Access to justice for disadvantaged communities.

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Access to justice fordisadvantaged communities; Contents; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations and glossary; Introduction: accessing social justice in disadvantaged communities; The chapters that follow; 1. Social justice and the welfare state; Social justice and the origins of the post-war welfare state; More recent debates; Neoliberalism and more recent policy developments; Marketisation and public service modernisation; Public service modernisation in practice; 2. Concepts of justice and access to justice; Public policies to promote access to justice; The Carter proposals for reform.

Legal aid reforms 2007, following the Carter report in 2006Potential issues for legal professionals; Community Legal Advice Centres and Community Legal Advice Networks; More recent legislative changes; 3. Ethos and values; Contested approaches to the public service ethos, professional ethics and professionalism in the context of public service modernisation; Ethics and the professions; Differing approaches and outcomes; Law Centres, their missions and ethos; Holistic approaches; Collective and preventative approaches to taking up common issues in the pursuit of social justice.

Law Centres' ethos: other stakeholders' perspectivesThe benefits of Law Centres' local knowledge and policy inputs; Preventative approaches as part of Law Centres' original social justice mission; 4. Challenges and dilemmas; Recent research findings; Challenges and dilemmas for Law Centres; Financial and administrative challenges; The Legal Services Commission's comments, in contrast; Law Centre perspectives, in response; Education, training and development; Resulting tensions, dilemmas and stress; 5. Public service modernisation, restructuring and recommodification.

The Carter reforms and the new managerialismCollective working; Staffing structures; Staffing costs, pay and conditions; Use of volunteers; The use of telephone and internet-based mechanisms for delivering legal advice; Management committees/boards of trustees; Charging clients; 6. Conflict and competition versus collaboration and planning; Pressures to collaborate or to compete; The impact of public service modernisation: an increasingly competitive context; Conflicting pressures; Alternative approaches: partnerships responsive to community needs developed from the bottom up.

Key drivers for collaboration, despite the challengesThe role of local authorities in promoting collaboration; Collaborating, competing with or becoming more like the private sector?; 7. Public service modernisation and time; New Public Management, neo-Taylorism and the new organisation of (working) time in the public services; Time pressures and work intensification; Time efficiency: output versus outcome; Time valued and the value of time; Conclusion; 8. Alienation and demoralisation, or continuing labours of love?; Motivations and values; Motivation and gender.

Comparing and contrasting Law Centres with working in other sectors and types of agency.

This unique study explores how strategies to safeguard the provision of legal advice and access to welfare rights to disadvantaged communities might be developed in ways that strengthen rather than undermine the basic ethics and principles of public service provision.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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