Annual Report 2006-2007

Working for social justice

Chair's report - making a difference in a fast moving environment

This year’s annual report provides an insight into the significant and valuable outcomes associated with our work.

We finally concluded the challenge to the government’s failure to pay widowers benefits equivalent to those available to widows. The government had remedied this situation in April 2001. A small number of widowers had lodged claims prior to this and we were able to reach a friendly settlement with the government to pay compensation for non-payment of the equivalent of Widow’s Payment and Widowed Mother’s Allowance. In a separate case, the European Court of Human Rights held that failure to pay the equivalent of Widow’s Pension before April 2001 did not breach the Convention.

A second important case concerned the rights of Accession State nationals to claim Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or Income Support after losing employment. Our argument was that the modified arrangements on entitlement to social security went beyond those allowed in the Accession Treaty paving the way for the expansion of the European Union. As a result, other European law rights to freedom of movement and freedom from discrimination could be applied. The government’s position was upheld by the Court of Appeal and we are optimistic that we will be granted leave to appeal to the House of Lords. The Annual Report also provides a further casework illustration of the value of pooling employment, social security and immigration knowledge when dealing with legal issues affecting migrant workers.

The Law Centre is in a unique position to provide access to all these areas of expertise in one place.

We hosted an evidence gathering session for the Immigration Advisory Commission on the treatment of asylum seekers and others affected by immigration law as part of a UK wide inquiry by the Commission. This enabled us to act as a catalyst for local organisations to have their voice heard on this important issue.

We held two conferences to maintain the momentum for legal and service delivery reform in the mental health and learning disability field.

With the Bamford Review completed it is important that a number of organisations accept the baton and ensure the extensive work of the Review is progressed. The Law Centre is determined to be one of those organisations.

Tribunal reform is another priority for the Law Centre. We have lobbied the Court Service and this year produced a policy paper and arranged a seminar addressed by David Hanson, the Minister responsible for tribunal reform, to keep this issue in the public domain. With progress on tribunal reform proceeding at a far greater pace in Britain, we are keen to ensure Northern Ireland is not left behind.

We have had a considerable engagement this year with the new Assembly and know the formidable challenges local politicians face in meeting public expectations within the finances available. This will, in turn, create challenges for the voluntary sector.

Having been positively evaluated on five separate occasions in the past six years we know we are more than fit for purpose. Our aim is to make sure we continue to develop and thrive to meet the new challenges that are around the corner in an increasingly fast moving environment.

Director's report - developing services in tune with the needs of the sector

This year marked the 25th year I have worked for the Law Centre, having joined the organisation as a volunteer in July 1982, then become a caseworker, casework manager and eventually director.

Reflecting on my time, a number of wheels have turned full circle. I cut my own teeth through involvement in benefit take up campaigns throughout Belfast and then across Northern Ireland. At that time, the (then) Secretary of State for Social Security Tony Newton - who went on to become a distinguished and supportive Chair of the Council of Tribunals - accused welfare rights workers of trying to bring the state to its knees. Now the Social Security Agency is at the forefront of benefit take up, working closely with Citizens Advice Bureaux and independent advice agencies to promote benefit take up initiatives. The first asylum seekers in Northern Ireland began to emerge in the early 1980s as a result of the fall out from the Iran-Iraq war. Twenty five years on, you can chart the progress of our work with asylum seekers through civil war and conflict in Bosnia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Sudan and many other parts of the world.

In my early days at the Law Centre, the organisation tried to fill every gap in legal services. It was involved in juvenile justice, children’s rights and criminal and civil liberties issues. Today we are more focussed and other organisations like the Children’s Law Centre and the Committee for the Administration of Justice have taken up the mantle in these areas.

In addition, the areas of work have changed. We no longer do money advice as this work has been developed and carried forward through Citizens Advice and Advice NI member agencies. Legal housing work is picked up by Housing Rights Service following the relatively recent appointment of an in-house solicitor. In place of money advice and housing, we have taken on new areas such as community care and mental health, developing legal expertise which had hitherto barely existed.

