Warwick Law in the Community is recruiting for students to take part in the next Strategic Social Justice Clinic project in Term 3.

Led by Dr Maggie O'Brien (University of Warwick) and Carla Clarke (Solicitor with the Central England Law Centre) the SSJC is one of two clinics run by Warwick LinC in partnership with the Central England Law Centre (CELC). It aims to use public law and other rights-based strategies to address systemic disadvantage and achieve effective change. Working in small groups student volunteers receive supervision, guidance and mentorship from the clinic leads. During the course of the clinic students will put legal learning into practice, find creative ways of using the law and develop leadership, communication and organisational skills in the social justice sector.

The focus of the project for Term 3 will be as follows:

All decisions made by public bodies must follow the principles of public law. Where they do not, they can be challenged through a process called judicial review. Before starting a judicial review claim in the courts, an individual should comply with the pre-action protocol process. This is aimed at trying to resolve the dispute without the need to resort to the courts. It involves sending a pre-action letter to the public body setting out the basic facts of the case, the alleged unlawful decision and the grounds of challenge with a specific time frame for a response. In straightforward cases, where the unlawfulness is clear, the pre-action process can often result in the public body amending their decision straightaway.

We will be looking at the judicial review and pre-action protocol process and drafting a template pre-action letter that can be used by staff at Central England Law Centre staff. The template letter is likely to concern delays by the Department of Work and Pensions in making decisions on social security claims

Students will be expected to commit 3 - 5 hours per week during term time and attend regular, weekly meetings usually on a Wednesday around midday.

Key Dates

• An online meeting via Teams will be held on Thursday 26th January at 11am. This will be recorded and students can view it after the meeting
• Students should submit their CV and a Cover Letter of no more than 300 words via email to WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.uk by midday 6th February
• Interviews for shortlisted applicants will take place on 22nd February

All Warwick Law Students can apply as well as PPL students.

For further information please contact WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.uk

Warwick School of Law's Law in the Community project has published its Annual Report for 2021/2022.

2021/22 has been a very positive year for Warwick Law in the Community (LinC). The first half of the year was affected by the ongoing impact of Covid-19 due to the necessity to limit in-person interactions in our clinics. However students managed to achieve a huge amount and and pursue excellent opportunities and returned to in-person work in the latter pat of the year.

Our Immigration and Asylum clinic focused on supporting Exceptional Case Funding applications for legal aid. Twelve students worked on the clinic, assisting with these applications and completing research tasks related to specific cases. Our Strategic Public Law Clinic has worked across three substantial new projects this year on issues related to homelessness, social care and poverty. The clinic has also continued to make use of the work of a number of previous years' projects and see real impact from this work. Our Public Legal Education Module students have worked with a range of organisations on four different projects related to housing-rights, precarious employment, carers’ rights and healthcare in immigration removal centres. LinC has also been involved in other projects which included working with Warwickshire County Council to produce a film for parents outlining their legal rights regarding school exclusions.

In 2021/2022 LinC provided 81 law students with opportunities to volunteer in the local community and build up their own skills outside their studies. To find out more about LinC's activities you can find our annual report hereLink opens in a new window.

Warwick Law in the Community, working in partnership with Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, have published: The Right to Community Equivalent Healthcare in Immigration Removal Centres: A Public Law Analysis of Systemic Issues in the Inspection Regime.

Anyone who is detained by the state is entitled to receive health care which is equivalent in quality to that enjoyed in the wider community. For many years there has been a persistent and consistent concern about the quality of healthcare in immigration removal centres (IRCs), but the findings of statutory inspections have tended to find provision to be satisfactory.

This report asks whether there are systemic elements of the inspection scheme which inhibit its ability to apply the community equivalence principle. Drawing on work undertaken by LinC's Strategic Public Law Clinic between January 2020 and November 2021, it makes comparisons between the scheme used by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to quality assess community healthcare provision and that adopted to respond to the overlapping responsibilities of the CQC and His Majesty Inspectorate of Prisons for inspecting healthcare in IRCs.

Its recommendations call for fundamental reform not only to operational processes for gathering and analysing evidence, but also to the underpinning regulations which currently prevent the CQC from applying a ‘community equivalent’ approach.

Warwick Law in the Community (LinC) is pleased to collaborate with the Central England Law Centre (CELC) to offer students exciting volunteering opportunities with the Strategic Social Justice Clinic (SSJC) as well as the Immigration and Asylum Clinic (I&A) this academic year.

Students are welcome to join our MS Teams information session on Monday 3 October 2022 between 2-3pm to learn more about LinC and this year’s opportunities with the team at CELC. The link to join this session will be sent to all Law students via email.

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

Read more about the opportunities and how to apply here.

Last year the Law School ran a pilot of our hugely successful School Tasking outreach project. We are now looking for volunteers to join our 2022/23 project team.

You will help to design and develop materials for this year’s project and deliver School Tasking workshops in local Widening Participation primary schools. More information about the project can be found here.

This role will begin on 10 October 2022 and end by 26 May 2023. More information and how to apply can be found here.

This summer Warwick LinC is offering  five new paid internship opportunities:

Strategic Public Law Internship - Central England Law Centre
Public Law Team Internship - Central England Law Centre
Legal Information, Research and Evaluation Internship - Law for Life: The Foundation for Public Legal Education
Coventry Independent Advice Service Internship – Coventry Independent Advice Service
Immigration and Asylum Internship - Central England Law Centre

All current and past volunteers with Warwick LinC programmes (Strategic Public Law Clinic, CELC’s Immigration and Asylum Clinic, School Exclusions Project) and undergraduate students who have completed the Public Legal Education Module are eligible to apply. You must be based in the UK whilst working as an intern on these projects. For more information on each internship and details of how to apply, see here.

Warwick Law in the Community (LinC) is pleased to collaborate with the Central England Law Centre (CELC) to offer students a new volunteering opportunity with the Strategic Public Law Clinic (SPLC) on the Rights in Food Justice project.

If you missed the information session to learn more about the project (11/03/22), you can view the recording hereLink opens in a new window.

If you have any other questions about the opportunities, please email WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.ukLink opens in a new window.

Read more about the opportunity here.

Warwick LinC have recently been approached by Warwickshire County Council to explore the issues surrounding school exclusions, and what could be done to support families and pupils going through this process to better understand their rights and advocate for themselves.

Students are welcome to join our MS Teams information session on Friday 19^th November between 12 – 12:30pm to learn more about the project.

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

Read more about the opportunity and how to apply here.