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Social Sciences School of Law

Warwick LinC Summer 2023 Internship Opportunities

This summer Warwick LinC will once again be working with external partners to offer five paid internships opportunities. This will give students the chance to gain experience in legal settings serving disadvantaged communities and enhance their future career prospects.

Students can apply for the following internships:

The closing date for applications is midnight 26th April 2023 - please send completed applications to WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.ukLink opens in a new window

Eligibility

All current and past volunteers with Warwick LinC programmes (Strategic Social Justice Clinic, CELC’s Immigration and Asylum Clinic) and undergraduate students who have completed the Public Legal Education Module are eligible to apply. We very much hope you will apply for any of the opportunities that are of interest to you but, in the interests of fairness, you can only be selected for one.   

You must be based in the UK whilst working as an intern on these projects.

Whilst deciding which internships you would like to apply for, please pay careful attention to whether the internship is remote or in-person.

How to apply

You will need to submit a single document containing:

  • A CV
  • A cover letter (of no more than 500 words) explaining: (i) which internship opportunity/opportunities you are interested in, (ii) what you can contribute to the role, (iii) what you hope to learn from the experience
  • Your completed response to the short application tasks for the roles which can be found below

If you have any questions about the internships or the application process please email WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.uk 

Each internship is paid at a rate of £12.19 per hour which will be organised by UniTemps

Strategic Social Justice Clinic Internship 

The Strategic Social Justice Clinic (‘SSJC’) is a joint initiative between Central England Law Centre (‘CELC’) and Warwick LinC. It specialises in using public law and other rights-based strategies to address systemic disadvantage and achieve effective change.  

Over the past 1 ½ years students have worked with CELC’s public law specialists on varied projects; The Local Housing Allowance and its Impact on Homeless Families, Rights in Peril - Reinstating Rights to Social Care Post Covid-19, Rights in Food Justice Project, Supporting Care Leavers to Access their Rights and Access to Student Finance for Migrants. CELC is keen to imbed and build on work produced as part of these projects to maximise use of research/resources produced in its work both internally and externally.  

As well as furthering work on previous projects, CELC is continually developing ideas for potential future projects for SSJC students to work on including: Universal Credit/Personal Independent Payment benefits decision-making, and Tackling Damp and Mould. 

The Intern will: (i) work with CELC on tasks to imbed and disseminate work from previous SSJC projects, (ii) scope out and develop a plan plotting forthcoming local and national social welfare policy-influencing opportunities (e.g. reviews of international treaties, shadow report timetables, select committee investigations, scrutiny committee meetings, consultations), (iii) produce an initial draft response for CELC on calls for evidence/consultations where information/resources from SSJC projects are relevant, and (iv) conduct background research, gather resources and compile data relevant to potential future projects. 

 We’re looking for individuals with: 

  • Good research skills 

  • Good verbal communication skills 

  • Ability to identify relevant information   

  • Ability to communicate clearly and accurately in writing 

  • Understanding of the fundamental public law principles 

  • Ability to work both independently and collaboratively 

  • Ability to work remotely 

 The Intern will be supervised by CELC’s Rights in Community Strategy and Strategic Social Justice Clinic Lead. 

 Application Task

One of the main tasks the intern will be working on during the internship is to scope out and develop a plan plotting forthcoming local and national social welfare policy-influencing opportunities such as:

  • reviews of international treaties and shadow report timetables
  • UK government select committee investigations
  • local authority scrutiny committee meetings
  • consultations

Draft a note not exceeding a maximum of 500 words explaining: (i) how you would go about researching these policy-influencing opportunities and (ii) what information a spreadsheet/table/chart plotting these might include.

We realise that you may not know anything about policy-influencing work. We are not expecting you to undertake any detailed research. We don’t expect you to spend more than 2-3 hours completing the task.

Working Pattern

The internships will be remote with online supervision. There will be opportunities for the intern to work in the CELC office if they desire. CELC are also flexible about working days/hours and will liaise with the successful candidate to create a mutually acceptable arrangement.