Our work is more integrated. Casework, training, publications and subject based practitioner groups strengthen the capacity of advice providers in local areas. Our policy work now enables our service delivery work to feed back to government in a more concentrated and effective way.

The Law Centre has taken a number of successful test cases to the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights as well as domestic courts. An important test case on the rights of Accession State workers to social security benefits is hopefully about to proceed to the House of Lords and, if successful, it would have significant ramifications beyond Northern Ireland.

One of the great litmus tests of working life is whether you look forward to going to work in the morning. I always do and that is down to the meaningful nature of the work itself and the support I have always received from colleagues, management committee and others. I look forward to the challenges ahead for the Law Centre.

Work undertaken

Advice line enquiries 6,727

New cases opened 315

Strategic cases opened 47

Courts & tribunal appearances 252

Advisers trained 408

Policy responses & briefings 31

Publications distributed 19,450

Visitors to our website 200,544

Representation success rates

Commissioners* 56%

Appeal tribunals* 63%

Industrial tribunals 93.5%

Immigration appeals 61%

Mental health tribunals 67%

High Court and above 62.5%

* social security and child support

Moving with the times

Immigration 37%

Social security & child support 25%

Employment 21%

Community care 9%

Mental health 5%

Other 3%

Note: figures in the above statistics refer to the financial year 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007

Casework  - defending people's rights

Social security

Strategic cases

This year we have progressed several strategic cases. Many appeals have concerned the basis upon which people acquire a right to reside in the UK and the impact on access to social security benefits.

We are awaiting a decision on whether the House of Lords will hear our case on the current social security arrangements for migrant workers from EU accession states. We argue that the current rules discriminate against these workers and are contrary to European law.

A test case is being developed which argues that, under European law, the attendance of a child at school here gives a mother who is temporarily not working access to out of work benefits for that period.

Tackling hardship

One of our clients was a homeless man who was sleeping in a skip. He was a vulnerable adult. He had received compensation of £50,000 as a result of abuse suffered but most of it was taken from him after paramilitary intimidation.  He lost his entitlement to Income Support because he was considered to have significant capital which he was expected to live on. He made two applications for Income Support as he did not in fact have the money. He was turned down on both occasions. The case was reviewed in our client’s favour after our intervention.

We were successful in appealing a decision of the Social Security Agency to refuse Income Support to a Portuguese woman who had given up work after a relationship breakdown. She and her family were destitute and being supported by social services and St Vincent de Paul until the appeal.

Community care

Challenging inadequate services

The lack of investment in community care continues. We are currently working on preparing strategic cases challenging the failure to provide adequate age appropriate respite for two young men and their families.

Charging for residential care is an issue for many older people. We have applied for judicial review of a trust’s decision not to fund a nursing home placement as health care. This involves a client with dementia who is terminally ill with cancer. The decision to regard the care as social care means that she is charged for her care.

An 82 year old was discharged from hospital after our intervention with the trust. The client had been told that it would be at least five months before funding would be available for care in the community.

Employment

Protecting rights

An unfair dismissal case was successfully settled for £10,000 and an agreed reference. This involved a breach of the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures. The disciplinary meeting which led to the dismissal was held in the employee’s absence even though the employer was notified that the employee was too sick to attend.

We applied to the County Court to enforce an Industrial Tribunal Order relating to an unlawful deduction from wages by a nursing home employer. We had secured this order for our two clients, who were migrant workers from the Philippines, in October 2006. The employer had wrongly led us to believe that he was no longer trading in an attempt to avoid payment.

We advise on the rights of employees in transfer of ownership of businesses (or part of businesses). In one case, intervention highlighting the application of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations led to a settlement of £1,500 for a client who lost a job on the transfer of ownership of a hotel.

Immigration

Ensuring protection

Two people from Darfur were refused asylum by the Home Office. The Law Centre represented them at appeal and the tribunal accepted that they would be at risk on return to Sudan. They now have refugee status.

