reduced significantly by their Care Agency employer.

Community Care

Disability adaptations financial assistance

We were successful in a judicial review case earlier this year. Our client’s local trust had decided that it had no power to give financial assistance with rent during a period when he would be required to pay rent on two houses: a property which is being adapted for his needs as a disabled person and temporary accommodation while the works are being carried out. The High Court issued a declaration that ‘facilities’ in s.2(e) of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons (NI) Act 1978 may include the cost of temporary accommodation for a person who is required to vacate his home during the carrying out of any works of adaptation.

Discharge from hospital

We have had a number of delayed hospital discharge cases in recent months which have been settled prior to judicial review proceedings being issued. Other cases have involved care arrangements on discharge. In one case, our client was a young man who sustained a serious spinal injury. His local trust had suggested that he go into residential care for a period rather than agreeing to fund an intensive domiciliary care package. The Law Centre brought human rights issues affecting our client to the attention of the trust and following correspondence he was discharged home with an appropriate care package.

Charging for residential care

We have continued to receive case referrals about valuations by trusts of joint interests in property. In a case this year, a man who had been placed in residential care by his local trust had been deemed liable for the full cost of his placement. The trust had assessed his capital asset (a one third interest in a dwelling house) with a value of more than the allowable upper capital limit for financial assistance with care fees. A debt of £20,000 then accumulated and the trust intended to place a legal charge on the property. As a result of our intervention, the trust agreed that the valuation of our client’s capital was not in line with departmental guidance and should have had a ‘nil’ valuation. The trust had valued the ‘property’ and not our client’s ‘interest’ in the property. The trust accepted that no debt had arisen.
 

Views of Law Centre clients:

'Until my wife and I contacted the Law Centre, there was naught but confusion and dead end advice. Our caseworker set us on the correct path and a whole new secure and happy life lies before us.'

Gerald McConnell, immigration client

'My case had dragged on for years. I cannot thank the Law Centre enough for the help and advice they gave me. I could never have afforded this quality of legal advice.'

Child support appeal client

'The Law Centre has been wonderful throughout this very worrying situation. Our caseworker has been supportive and reassuring, giving helpful advice and always readily available.'

Social security clients, tax credit overpayment

'The Law Centre was very helpful to me and my friends, very patient and kind. They really tried their very best for my case, which was a successful one.

Michelle Alcoran, immigration/employment client

Training achievements

Developing services

Law Centre training continues to be very much in demand and very positively assessed. Last year, we reported a 93.1% satisfaction rate for Welfare Rights Adviser Programme (WRAP) course. This year, the satisfaction rate was 100%.Our community care legal advice service courses provided under contract to the four health boards were also evaluated as 100% satisfied. In addition, our overall training satisfaction rates for other courses was 99.3%.

High on our agenda is the development of our methods of delivery and of accreditation. We surveyed our membership by questionnaire on preferred method of delivery ie classroom or distance learning on line, by correspondence or via CDs. Early signs indicate a preference for the current classroom model. Face to face interviews are now being carried out with a representative selection of users of our services to explore the matter further.

Level 4 accreditation for our Tribunal Representation Course is still under consideration by OCN (NI). Once this is achieved, we will move on to accreditation of other courses.

We were sorry this year to lose Aine Campbell, a very valued and much loved member of our team.

People trained (April 05 - March 06)

WRAP course  32

Other programmed courses  162

Community Care Legal Advice Service  109

Total  303

WRAP course

This ten day course accredited by the Open College Network ran twice last year. Providing a sound foundation in welfare rights, it also contributes to the NVQ in Advice and Guidance accredited by the Open University. Evaluated satisfaction 100%

Other programme courses

Courses in Judicial Review Practices in Northern Ireland, Rights of Migrant Workers, European Law and Immigration, Running an Employment Case, Advisers Guide to Community Care, Current Issues in Community Care, European Law and Social Security, Child Support, Recovery of Overpayments, The Civil Partnership Act and Social Security for Lawyers were run at foundation, intermediate and advanced levels. Evaluated satisfaction 99.3%

Community Care courses

Under our Community Care Legal Advice Service contract with the four Health Boards, we trained a total of 109 social services staff in Community Care Assessment, Community Care Respite, Community Care and Migrant Workers, Good Decision Making, Housing and Community Care , Caring for Carers, Mental Incapacity and Decisions and Direct Payments. Evaluated satisfaction 100%

External training

We are often asked to offer training sessions and seminars. By way of example, this year we have given a seminar in community care issues to Advocacy for Senior Citizens, training on mental health law to University of Ulster students, and a session on economic and social rights for the Transitional Justice Institute. We have given training on human rights law to NICVA members (with CAJ and Human Rights Centre QUB) and a training session on human rights to North and West Belfast Trust staff. Our immigration unit has delivered training on immigration and nationality law for the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities and Kearney Sefton Solicitors, as well as a seminar for STEP (NI) on translation and interpreting needs of asylum seekers.

