Annual Review 2004
Chair's Report
It has again been a very busy year for Rochdale Law Centre – both for the staff and the Management Committee. The communities in Rochdale, Heywood and Littleborough need for good, free legal advice and representation is far greater than the Law Centre can meet with the current staffing and premises. The Law Centre can only deal with immigration/asylum, employment and housing cases because of our limited resources. Our staff members will give reports on these three areas in this report.
The Law Centre has also been very busy because of changes in the law. Particularly in the area of immigration and asylum we have seen an almost constant change of the law. Five major Acts of Parliament in the last decade (1993, 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2004) have changed major parts of the law every 2-3 years. I am pleased to say that our immigration team (like our employment and housing team) has been able to keep up with these changes.
Rochdale Law Centre receives funding from Rochdale Council and the Legal Services Commission (LSC). The LSC has also made major changes in the way they are willing to fund our work. From April 1st 2005 only immigration advisors who have passed accreditation exams will be allowed to give immigration advice. It is proof of the Law Centre’s high standard that our immigration team has already passed these exams – as the first in Rochdale.
Our Management Committee has a broad range of duties. We produce an annual strategic plan with the staff, we negotiate a Service Level Agreement with Rochdale MBC, we recruit new staff members, decide on pay rises for the staff, make sure the Law Centre complies with the law (Charity Commission, Companies House, Inland Revenue, etc), monitor the Law Centre’s financial situation each month, overseas health and safety issues.
This year the Management Committee had to make changes in the staff’s employment contracts because of our limited financial recourses. We have also been involved in the plans for the Law Centre to move to new premises in the beginning of 2005. I am pleased that we have been able to obtain funding for a Legal Practice Course for our employment worker so he can qualify as a solicitor.
The Law Centre’s Management Committee meets on the first Monday of each month at 5 PM. I want to encourage anyone interested to come forward if they may want to be on the committee. It is an exciting and rewarding experience to help the Law Centre serve all communities in Rochdale.
I would like to thank all the Management Committee members, the staff members and our volunteers for their hard work over the last year. Without their commitment the Law Centre would not be able to provide such a good service.
Ghulam ShahzadChair
Rochdale Law Centre
Changes to Staff and Board of Directors
Three members of staff left the law centre during the financial year 2003 to 2004; Alia Talib, Jabeen Maqbool and Nilima Hadi - all three of them were immigration workers. All made a valuable contribution to the work of the law centre. We wish all of our former staff the best of luck in their continuing careers and hope that we continue to maintain a good relationship with them in their new posts.
We have also said goodbye to one of the members of our Board of Directors, Vera Lomax. We would like to thank her for all her support and assistance.
Current Staff (as of 31.3.04)
Jane Luck - Co-ordinator/Senior Solicitor
Glynis Graig - Immigration, Asylum and Housing Solicitor
Gillian Quine - Housing Solicitor
Shabana Mann - Immigration, Asylum and Housing Solicitor
Bernie Culshaw - Employment Caseworker
Hannah Waterhouse - Admin Worker
Susan Powell - Asylum Support Admin Worker
Kate Salt - Accountant
Mary Clegg - Cleaner
Board of Directors / Charitable Trustees
Ghulam Shahzad - Chair
Peter Brierley - Treasurer
Alan Blacker - Secretary
Derek Snowden
Rosemary Jones
Adhiambo Ashall
Andre Diba Musanga
Ian Mann (Rochdale Law Association)
Employment Report
2003 saw the introduction of 20 new sets of regulations in the employment field which the team needed to keep up to date with to properly advise clients. The most important of these changes was the introduction of 4 weeks paid holiday for all workers. Previously, workers in the transport sector were excluded from this right. This was particularly significant in the Rochdale MBC area with its large transport sector.
There were a number of cases successful at tribunal but as usual the majority of cases settled prior to hearing.
The advice line remained very busy and the number of current cases remained high.
Demand, unfortunately, continued to outstrip the service the law centre could offer.
In May 2003 Bernie Culshaw joined us as a full time employment caseworker. Bernie joined the team from Humberside Law Centre. Bernie has been practising employment law for 8 years. He joined Jane who was undertaking employment work part-time, combining this with her co-ordinator duties.
In December 2003 the Law Centre organised a public meeting at a local mosque. This was to consider the implications of the new laws protecting individuals from discrimination on the grounds of religion. Present at the meeting were local religious leaders, members of the public, representatives from voluntary and statutory organisations and a local police representative. Presentatations were given by the Mayor and Bernie Culshaw. Mr Shahzad chaired the meeting.
Amongst our cases we had a high profile success in a case of sex discrimination against a local man. This case was against a well known Rochdale restaurant. The Tribunal found that a different dress code policy was applied to men compared to woman in the workplace. This led to the client's dismissal. Our client was awarded nearly £6000.00. The case was reported in The Rochdale Observer and the national Daily Mail. This was only one of a very small number of successful sex discrimination cases nationally involving sex discrimination against a man.
We also had a number of articles published in the local press, for instance concerning changes in holiday pay rights.
Facts and figures about the Law Centre
In the year from April 2003 to March 31st 2004 the law centre dealt with 1841 enquiries. The break down is as follows:
Employment: 460 (25%)
Housing: 397 (22%)
Immigration & Asylum: 593 (32%)
Others: 391 (21%)
Our law centre took on 466 new cases during the 12 months from April 2003 to March 2004. The break down is as follows:
Employment: 91 (20%)
Housing: 197 (42%)
Immigration & Asylum: 171 (37%)
Others: 7 (1%)
Housing Report
During this year the housing department was staffed by Gillian Quine, Glynis Craig and Shabana Mann. Both Gillian and Glynis are qualified solicitors and Shabana Mann is a trainee solicitor. Gillian works full time as a housing specialist, Glynis and Shabana split their time between housing and immigration work.
The team staff a housing advice telephone line which is open to the public on Thursday mornings. They will also deal with urgent queries on other days. They also undertake casework and representation. They have outreaches at Middleton CAB and Smallbridge Tenants Association. They attend Bury and Oldham County Courts on a rota basis to act as duty solicitors for those who are at risk of having their property repossessed. Home visits can also be arranged where necessary.
For example this year we had cases where elderly clients who were home owners had got into financial difficulties through illness or bereavement and had sold their homes to companies who had advertised to buy their properties and rent them back to them. The only means of then paying the rent to the new landlords was to claim housing benefit. Housing benefit was refused and our clients faced being homeless. Rochdale Law Centre challenged the housing benefit decisions and these were overturned allowing our clients to remain in the homes they had occupied for most of their lives.
The Housing team continue to be concerned about clients who obtain housing advice from organisations that seek only to make a profit. Many of these companies contact people by leafleting homes or doorstep calling. The Law Centre has seen an increase this year in people who have taken out insurance or signed loan agreements in order to fund disrepair cases, only to find themselves in debt. If only they had known that the Law Centre can do this type of work for free!
In this year we have also experienced a large demand for advice from those tenants of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Limited who are having problems with the improvements works being carried out on their properties. In some cases we have taken action through the county courts on our clients' behalf.
The housing department is one of the busiest at the Law Centre. The Law Centre remains the only not for profit organisation giving housing advice in Rochdale. We deal with problems such as rent/mortgage arrears, possession, housing benefit, disrepair and unlawful eviction and homelessness.
The Law Centre is proud of its housing work. The majority of our clients obtain a satisfactory resolution to their problems. We are concerned however that many people with housing problems do not seek advice. We therefore work closely with the Local Authority and other advice agencies in an attempt to ensure that people are aware of the service we offer.
Immigration Law Report
As in previous years, Immigration continues to be a politically contentious and fast developing area of law. Although the numbers of asylum seekers being dispersed to the Rochdale Area has remained steady over the year, the demand for asylum advice has continued to increase. This year also saw the attack on Iraq by the American and British Armed Forces. Despite the growing number of military and civilian casualties, the Home Office have deemed Iraq to be a "safe" country and have declared that applications from Iraqi Nationals are no longer well-founded and that they should return home!!!
Along with the increase in asylum cases, we have continued to deal with mainstream immigration cases as well. These usually involve people from the Rochdale Township applying for naturalisation or applying to bring their husbands, wives, parents or children to join them here, or are trying to keep them here under the threat of deportation. Although, it was thought that the Human Rights Act would serve to protect the 'right to family life', our clients continue to face obstacles in obtaining this basic right as the immigration rules are very strict, and are applied strictly, with little place for compassion.
An important part of our work is advising people about the rules before they make their applications, so that they know what challenges and difficulties they are facing and can prepare the documents they will need. We hope that by doing this, we can reduce the risk of visas being refused. If a visa is refused, we represent clients at their appeals, and have a good success rate in winning appeals.
Rochdale Law Centre offers a spectrum of assistance from one-off telephone advice to providing representation in the courts and tribunals. We also try to ensure that the local community is kept up to date with advice on their rights given rapidly changing legislation on immigration. We endeavour to achieve this by offering training courses to local groups and advice agencies. A training programme was run in Spring 2004 in partnership with the Rochdale Centre of Diversity.
This year the Law Centre saw substantial changes to its Immigration Team. Whilst Glynis Craig returned to the Law Centre after a 6-month maternity leave, having given birth to twins, Alia Talib left the Law Centre to pursue her new career as a full-time mother. Jabeen Maqbool took early retirement and left the organisation in March 2003. On the return of Glynis Craig, we also had to say goodbye to Nilima Hadi, the temporary maternity cover taken on in Glynis and Alia's absence. We thank each of them for their hard work on immigration cases this year, and wish them all the best for the future.
With all the comings and goings in the immigration team, we also saw Shabana Mann wear a new hat as a Trainee Solicitor with the Law Centre. Shabana is the most recent member of staff to embark upon a training contract with the Law Centre in recent years.
The Law Centre staff are able to communicate with clients in Urdu and Punjabi and has access to interpreters for other language users.
We are grateful to the Rochdale MBC for providing us with additional funding which has enabled us to recruit Sue Powell as the Asylum Support Administration Officer to the Immigration and Asylum Team. As ever, we remain grateful to the Legal Services Commission for their on-going financial support.
Legal Aid in Crises
The government is currently going through a review of its legal aid. Rochdale Law Centre wants to participate in the public debate around this review and has made the theme of or AGM "Access to legal advice in Rochdale". The AGM takes place on 6th January 2005 at 7 PM at Rochdale Town Hall. The leader of Rochdale Council, Paul Rowen, and Rochdale MP Lorna Fitzsimons have agreed to be speakers at the AGM. It is a public meeting open to anyone interested.
The past thirty years have seen a steady growth in the amount of state funding spent on legal advice. When the scheme was started about 80% of the population could get legal aid. According to the Bar Council only 15% of the population today qualify for civil legal aid. This should be increased to at least every person in receipt of welfare benefits.
The government has made a cap on how much legal aid can be paid per year. At the moment legal aid for criminal cases is in the same pot of money as civil legal aid. The government has a legal duty to provide legal aid for all criminal cases where the client qualifies. When the legal aid costs for criminal legal work goes up there will therefore be less legal aid for civil legal work. We are therefore suggesting the civil legal aid budget should be ring fenced from the criminal aid budget to ensure that there are sufficient funds for the civil legal work. Otherwise funding for social welfare law will remain volatile and subject to arbitrary cuts.
The provision of legal aided services has traditionally been driven by market forces. The government has paid mainly private solicitors to provide legal help for people who qualify for legal aid. The amount of funding for private solicitors and the amount of paper work that needs to be done by a lawyer to get legal aid is such that many private solicitors are dropping out of legal aid work. This creates shortfalls of legal aid advice in certain geographical areas and in certain areas of the law.
It is our view that legal aid should be recognised as a public service, along with education and health. Legal aid is an important element to tackle social exclusion. However, individual case work is not sufficient. A strategic approach is necessary that combines casework with legal education and social policy.
We believe the government needs to establish a national network of independent publicly funded community law centres. This should be supplemented by regional or countrywide second tier legal centres providing: a. expert casework (including in human rights and discrimination law) and b. consultancy, training and social policy work.
Government must also make funds available for tribunal representation in cases where there are allegations of discrimination and harassment. For example there is not legal aid for anyone who takes a case to an employment tribunal or benefit appeal.
The legal aid restrictions for immigration and asylum cases introduced in 2004 have shown to be too restrictive and too bureaucratic to deal with. One can normally only get 3 hours legal aid help for an immigration case and 5 hours for an asylum case until the case reaches appeal stage. It is possible but difficult to get extensions. If a client wishes to take a case to appeal the Legal Services Commission (LSC) has to give permission for this and will only give permission on submission of sufficient evidence showing that the client is likely to win the appeal. However, the preparation of the appeal is about collecting such evidence but the LSC wants to see the evidence before it gives you permission to start preparing the appeal! The government needs to remove these restrictions in legal aid for immigration and asylum work.
Finally, we are suggesting that a duty should be placed on local councils to include in their local strategic partnerships plans (or the equivalent) their objectives for the provision of legal and advice services. We have to ensure that all new central and local government legislation and policy initiatives are "advice proofed" so that advice and training become a shared responsibility of all government departments.
