Together for Short Lives Legal Advice Service
Underpinning the legal rights for children who are life-limited and their carers is the requirement under national and international law that they should be supported to live “ordinary lives”.
Our purpose is to deliver a programme that assists children, young people and their families to obtain legal advice and ensure their rights are protected and enforced. We are looking for more pro bono volunteers to get involved in this work.Training and supervision will be provided by LawWorks.
In particular, we aim to develop volunteer expertise to support the needs of the families:
- challenging the suitability of a family’s accommodation, and
- challenging the suitability of a child’s care package (when legal aid is not available).
Most of the cases can be progressed remotely.
To be eligible to get involved your organisation must be a member of LawWorks. If you are not a member of LawWorks and would like to find out more visit the membership pages on our website.
If you are a member of LawWorks and would like to discuss this opportunity, please contact Jess Anstey.
For more information on Together for Short Lives see www.togetherforshortlives.org.uk
Volunteer Opportunity: Together for Short Lives Legal Advice Clinic
We are now looking for a panel of lawyers from member organisations to assist families with their legal queries at clinics in children’s hospices.
This may involve referral onto other local services, for example, solicitors with legal aid contracts, where the issue at hand falls within the scope of legal aid and taking care of any follow up casework, when the issue falls outside the scope of legal aid.
We welcome interest from lawyers willing to provide advice and casework across a range of relevant areas of law including but not limited to:
- housing
- community care
- welfare benefits
- employment
- family.
For lawyers not undertaking these areas in their day-to-day practise and wishing to acquire the necessary knowledge of these areas of law, Lawworks offers training in community care and housing law. In addition, volunteers will be supported by our LawWorks in-house legal team.
The volunteer lawyers will assist families as appropriate, by acting for them as their solicitor, advocating for them and advising them on a range of legal issues. They will also be able to make referrals to our secondary specialisation team where the family requires in-depth support in certain areas.