Keeping advisers informed

Award winning publications

Law Centre publications keep our membership informed on casework, legislation and policy issues and our website makes this information widely accessible, primarily to advisers but also to members of the public. This year, our social welfare law magazine Frontline and other publications were given a facelift and our Annual Report reaped the rewards in the form of a NICVA/SCOPE award for best voluntary sector annual report.

Frontline

Our publications are grounded in the experience of our clients, our staff and our members. Frontline benefits from the expertise of our editorial panel, made up of representatives of member organisations as well as Law Centre advisers and trainers, helping keep it topical, authoritative and relevant to our membership.

Tools for advisers

Our Encyclopedia of Rights CD and briefings for advisers on topics from tax credit overpayments to immigration and marriage/civil partnership are important information and advice tools, and we take care to ensure that they are regularly updated on our website.

A new section on tax credits was added to the website with financial support from HMRC. We continue to develop these pages and are currently planning the expansion of the policy section.

The casework bulletin helps us to communicate with advisers on the progress of strategic legal challenges which may be of use to them, and shows the type of cases which can be referred to the Law Centre.

Multilingual information

Our multilingual immigration advice leaflet was reprinted this year in response to demand from a voluntary sector increasingly conscious of the importance of signposting services to migrant workers in their own languages. We took this opportunity to increase the number of languages available, taking into consideration new arrivals from A8 countries and anticipating the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EEA.

Joint publications

Law Centre staff contribute a regular column to the Writ and participate in joint publications as outlined in other sections of the report.
Our employment advisers have written a comprehensive manual on the rights of employees in Northern Ireland, which is currently being prepared for publication with SLS Legal Publications (NI).

A growing library

There are now over 900 books and reports on the library database. This includes a useful section relating to immigration. We also hold a substantial range of journals which are listed on our website. At present our subject coverage is being extended to cover mental health law in order to give support to our new mental health caseworkers. Our social policy section is being strengthened in response to the formation of a policy unit.
The library is primarily used by Law Centre staff, but the librarian is happy to extend help to Law Centre members or to researchers. A collection of papers and reports tracing the history of legal aid has been donated to the library by Francis Murphy, and it is hoped that when it is sorted, it will prove a useful resource for research in this field. Also, over the year, we have been able to track down Commissioners’ decisions needed by our members: the Law Centre’s collection includes many older decisions that are still not available on the web.

Developing law and policy

A new policy unit

In an exciting development, the new policy unit commenced work in the autumn. Funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and the Department for Social Development (DSD), the unit complements the existing legal and other services provided by the Law Centre. It significantly enhances our capacity to meet the increasing demand for informed comment on public consultations relevant to our areas of work. It also allows us to proactively develop the work of lobbying and campaigning for legal reform and positive change to law and policy. Working with casework colleagues, and drawing directly from our experience of advice and legal representation work, the unit seeks to promote access to justice by highlighting where the law is failing to meet the needs, or respect the rights, of the most disadvantaged in society.

Consultations

Our responses to consultations have been targeted at positively influencing the development of law and policy across our five main areas of work. We have also continued to focus on issues relating to the advice sector generally.

Social welfare

Welfare reform has been a key priority this year with the publication in the spring of the Welfare Reform Bill. In addition to our response to the Department for Work and Pensions on the reform of Incapacity Benefit and other social security changes, we provided comment to the Social Security Advisory Committee on government proposals to introduce a new ‘affordable credit deduction scheme’ to allow not-for-profit lenders to apply for direct deductions from benefits in cases of loan arrears and on proposals to withdraw the right of decision makers to exercise discretion in making advance awards on habitual residence claims. Following the publication of the Henshaw Report into the review of Child Support, the Law Centre provided a detailed response to the subsequent consultation on the reform proposals and is following up on this work.

Emerging from our social security advice, we were successful in persuading the DSD to agree to publish internal guidance on the termination and/or suspension of benefit and when to recover overpayments. Following a training session at the Law Centre, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs staff agreed that it is not the responsibility of the claimant to keep reminding HMRC of an error which has already been declared, and amended its guidance accordingly.
We argued for greater clarity in relation to the law surrounding contracted-out pensions.

Immigration and asylum

This year has seen significant development in relation to immigration and asylum issues. The Law Centre submitted comments to the Home Office in relation to proposed regulations to come into force in the UK in October 2006 which implement a new European Directive, 2004/83, on Asylum Qualification. Evidence was also prepared for the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights on the treatment of asylum seekers in Northern Ireland, based on our casework experience. This focused particularly on the issues raised by the detention of asylum seekers outside of Northern Ireland and on access to services, including legal services. Our immigration and asylum expertise informed our commentary in relation to the operational review of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and we continue to participate in the tribunal’s user-group.