Interviews to take place on Wednesday 3rd May

Rights in the Community Internship

One of the four priority areas Central England Law Centre (‘CELC’) is working on under its innovative Rights in Community Strategy is ‘addressing unmet social care, health and mental health needs’ in its communities. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and in its aftermath, CELC has become increasingly concerned about the ability of vulnerable individuals to have their complaints about access to and/or adequacy of healthcare provision resolved. In particular, CELC is concerned about the extent to which the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has limited the range and scope of healthcare complaints it will now investigate. CELC is concerned this hinders access to justice and impedes effective resolution of both individual and systemic issues in the healthcare system. CELC is keen to explore whether this can be challenged using public law principles. 

The Intern will: (i) research the legal framework, regulations and guidance underpinning the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s duties to investigate healthcare complaints, (ii) research the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s policies, practice guidance and published decisions about whether to investigate complaints (through desk-based research and Freedom of Information Act requests), (iii) explore with CELC’s Independent Health Complaints Advocacy service caseworker case study examples where the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has refused to investigate complaints CELC has raised, (iv) summarise and collate research to brief CELC colleagues on whether the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s approach appears to be consistent with its legal duties to investigate healthcare complaints. 

 We’re looking for individuals with: 

  • Good research skills 

  • Good verbal communication skills 

  • Ability to identify relevant information   

  • Ability to communicate clearly and accurately in writing 

  • Understanding of the fundamental public law principles 

  • Ability to work both independently and collaboratively 

  • Ability to work remotely 

 The Intern will be supervised by CELC’s Rights in Community Strategy and Strategic Social Justice Clinic Lead. 

Application Task

Read about the NHS complaints process on the NHS websiteLink opens in a new window and the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman’s websiteLink opens in a new window including this page about their caseworkLink opens in a new window

Draft a note not exceeding a maximum of 500 words explaining: (i) what you understand the stages of the NHS complaints process to be, (ii) what the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman’s role is within this process, and (iii) summarising a recent casework decision you find interesting.

We realise that you may not know anything about this area of law. We are not expecting you to undertake any reading or research other than reading information from these websites. We don’t expect you to spend more than 2-3 hours completing the task.

Working Pattern

The internships will be remote with online supervision. There will be opportunities for the intern to work in the CELC office if they desire. CELC are also flexible about working days/hours and will liaise with the successful candidate to create a mutually acceptable arrangement.

Interviews to take place on Wednesday 3rd May

Legal Action Group Internship

LAG is looking for a self-starter who can offer their initiative and creative thinking, to help us deliver projects that support the access to justice community.

Legal Action Group (LAG) is a national charity committed to improving access to justice. LAG promotes equal access to justice as a fundamental democratic right. Justice demands both fairness of process and result. LAG i seeks to represent the interests of the public, particularly the vulnerable and socially excluded, by improving legal services, the law, and the administration of justice. LAG publishes books, organises events and also publishes 10 Legal Action magazines a year.

The main purpose of the intern role is to assist with administrative tasks. These could include managing our databases, helping to plan and run events, and other operational duties. LAG has a small team and therefore the intern will have a level of responsibility and independence. There will also be opportunities to attend various events and meet prominent figures in the legal sector. This is an exciting time for LAG; the charity is in a new phase of development and it is vital that the successful candidate(s) is enthusiastic about this challenge.

Application Task

In a maximum of 350 words explain:

1. The meaning of ‘social justice’ to someone who has never come across the idea before and who has had no legal training; and

2. what you think the main cause(s) of social injustice are.

