Areas of work

On 1st October 2007, the LSC launched a pilot to incorporate family legal advice into our Community Legal Advice telephone service.

The aim of the pilot was to:

• establish what kind of family problems can be addressed over the phone
• monitor demand for advice.

Following the successful pilot, the LSC have confirmed that family advice is to become a permanent category of advice available via the Community Legal Advice helpline.  A national tender for contracts to deliver this service was launched on Monday 12th January 2009.

Existing providers to the Legal Services Commission, not for profit and voluntary organisations and commercial organisations are invited to submit tenders.

This is an open, competitive tender process. Organisations wishing to tender do not need to be current providers and new entrants to the market are welcome.

For full details please see the tenders page.

The closing date for submitting tenders is 12pm on Friday 27th February 2009.

Open day on 9 June 2008

On 9 June 2008 we held an open day to communicate with providers about the tender. The presentation slides from the event are available from the documents panel on the right.  Also available is a transcription of the questions asked during the event and their answers. 

Making Legal Rights a Reality for Children and Families

We published our five-year strategy for family legal aid in March 2007. This will help us achieve our vision for family legal aid:

• to ensure clients have access to quality services which meet their needs
• to work with providers who provide quality, value for money and client focused services
• to deliver a sustainable legal aid scheme within the budget available.

Download the strategy on our Our Strategy for the CLS page.

Evaluating the Family Advice and Information Service (FAInS)

The Family Advice and Information Service (FAInS) pilot assessed and developed support available to couples and families in dispute. It covered private law disputes such as separation, divorce, residence and contact. 

The evaluation is under Documents along with a summary of the key findings. It provides:

• an insight into the wide range of issues impacting on Family solicitors 
• valuable opportunity to further our understanding of the client's experience of the Family Justice System/legal process. 

Helping people who go to an advice agency first

We are piloting the Family Advice and Information Service (FAInS) within the advice sector to help people who first seek help through an advice agency rather than a solicitor. 

There are two models:

• Family Advice Centres that provide specialist family advice and a range of other legal advice and support services in one building
• Gateways that provide access to these services through strong partnership links. 

Both models target specific ‘hard to reach’ client groups:

• children and young people
• women and children experiencing domestic violence
• certain BME communities.

For more information

For more information on any of the work listed on this page, please contact the Family team.

• Worried about benefits or tax credits?
• Having problems with your child’s school?
• Are your debts out of control?
• Are you being treated unfairly at work?
• Are you having problems with your landlord?

Community Legal Advice can help with these kinds of problems if you are eligible for legal aid.

Call the helpline now on 0845 345 4345.

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Last updated: 13 January 2009