Community care and mental health

As a member of the Rights in Community Care Group, we are working in partnership with others to promote the rights of those in need of community-based care and their carers. We also continue to work with the OFMDFM Older People’s Strategy Group on the development of action plans for implementing the Older People’s Strategy.

As a member of the Promoting Social Inclusion sub-group and the Dementia and Mental Health Issues of Older People Committee of the Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability, the Law Centre provided input into the Review’s proposals.

The Law Centre has met with North and West Belfast Trust to assist in establishing good practice for working with asylum seekers who need psychiatric services. We are also having ongoing consultation meetings with medical support services, including on issues around attendance at medical examinations for benefit purposes.
Employment

The Law Centre welcomed new proposals to increase the statutory holiday entitlement in Northern Ireland and continued to work on the publication of a guide to employment law in Northern Ireland.

Migrant workers

A particular focus of our work this year has continued to be on migrant workers. This work cuts across all areas of our thematic work. We have contributed expertise in relation to the specific needs and rights of migrant workers by chairing the Migrant Workers Sub-Group led by the Department for Employment and Learning.

We have worked with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and ANIMATE in the production of Your Rights in Northern Ireland, a handbook for migrant workers that sets out, in a number of languages, their rights in Northern Ireland. An important resource, the handbook will be launched in January and distributed widely by government departments as well as through the voluntary sector. It will also be placed on the government’s Northern Ireland gateway website.

The social security unit contributed to the Multi-Cultural Resource Centre guide for A8 workers.

We were also involved with a report by Concordia Partnership for Progress, a voluntary sector, employers and trade unions joint initiative, Migrant Workers in Northern Ireland. Launched in March at the Law Centre, the report highlights the need for strategic government planning and makes recommendations for improving working and living conditions for migrant workers.

We continue to provide informed comment about the rights of migrant workers and other immigration matters to the media.

Equality

We commented positively on the proposed extension of the Disability Discrimination Order 2006 to private clubs and premises as well as measures to outlaw sexual orientation discrimination in the provision of goods and services. As a member of the Equality Coalition convened by UNISON and the Committee on the Administration of Justice, we have followed with interest new developments in equality law and practice. We look forward to the introduction of a Single Equality Bill for Northern Ireland in the next year.

Development of advice services

We responded in our own right and as part of the Advice Services Alliance to the DSD Advice and Information Strategy. The aim is to engage in constructive dialogue with the department, point out the challenges contained in the strategy and positively influence the development of the sector for the benefit of members and those needing advice. We intend to continue to lobby for an effective advice and information strategy that will ensure a strong and stable foundation for the voluntary sector advice agencies.

In relation to issues affecting the advice sector generally, we were pleased to welcome, in broad terms, the review of charity law in Northern Ireland.

Talking about it

Events

Last year’s AGM was an opportunity to update our members on the Freedom of Information Act, with keynote speeches by Marie Anderson Assistant Information Commissioner for Northern Ireland, Maurice Frankel of the Freedom of Information Campaign and John Woods of Friends of the Earth (pictured below).

In November, Roy McClelland, joint chair of the Bamford review of Mental Health and Learning Disability, said at the Belfast launch of our mental health legal service: ‘Your work sits at the heart of the spirit of the Bamford review. The service you have spearheaded is a forerunner of what needs to be developed and will greatly contribute to protecting and promoting the rights of people with mental health issues.’ The North West section of the service was launched in Derry’s Calgagh Centre a few days later.

We hosted a joint seminar on sexual trafficking with CORI and the launch by Concordia of a report on migrant workers. Tom Frawley, Northern Ireland Ombudsman, gave a presentation to our community care practitioners forum.

Visits

We facilitated fact-finding visits by the Helsinki Foundation and Roma rights group from Bulgaria, by Glasgow’s Legal Services Agency, by the Immigration Services Commissioner Suzanne McCarthy and by Anastasia Crickley of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Exhibitions

Humans without Rights, a photographic exhibition on asylum seekers brought to Northern Ireland by the Law Centre and the Refugee Action Group, was shown at Belfast City Hall last December, in the Waterside Library in July and again in Derry’s Central library in October.
We hosted a video installation for last December’s Donegall Street festival.

Talks

We delivered a number of talks including a seminar on the detention of asylum seekers for the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, a talk at Methodist college inter-schools law conference on working as a Law Centre lawyer, a talk on migrant workers and legal issues for Antrim Borough Council and talks for the Polish Workers Association, UNISON and the SDLP.

The full version of Annual Report 2005-2006 is available from the Law Centre (NI) Publications Department here. It includes full staff and membership details.

© Law Centre (NI) 2007