In the case of an unaccompanied minor, we successfully negotiated a settlement with the Home Office solicitors while preparing a judicial review. We argued that it was wrong to treat a disputed minor as an adult before a formal age assessment had been carried out. The young person’s age was formally assessed under a new protocol developed in Northern Ireland, being the first person to be assessed in this way. It was agreed after assessment that she should be treated as a minor. A Nigerian national, she went on to receive limited leave to remain along with her baby, after the Law Centre submitted detailed representations about the abuse that she had endured in her home country.

Challenging unlawful deportations

We were successful in stopping the deportation to China by the UK authorities of a Chinese student who held a visa for the Republic of Ireland. She had come over the border into Northern Ireland. She was detained for a period in Belfast, then in Scotland and London, but after joint working with solicitors in Dublin and judicial review proceedings being launched here alongside court action in the Republic, she was allowed to return to Dublin. During her detention in the UK, she was parted from her very young baby whom she had been breastfeeding.

Reuniting families

Family reunion was secured for the child of a former client who had been granted refugee status. The UK Embassy refused entry to the child as they did not believe he was the refugee’s child. After several challenges to the refusal, the son was allowed entry. He is now able to join his mother and father in the UK after many years’ separation.

Mental health

Tackling unlawful detention

We successfully represented a man who had been detained for treatment for mental disorder. He was discharged from hospital as the tribunal agreed with our argument that the grounds for detention were no longer met.

Lapses in complying with the procedures for compulsory admission to hospital were identified in two cases. In a third case, after correspondence the detaining trust accepted that there had been an unlawful detention.

Improving hospital conditions

Our intervention resolved difficulties for a very vulnerable man who found himself in a ward which was not suitable for his condition. There was an ongoing dispute between two hospitals as to where he would be best treated. He was moved to a ward where he is less distressed.

Training - empowering advisers, delivering best practice

We continue to deliver a quality, professional training service. This year we have made two major changes for the benefit of our membership.

Welfare Rights Adviser Programme

The team reviewed the WRAP course, taking into account participant views and comments. We amended the course and submitted it to Open College Network (NI) for re-accreditation. The overall course used to run over ten days with nine credits at OCN Level 2 and twelve at Level 3. It now runs over eight days with the emphasis on benefits and carries twelve credits for Level 2 and 21 credits for Level 3. Parts of the course can now be delivered as accredited stand alone courses. They are as follows:

This should allow for more flexibility and improved choices for participants in the future.

Tribunal Representation Course

In the past, this course has run as a four day course at OCN Level 3. Course evaluation told us that the time allocated was insufficient for in-depth understanding of the issues. We also believed that the level was incorrect given that it is a progression course from the Welfare Rights Adviser Programme.

We successfully achieved a Level 4 accreditation for a revised six day course.

Towards an integrated training strategy

The DSD advice strategy for Northern Ireland has set new challenges for the voluntary advice sector. Central to its delivery is cooperation between Citizens Advice, Advice NI and the Law Centre, which together form the Advice Services Alliance (ASA). As part of the strategy, ASA has been tasked with developing an ‘integrated training strategy to provide effective co-operation and best use of all training provided by ASA members’ by April 2008.

Our training department is actively engaging in discussions with its ASA partners to move this forward.

People trained (April 06 to March 07)

WRAP course                                      44

Other programmed courses                   139

Community Care Legal Advice Service     129

External training                                  96

Total                                                 408

Welfare Rights Adviser Programme

Evaluated satisfaction 97.1%

Other programme courses

We ran courses in Freedom of Information, European Law and Social Security, European Law and Immigration, Immigration Law and Practice, Habitual Residence, Community Care and Mental Incapacity, Introduction to Mental Health Law, Social Security for Lawyers.

Evaluated satisfaction 97.5%

‘Very relevant to my role. Welcomed the opportunity. Case law information very useful.’  (Introduction to Mental Health Law)

‘One of the most important courses for immigration advisers in Northern Ireland.’  (European Law and Immigration)

‘Tutor excellent, breadth of knowledge astounding.’  (European Law and Social Security)

Community care legal advice service training

Courses were delivered on Community Care Assessment, Financing Residential Care, Community Care Respite, Mental Incapacity and Decisions, Good Decision Making.

