Strategic Social Justice Clinic 2025/26

Warwick Law in the Community

LinC Student Opportunities 2025/26

Applications are now open

Warwick Law in the Community (LinC) is pleased to collaborate with the Central England Law Centre (CELC) to offer students volunteering opportunities with the Strategic Social Justice Clinic (SSJC) this 2025/26 academic year.

Students can learn more about this year’s opportunities by attending the LinC information session on Tuesday, October 7th from 11:00-12:00 in OC 0.01. If you are unable to attend, you can find all the information you'll need to apply on this webpage.

If you have any questions about the opportunities, please email WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.uk

As a volunteer for Warwick LinC, you are able to claim Core Skills Points towards the Warwick Award.

Eligibility

Opportunities with the Strategic Social Justice Clinic are open to all Warwick law students, both undergraduate and postgraduate. PPL students are also eligible to apply.

Please note that students can only volunteer for each of LinC's clinics one time, but further opportunities to work with these clinics may be available as part of our associates programme for previous volunteers.

We are planning to recruit 10-12 student volunteers for each of the projects below. We are looking for students with the following skills and attributes:

A commitment to social justice.
Good organisational skills and timekeeping.
Strong written and oral communication skills.
Good legal research skills.
Good analytical skills.
Good team working and collaboration.
An interest in social welfare law as a career

What's Involved?

Students volunteering with the Strategic Social Justice Clinic are expected to commit 3-5 hours per week during term time. Please see the project descriptions for the length of the projects.

Students will be required to attend regular team meetings on campus. The SSJC is held on a Wednesday afternoon between the hours of 12-2 pm, with the possibility of additional meetings outside of these hours as needed.

Further information about the work of the clinic and the specific projects the clinic is working on this term can be found below.

How to apply

Students should submit their CV along with a cover letter (of no more than 300 words) in one document to WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.uk

Students should clearly state in their email which opportunity they are applying for.

If you are interested in more than one opportunity, separate applications should be submitted.

A preference for one can be expressed in your email when submitting the application. Please note that those applying for more than once opportunity can only be accepted to one. Do let us know in your application if you have a preference. If you are applying to the SSJC please indicate if you are interested in a specific project.

The deadline for applications is 12 noon (Midday), Thursday 9 October 2025.

Interviews

Applicants shortlisted will be notified and invitations for interview will be sent via email on: Monday 13 October

Please note: if invited for interview, we will ask whether you have any reasonable adjustments we can make to help you to attend the interview, or to help you perform at your best.

In-person group Interviews will take place on campus on Tuesday 14 October

Successful applicants will be required to attend an induction on: Wednesday 22 October between 12pm-2pm

Strategic Social Justice Clinic

You can read about this term's SSJC projects below.

Project 1: Disability Benefits Reform Project

In March 2025, the Government published a controversial Green Paper, Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, setting out major reforms to welfare provision for disabled people. Proposals included changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Universal Credit (UC), and the replacement of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

CELC has raised concerns that these reforms would reduce support, restrict eligibility, and increase reassessments, with potentially severe consequences for disabled people and their families. Although some proposals have since been withdrawn or amended, many could be reintroduced in future.

The Disability Benefit Reform Project will research the current status of these proposals, track key reviews (including the Timms Review on PIP assessments), and assess the likelihood of reforms being implemented.

Working in small groups, student volunteers will meet regularly and receive supervision from Dr Rebecca Munro, Co-Director of Warwick LinC. You will also have the opportunity to meet practitioners from CELC working in welfare benefits law and gain an insight into the kinds of disability benefits cases they encounter regularly. You will prepare a briefing note for CELC, draft key arguments for lobbying and campaigning, and identify opportunities for CELC to influence future policy debates. There will also be opportunities to visit CELC directly to obtain case studies on disability benefits, providing valuable insight into the lived experiences of clients and the impact of reform.

This project will run for Term 1 with a further meeting to present findings in Term 2.

Project 2: Building Community Legal Capability

A recent legal needs study in Coventry, conducted jointly by WarwickLinC, the Central England Law Centre andAdvicenowpointed to the integral role playedbyfrontline community organisations in supporting access to justicefor marginalised groups.Since the 2010 cuts to legal aid, these organisations have been doing more of this vital work, often without formal training or support. This is something we are trying to change.

As a crucial next step in this work, this project will focus on conducting a wide-ranging needs assessment of community groups in Coventry. A needs assessment means finding out what support local community organisations need by asking them directly, spotting patterns in the legal problems they deal with, and identifying gaps that training could fill.

The needs assessment will help us to better understand the kinds of legal issues that arise in the work of these organisations– for instance, benefits, employment, housing issues tend to be common- and what support they would find most useful. We will also consult with the legal teams at Central England Law Centre to find out the most common problems they see, and what they think it would be important for people working in frontline organisations to know. This information will be used to develop a community training offer for volunteers and staff of local organisations that will help to build legal capability in Coventry.

Working in small groups, student volunteers will meet regularly and receive supervision from Dr Tara Mulqueen, Co-Director of Warwick LinC. Students will design and run the survey, analyse the results, consult with CELC legal teams and produce a briefing on their research. They will gain insight into the everyday legal problems of people who are marginalised in the city, the challenges they face in securing access to justice, and they will be part of devising innovative solutions to these problems.

This project will run for Term 1 with a further meeting to present findings in Term 2.