National advice organisations under threat

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) is proposing to end its Community Legal Service (CLS) Grants programme in March 2013. This programme currently funds three national advice organisations:

• The Advice Services Alliance (ASA)
• The Law Centres Federation
• The Royal Courts of Justice Advice Bureau.

The loss of their CLS grant will mean that from April 2013, ASA will be unable to represent the Not-for-Profit advice sector on legal aid contracting issues or the future development of legal aid services.

They say that they will also be unable to continue their training and support services to advice agencies. The loss of grant will also seriously threaten their capacity to deliver other activities, including speaking for the sector as a whole and engaging with government on developments affecting advice agencies and their clients at a time of increasing pressure on the sector.

They are asking organisations and individuals to respond to the LSC’s consultation paper and to support the points that they will be making. The consultation paper can be found at http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/civil/cls-grants.asp.

Responses should be sent to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The deadline for responses is Friday 21st September 2012. If you do respond, please send a copy to ASA at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

A briefing with more information is available here National advice organisations under threat