Evaluated satisfaction 100%

‘Very informative and extremely useful to my work – very thought provoking.’ (Good Decision Making)

External courses

We delivered training tailored to the needs of other organisations, in Human Rights and Older People, Mental Health and Human Rights Law, Immigration Law and Practice, Immigration Law for Interpreters, Assisting Women Immigrants. We also contributed our expertise to training run by NICVA, NICEM, CAJ, and QUB law faculty.

‘Trainers are very knowledgeable and articulate, very interesting, I learnt a lot.’  (Immigration Law and Practice for CABs)

Publications

Law Centre publications complement our library, information and training services in sharing our expertise with our membership and empowering advisers in their frontline work. The Encyclopedia of Rights CD, casework briefings, in-depth publications like Rights in Progress, a guide to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act, all fulfil this purpose. Casework and policy bulletins keep our members up to date with our work and Frontline is an important source of debate and communication throughout the sector on legal, welfare and policy issues. A recent survey told us that members are very satisfied with our publications, and that 70% use them in their work at least once a month.

Beyond this, an important goal is to reach out further than our membership to our client groups and to other voluntary and statutory services. To this end, we upload most of our publications on to a widely used website. Posters signposting the our new specialist mental health legal service and multilingual leaflets on free immigration advice services have also been very successful.

Migrant workers guide

A glaring information gap was the lack of information available to an increasing migrant worker population on a complex set of rights, entitlements and restrictions. To address this, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, ANIMATE and the Law Centre joined together to publish Your Rights in Northern Ireland, a guide for migrant workers, aimed at European Economic Area and Accession State nationals and work permit holders, with support from OFMDFM. Launched in January, the guides were translated into Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian, Latvian, Portuguese, Tetum, Russian and simplified Chinese. For the first time in Northern Ireland, migrant workers have access in a comprehensive but accessible document to important information about public services, legal entitlements and where to get advice and assistance.

The Law Centre took on a major role in writing information, coordinating translations, distribution to the voluntary sector and making the guide available on-line. So far, we have distributed over 5,000 guides, a further 10,000 plus copies were disseminated to the statutory sector via OFMDFM. The demand for reprints is high and the online guides are currently being updated, with an additional guide for workers from Bulgaria and Romania in the pipeline.

Success beyond expectations

The real success story, though, lies in the ripple effect of this initiative, from the unforeseen popularity of the on line versions (14,913 Polish guides were downloaded from our website from May to end of October this year) to endorsement of the guides as a benchmark resource by migrant workers support groups, advisers and government agencies. The guides are now an integral part of the information, research and employment enforcement strategy for migrant workers developed by the Department for Employment and Learning and OFMDFM with the Law Centre and other interested organisations.

Policy unit - influencing local politics

The Law Centre’s policy unit recently celebrated its first year of operation. The unit was established in August 2006 as a result of funding received from Atlantic Philanthropies and the Department for Social Development (DSD).

The purpose of the unit is to develop the work of campaigning and lobbying for legal reform and seek to achieve progressive changes to law and social policy.

Our policy officers provide informed comment on public consultations relevant to our areas of work. The unit complements the Law Centre’s legal services and draws directly from the experience of advice and representation.

