Access to justice fordisadvantaged communities
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and glossary
Introduction: accessing social justice in disadvantaged communities
The chapters that follow
1. Social justice and the welfare state
Social justice and the origins of the post-war welfare state
More recent debates
Neoliberalism and more recent policy developments
Marketisation and public service modernisation
Public service modernisation in practice
2. Concepts of justice and access to justice
Public policies to promote access to justice
The Carter proposals for reform. Comparing and contrasting Law Centres with working in other sectors and types of agency. Key drivers for collaboration, despite the challengesThe role of local authorities in promoting collaboration
Collaborating, competing with or becoming more like the private sector?
7. Public service modernisation and time
New Public Management, neo-Taylorism and the new organisation of (working) time in the public services
Time pressures and work intensification
Time efficiency: output versus outcome
Time valued and the value of time
Conclusion
8. Alienation and demoralisation, or continuing labours of love?
Motivations and values
Motivation and gender. Law Centres' ethos: other stakeholders' perspectivesThe benefits of Law Centres' local knowledge and policy inputs
Preventative approaches as part of Law Centres' original social justice mission
4. Challenges and dilemmas
Recent research findings
Challenges and dilemmas for Law Centres
Financial and administrative challenges
The Legal Services Commission's comments, in contrast
Law Centre perspectives, in response
Education, training and development
Resulting tensions, dilemmas and stress
5. Public service modernisation, restructuring and recommodification. Legal aid reforms 2007, following the Carter report in 2006Potential issues for legal professionals
Community Legal Advice Centres and Community Legal Advice Networks
More recent legislative changes
3. Ethos and values
Contested approaches to the public service ethos, professional ethics and professionalism in the context of public service modernisation
Ethics and the professions
Differing approaches and outcomes
Law Centres, their missions and ethos
Holistic approaches
Collective and preventative approaches to taking up common issues in the pursuit of social justice. The Carter reforms and the new managerialismCollective working
Staffing structures
Staffing costs, pay and conditions
Use of volunteers
The use of telephone and internet-based mechanisms for delivering legal advice
Management committees/boards of trustees
Charging clients
6. Conflict and competition versus collaboration and planning
Pressures to collaborate or to compete
The impact of public service modernisation: an increasingly competitive context
Conflicting pressures
Alternative approaches: partnerships responsive to community needs developed from the bottom up. This unique study explores how strategies to safeguard the provision of legal advice and access to welfare rights to disadvantaged communities might be developed in ways that strengthen rather than undermine the basic ethics and principles of public service provision.