Law for Life - Legal Information, Research and Evaluation Internship

This position is a remote working position. You will have weekly meetings with your mentor and be expected to attend fortnightly online full staff meetings on Wednesday mornings. You will have the opportunity to be involved in one or more of the tasks listed below:

Research team:

  • Undertaking and assisting colleagues to undertake research. 
  • Recording findings, keeping records and accounts of the management of projects. 
  • Investigating and evaluating sources of data for empirical projects. 
  • Utilising statistical software to support empirical studies relating to law and policy. 
  • Supporting statistical analyses on social science data sets and report findings. 
  • Compiling or updating databases and datasets when needed. 
  • Carrying out literature reviews. 
  • Reviewing and contributing to writing academic publications and other policy reports. 

Legal information team: 

  • Reviewing information categories and making recommendations for the Advicenow website in line with our inclusion criteria. 
  • Reviewing the information available from a particular provider against Advicenow’s inclusion criteria and making recommendations for the Advicenow website. 
  • Producing a checklist summarising a legal process. 
  • Contributing to the development of a new Advicenow guide as a panel member. 
  • Developing a new ‘know-how’ including top tips and possible solutions in collaboration with a member of the Advicenow team. 
  • Administrative tasks, for example, searching for email addresses for contacts or working through Google analytics looking at ‘no results’ searches. 
  • Updating of the Advicenow Information Service and Help Directory. 
  • Editing and publishing material onto the Advicenow and Law for Life websites using the content management system. 
  • Creating social media posts 
  • Monitoring or researching changes in the law. 
  • Monitoring Google analytics and/or other evaluation processes.  

Person specification 

Shortlisted candidates will meet all of the essential criteria, and are likely to meet several, if not all, of the desirable criteria below. 

Essential: 

  • Student on Warwick Law School degree course. 
  • Attendance on the PLE Module at WLS. 
  • Knowledge and interest in the broad range of legal and rights issues affecting the UK public. 
  • Enthusiasm for the development of information to increase public knowledge and understanding of the law and rights. 
  • Excellent writing skills in plain English, including the ability to pay close attention to detail and to summarise complex information and communicate clearly to a wide audience. 
  • Strong IT skills, including a thorough working knowledge of Microsoft Office software, especially Excel, and an ability or willingness to update websites. 
  • A self-motivated and flexible approach to working independently within a small team.  
  • Good organisational skills, including ability to organise workload, take responsibility for particular areas of work, work on own initiative and meet agreed deadlines. 
  • Good verbal communication skills, including a pleasant and friendly telephone manner.  
  • An understanding of the difficulties faced by disadvantaged people and communities in achieving access to the law and justice. 
  • An understanding of equal opportunities issues and a commitment to equal opportunities in all aspects of your work. 

Desirable 

  • Experience of the not-for-profit advice or community sector. 
  • Experience of using specialist research software such as Endnote, SPSS and Nvivo. 
  • Experience in conducting interviews. 
  • Experience of report writing. 
  • Experience in qualitative analysis. 
  • Familiarity with Access databases, ideally including design/development as well as use. 
  • Experience of advice or information giving. 
  • Experience of updating and editing website content. 
  • An ability to administrate, manage and regularly update social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter with the intention of increasing Advicenow and Law for Life’s reach. 

Application Task

As a key part of our research and evaluation process, Law for Life needs to obtain feedback from the people we help through the range of services we provide. This is not just about their satisfaction with Law for Life and the specific service they’ve used, but also to help us evaluate whether we have helped them to achieve better outcomes in their legal issue and if that has helped them improve their legal capabilities.

As part of the application process, please answer the questions below – the task should take approximately 1.5 hours (including time to look at the Law for Life website: www.lawforlife.org.ukLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window).

Your answers should be expressed in bullet points rather than an essay and should not exceed 500 words. Draw upon any knowledge and experience you have of using research skills in a community setting.

