Comment : The case for public legal empowerment
(April 2007)
John Seargeant, Public Legal Education and Support Task Force Manager, discusses the importance of public legal empowerment and suggests ways to promote and improve public legal understanding.
Background
A democratic society requires an effective legal system. The civil and criminal justice systems, the legal advice sector, legal aid, and the extensive public legal information available to us are the essential features of that system today.
Whilst in theory these should be sufficient to help citizens to understand and benefit from the law, it is clear that many citizens fail to do so. For example, around 1 million civil justice problems go unresolved every year, and of the one third of the population who report a civil justice problem, many take no action to resolve it, and many think, wrongly, that there was nothing they could do or that there was no advice or help available.
The consequences of these unresolved legal problems are felt more by some than others – because they occur in clusters, are often triggers for other problems, and affect the socially excluded more. Legal problems are related in different degrees to health or disability, age, income and level of economic activity. In cost terms DCA has estimated at £13 billion the cost to individuals and the public purse of these unresolved problems.
There are other difficulties. The role of the 'legal' in a problem or a situation is often not well understood, and it is common for people to fail to identify the benefits the 'legal' can offer. The popular notion of 'legal' as indicating the police, judges, and juries in the criminal courts focuses on a small aspect of the system. And respect for the law is limited among some sections of our population, notably young people, whose lack of engagement with society is compounded by negative stereotypes and a sense of detachment or powerlessness.
Public legal empowerment
To benefit fully from the legal system requires citizens to be more knowledgeable about it, more skilled in dealing with it, and more confident about so doing. But the evidence suggests they are not. Many people – most perhaps – do not know how the legal system works, or what role it plays in day-to-day life. They know little of what the law either requires of them or has to offer.
But there have been in recent years a growing number of initiatives that have sought in different ways to remedy this. These public legal empowerment (PLE) initiatives take many forms, have different target users, use different methods, and have a range of specific aims.
We find only three types of widespread PLE 'programmes': financial capability training; citizenship teaching in schools; and initiatives for the reduction of crime and social problems aimed at schools. Otherwise, PLE initiatives are either local and short-term funded, or Internet-based.
The benefits of PLE
PLE brings individual and social benefits of several kinds. Better informed citizens deal more effectively and earlier with problems and can make wiser choices which avoid problems down the line. Earlier settlement of disputes, especially before formal stages are reached, is less consuming of resources overall. Respect for the law is encouraged through engagement, increased understanding, and improvements to daily life. PLE can help citizens see how the law treats people fairly – and when it does not. Perceptions of fairness and equality help build community cohesion and mutual trust between groups, and reduce social exclusion. PLE is the missing element in the creation of the legally enabled citizen.
PLE supports the access to justice goals of government, of the legal and education professions, and of the not-for-profit advice sector: the enabled citizen has better access to justice. PLE helps meet the DCA aim to achieve earlier settlement of disputes, and the DCLG goal of reducing social exclusion and increasing community capacity to make decisions. PLE benefits the DTI commitment to working with vulnerable employees, and perhaps most obviously the SETF focus on rights, responsibilities and empowerment.
The need for growth in PLE
PLE needs to develop and grow dramatically to reach its potential. At present PLE faces real challenges: it lacks a coherent identity, and is a still marginal activity for most of its providers – a small part of other programmes and other goals. Rather than being part of a sector or a movement, PLE providers act independently of one another, with little awareness of what others are doing. They may not even see themselves as such.
PLE lacks the structures and tools that would facilitate its development. There has been very little evaluation of PLE, and no development of 'good practice' or of quality frameworks. As a result it is difficult to demonstrate the impact of PLE. Most PLE initiatives are short-term funded – projects come and go and, in the current situation, with no sharing or linking between them, their knowledge and 'lessons' are easily lost, or perhaps never learned. There is no means through which practitioners can share and develop.
Two key actions are needed to remedy this. First, creating a coherent national focus for PLE – in effect a PLE Centre – through which PLE can be argued for, developed, branded, and widely promoted. Second, overcoming the episodic, isolated and fragmented character of PLE practice through the creation of an active practitioner learning network, with access to a growing volume of shared resources and the accumulating knowledge of all its members. New funding for both are essential, as well as for pilot demonstration projects that will enhance good practice.
The diversity of PLE providers and PLE audiences suggests that widespread provider participation is essential for its development. Provider diversity also means that PLE has no clear and self-evident 'home' and it would be unwise to promote PLE from within a single sector. An independent PLE Centre is needed both to signal its arrival and its distinctiveness, and to attract the maximum stakeholders.
Government involvement at the heart of PLE is essential to its success. Experiences within government show the value of a statutory power and of a key organising role for government. The optimal solution is the creation of a brand new statutory agency or centre – an NDPB – with statutory powers. This will however take some time, and in the interim the Task Force recommends the immediate establishment of a not-for-profit company to take PLE forward in the first year or perhaps two years.
Sample PLE projects
- Karz ki Baatein (Let's talk about debt) is a Money Advice Television live phone-in chat show about avoiding or managing debt problems, sign-posting to Leicester Money Advice for further help.
- Living Together is a media campaign and website by Advicenow which challenges the myth of 'common law marriage' with downloadable magazine-style info on wills, housing, pensions, benefits, tax, children, and podcasts aimed at younger men
- Information Matters is a Shelter Cymru project for people with social welfare problems who do not access advice services, with a resource pack to help identify welfare problems aimed at intermediaries – health visitors, social workers, probation teams, mental health teams and voluntary groups
- "Too much Punch for Judy" is a Theatre in Education production for schools which seeks to discourage drink-driving by older teenagers. The show is followed by a workshop.
- Southwark Preventing Possessions Project is a Southwark Law Centre and Blackfriars Advice Centre project that aims to reduce evictions of council tenants for rent arrears, partly by training local community groups to recognise problems and by influencing local authority procedures
- RIZER is a website designed to help teenagers to navigate problems of daily life and avoid getting into trouble. It covers truanting, family problems, crime and was developed with young people and uses techniques popular with them.