Good Practice and Partnership Team Early Action Asylum Guides Frontline Immigration Advice Project Brief History of the team What projects the team is currently running

Frontline Immigration Advice Project To ensure provision of free, high quality immigration advice to meet those needs, both through: Training and accreditation Partnership and collaboration Development of on-line tools

Headline Achievements of FIAP Trained 231 individuals at L1 Trained 40 individuals at L2 Asylum Worked with 115 frontline organisations 18 organisations have registered with OISC 66 individuals have registered at L1 or L2 274 members of the RALTG

Provision of immigration advice What is immigration advice? Activity Refugee Action Awareness Training Registering with the OISC

Why would you provide immigration advice? 2012 LAPSO legislation has drastically undermined the provision of immigration advice across the UK Immigration has been taken completely out of legal aid scope with the exception of initial asylum claims and merit-test appeals mapping shows that over half of legal aid providers in the areas of asylum and immigration were lost between 2005 and 2018. The drop in not for profit providers was even more staggering, at 64%. In March 2018 there were 26 local authority areas with more than 100 people seeking asylum where there was no local legal aid provision.

Understanding your environment

What works well for accreditation A genuine understanding of why you need to do it Great leadership Peer to peer support Capacity in staffing Whole organisation investment in the registration

Potential Problems with accreditation Management changes High staff/volunteer turnover Capacity Multiple competing needs Changes in funding environment Know your limits!

Models of Immigration Advice in Charities Partnerships with solicitors/law centre Referral partnerships Offering surgeries within your organisation University pro-bono law clinics Deepening relationships with universities Using volunteers Using paying models to support humanitarian work Using grants to support legal aid contracts Citizens Advice Bureaux and law centre

Solicitors/Legal Aid Partners Existing Pressures Legal aid cuts Lower fees Pressure to work on out of scope advice Time pressures How can we help? Improving referrals: evidence of means, preparing files, using your registration to prepare/support the case Client information and empowerment: understanding of what solicitors/advisors do & managing expectations Interpreter provision

What do we need to do? Understand the needs of your beneficiary group Understand the capacity of your own organisation, what would providing legal work entail, would it take resources from other areas of work? Look at other models of work which are out there Know the external environment, what partners are you working with, what partners are there out there that you might work with in the future?

How can we help? Training – webinars, materials, revision courses, DLA Piper workshops Support for registering with the OISC Membership of the RALTG on-line group Fiona’s contact details: fionac@refugeeaction.org.uk 07702 907645