	During the first year, the unit has been busy in a number of key areas.
	We respond to consultations received from statutory authorities. Since last August, we have produced 26 responses and written briefing papers on mental health policy and community care policy in Northern Ireland, the Bamford Review on Mental Health and Learning Disability and the Welfare Reform Bill. These are available on our website at www.lawcentreni.org.
	We aim to influence social policy as it evolves. This has been achieved through networking and partnership work with organisations in the public and voluntary sectors. Our staff chaired the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) working group to bring forward a migrant worker action plan and secured funding for prisoners rehabilitated in mental health units.
	We aim to work with elected representatives to develop progressive policies and laws. We have met all the main political parties before and since the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly to discuss policy matters and areas of mutual concern and to act as an information resource within our areas of expertise. Politicians from all the main parties have utilised our materials in Assembly legislative debates and during private members bills and motions.
	We organise events on key policy matters. Two conferences were held on the work of the Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability, one of which celebrated World Mental Health Day. Two roundtable seminars were organised with the North South Immigration Forum. The second roundtable, in partnership with NCCRI, was held in Dundalk in June 2007 and reviewed immigration practitioner and policy issues arising from the publication of the UK Borders Bill in the UK and forthcoming legislation in the Republic of Ireland. In November, we hosted a fact finding mission by the Independent Asylum Commission.
	We contribute to external publications, for example the Writ and Childcare in Practice.
	We work with many partner organisations including the migrant workers thematic sub-group chaired by DEL and the long-term care campaign through Rights in Community Care (RICC). RICC is a partnership with organisations including Disability Action, Age Concern, Help the Aged, UNISON and Carers NI.

AGM 2006 - ending child poverty

At the Law Centre’s AGM in Derry’s Calgagh Centre, Kate Green, Director of Child Poverty Action Group, reported on the campaign to end child poverty and current progress towards meeting the government target of reducing child poverty by 50 per cent by 2010 and eliminating child poverty altogether by 2020. A lively question and answer session was then conducted with Kate Green, Goretti Horgan (University of Ulster and Chair of Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network), Alex Tennant (Save the Children NI) and Denise Callaghan (Gingerbread).

ASA – driving the sector forward

Along with our Advice Services Alliance partners, we have actively participated in consultations to help shape the Department for Social Development strategy for advice and information services. In September this year, Advice NI, Citizens Advice and Law Centre (NI) jointly organised a conference on the future of Advice Services in Northern Ireland. At the conference, Minister Margaret Ritchie launched the strategy and said ‘The advice sector has consistently delivered services to a broad range of people across Northern Ireland who have received high quality assistance with benefit issues, legal problems, consumer and other rights.’

Among other measures, the strategy recommends the establishment of a network of high quality, adequately staffed and equipped generalist advice and information hubs throughout NI by 2008-2009. In the absence of a firm commitment by the DSD to provide additional resources for the sector, there is a lot of work to be done by both the Department and ASA to make the strategy work in practice.

We continue to sit on ASA working groups and are convening meetings on the development of an integrated training strategy (see page 8).

Participating in debate

Facilitating campaigns and events

Our policy unit held a number of successful events and seminars on community care and immigration issues (see page 17). In addition, the Law Centre continues to hold practitioner meetings, give talks and participate in round-tables and campaigns with partner organisations and working groups with voluntary sector and government agencies.

We were pleased to host the Refugee Action Group’s launch of the third edition of Forced to flee, an FAQ guide to asylum and its training event ‘Campaigning Tactics’.

Advocating for change

We continue to advocate for the rights of our client groups. For example, we met the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Ombudsman and the Social Security Commissioners Forum on tribunal reform, the UN Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on Immigration and Asylum and the Slovakian ambassador on rights of migrant workers.

Correspondence with government agencies and treasury solicitors along with the use of a new protocol for age assessment in Northern Ireland led to the first case of a disputed minor being recognised as a minor under the new protocol.

Negotiations led to clear guidance being produced on the Home Office website for Romanian and Bulgarian workers following the accession of these two countries to the European Union.

Through media work, we highlighted issues such as the lack of adequate respite care facilities for young adults, the need for improvements in mental health services and the detention of asylum seekers.

Tribute to Joan Godfrey

The staff and management of the Law Centre greatly miss our colleague Joan Godfrey, who sadly died this year. Joan’s commitment was unwavering in all her years working at the Law Centre.

As an administration manager she built a strong team who worked well together and created a warm and welcoming environment for anyone coming through the doors of the Belfast office.

Effervescent, great company, with a wicked sense of humour, she was also perceptive, thoughtful and wise. She dealt with her illness with characteristic bravery.

At Joan’s funeral, everyone had a different anecdote about her, but all included her love of life and indomitable spirit. We will always remember her with great fondness and admiration.