Task: You are designing a short service user feedback survey of people using one of our Advicenow guides (you can choose which one - https://www.advicenow.org.uk/advicenow-guidesLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window). This would be situated at the end of the guide and would be online. There is already a link at the end of all Advicenow guides for people to complete detailed feedback surveys but these are generic to all our guides. What we are hoping to do is to ask people to complete a much shorter survey (max 5-6 questions) that is specific to particular guides and encourages more people to respond and provide us with valuable information about how the guide has helped them

  1. What do you need to take into consideration when designing this survey?
  2. What audience do you think this should be aimed at and how will that affect the questions you ask?
  3. What sort of questions are most effective in online surveys?
  4. What challenges are you likely to face in obtaining feedback from Law for Life service users in this way?
  5. Please tell us about any experience you have to date that you think would help you in obtaining feedback from service users. (This can include experience from within or outside your degree course)

Interviews to take place on Tuesday 9th May

Coventry Independent Advice Service Internship

CIAS is funded to provide advice, information and casework with benefits and debts. Often enquiries fall outside of our remit, in which case we can provide basic advice, information and can signpost or refer to other resources or other agencies that are more appropriate. 

The working pattern will require the successful candidate to be available on site at a social supermarket which runs at Foleshill Community Centre, Coventry, every Friday during the internship. This onsite working will be for 6 hours starting at around 9.30 and working to around 3.30. The intern will be supported at the social supermarket by a member of CIAS staff. The successful candidate will also need to be able to work for another 6 hours on Thursdays or Wednesdays. This will need to be at the CIAS office initially but there is a possibility of transitioning to homeworking on agreement with the intern and CIAS. 

CIAS Offer: 

We would like to offer the student(s) an opportunity to gain experience about the social welfare system. This would have a focus on one or all of the following: Universal Credit, disability benefits and ways to maximise household income through benefit checks, challenging decisions and accessing other support available, including cost of living support. 

The roles are likely to consist of the following (which can be combined): 

  1. Assisting caseworkers at Social SupermarketsLink opens in a new window (locations are currently Foleshill and Canley) 

This role is flexible and reactive, depending on the needs of clients. It is likely to include some or all of the following: 

  • Gathering information to enable a benefit check. 
  • Completing a benefit check, using online calculators or In House software 
  • Gathering information about income, expenditure, and debts, for debt advice purposes. 
  • Assisting clients to get online, to manage their Universal Credit journals and help them to report changes in circumstances or add a note to their journal. 
  • Assisting with online council services, e.g., Household Support Fund, reporting problems or changes. 
  • Completing simple online application forms, e.g., Blue Badge application, buss pass 
  • Signposting to other help and advice, for example, housing advice or Immigration advice. 

  1. Completing applications for disability benefits (likely to be Personal Independence Payment) 

This role would consist of: 

  • Completing PIP applications via face to face or telephone appointments.
  • Completing case and client details on our web-based case management system 

  • Ensuring all admin is completed for each case

  • Keeping client informed of actions

  • Identifying other issues and raising tasks for adviser/manager to investigate (for example, client mentions they have debt issues during their appointments). 

Optional 

  • Gathering information to enable a benefit check.
  • Completing a benefit check, using online calculators or In House software
  • Signposting to other help and advice, for example, housing advice or Immigration advice. 

We would give training to enable a student to: 

  • Understand PIP
  • Complete a PIP form
  • Have an understanding of the welfare benefit system
  • Understand the Universal Credit system (depending on role)
  • Perform benefit checks (optional)
  • Develop knowledge of local welfare provisions
  • Identify debt issues and other needs, e.g., housing
  • Signpost and refer on for other advice and support 

  Roles can be office based, home based or a mixture (Please note that social supermarket is a face-to-face role, 1 day per week) 

Application Task

As part of the application process, please answer the questions below – the task should take approximately 1 hour. Your answers should be expressed in bullet points rather than an essay. Please limit your response to 500 words.

  • What do you think are some of the biggest social issues facing people in Coventry today?
  • What are the barriers to seeking advice?
  • What is the role of independent advice and why do people seek this over the statutory agencies? (e.g. DWP, the local authority).

The closing date for applications is midnight 26th April 2023 - please send completed applications to WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.ukLink opens in a new window