The Strategic Social Justice Clinic (SSJC) is a collaborative effort between the Central England Law Centre (CELC) and Warwick LinC. Its focus lies in leveraging public law and other rights-oriented approaches to tackle systemic inequities and foster tangible progress. Students engage in diverse projects alongside CELC's Public Law and Human Rights team, contributing essential support to staff and clients of the Law Centre.

Under the supervision and mentorship of Emma Austin, Solicitor and CELC's Rights in the Community Strategy Lead, and Rebecca Munro, Director of Warwick LinC, student volunteers operate in small groups. They receive guidance and support essential for their involvement in various initiatives aimed at driving positive social change.

Term 3 Project Background - Priority Need for Homeless Refugees

Central England Law Centre (‘CELC’) operates a busy Housing Law practice. The Housing Team has noted increasing difficulties establishing ‘priority need’ for homeless refugees under the provisions of Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996. This may be due to a decline in the quality of Local Authority decision-making generally, increased demand for social housing (which may place pressure on Local Authorities to ‘gatekeep’) and/or could be related to changes made in recent years to Chapter 8 of the ‘Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities’. The ‘Priority Need for Homeless Refugees Project’ will explore the extent of the difficulties homeless refugees now face in establishing ‘priority need’ under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 and will seek to create resources enabling refugees to demonstrate, pursue and enforce their rights more easily.

Student volunteers will

1. undertake research
2. analyse legal provisions and policy documents using Public Law approaches
3. speak directly to Housing and Public Law practitioners to gain insight into presenting problems and gather case studies, and
4. draft a Briefing Document for practitioners and a pre-action protocol letter for use by practitioners in legal cases challenging negative ‘priority need’ decisions for refugees.

We are planning to recruit 12-15 student volunteers to the Project and 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.

Project meetings will be held every Wednesday afternoon during Term 3.

How to Apply

Please email a CV and a cover letter outlining why you want to apply for this clinic and how you demonstrate the skills and attributes outlined above to warwicklinc@warwick.ac.uk by midday on Monday 4th March.

Please send CVs and Cover Letters as a Word document or PDF attached to your email and please include your name in the file names.

Group interviews will be held online via Teams on Thursday 14th March.