The National Equalities Partnership

The National Equalities Partnership (2008-2011) was led by Women’s Resource Centre in partnership with the Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Voluntary and Community Organisations, Voice4Change England and NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and Community Action). Our work was closely informed by our reference group which included all equalities sectors as well as generalist organisations.

Keeping it Legal: A guide for third sector organisations on public law and equality rights

This publication produced by the National Equality Partnership (NEP), National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) and The Public Law Project, is an excellent guide on public law and how to challenge unfair decision making. Particular focus is on the successful challenge of Southall Black Sisters and Chavda.

Keeping it Legal: A guide for Third Sector organisations on Public Law and Equality Rights (2009)

A practical guide to help you understand, access, act, plan and review equality audits and equality impact assessments in your organisation. Aimed at equalities or generalist infrastructure organisations.

Equality Action: An equality audit and equality impact assessment guide for the voluntary and community sector (2010)

Legal aid can help you pay for legal advice, mediation or representation in court if you can’t afford it. This could include help for housing, debt, family or education problems. You can also get legal aid if you’re accused of a crime.

For many women, legal aid is an essential tool that can be used to ensure their safety when trying to end a violent relationship or access justice when they have been treated unfairly by their local authority or other public bodies. The Government has introduced a number of controversial reforms to the legal aid system, removing a large number of cases from the scope of legal aid and proposing new eligibility criteria and restrictions in order to save money. You can find out more about current policy on legal aid below.

CONSULTATION

Transforming Legal Aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system (Ministry of Justice)

Deadline: 4th June

In this consultation, the Government puts forward a secondary programme of reforms that will expand on the changes that have already been made in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012. Many of the proposed reforms in this consultation have sparked outrage within the legal profession and voluntary and community sector. In particular, plans such as introducing an eligibility threshold in criminal cases, removing the scope of legal aid for prison law and introducing a residence test for applicants of civil legal aid will disproportionately impact on women in the UK. It is vital for women''s organisations to respond to this consultation and highlight the impact that these proposal will have on the women they support.

TAKE ACTION: