OUR HISTORY
We were founded in 2020 as a response to the high demand for free legal advice around social welfare law in Liverpool. Since then, we've gone from strength to strength in our mission to contribute to a better resourced and more collaborative free legal advice sector in our city.
ADVICE AND AUSTERITY
Like so many social change initiatives, our story has much to do with political cuts to an already underfunded sector. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government took power in 2010 on the back of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The previous government had taken steps to support the financial sector, and this cost the Treasury greatly.
To save money, the coalition government enacted austerity measures. Amongst other interventions such as tax increases, austerity measures involve cuts to public spending in the name of reducing national debt and avoiding further financial crises. Many public services that people relied upon for support saw their funding cut drastically, such as Sure Start centres and youth centres, and funding was also reduced for local authorities to deliver social care programmes.
These reductions in funding for care and support ultimately meant that poverty levels increased drastically in the UK. People turn to the free legal advice sector when they need support, often in times of crisis, and the sector has seen steadily increasing levels of demand as poverty and deprivation increased. The free legal advice sector also saw cuts, with many organisations receiving their funding from government and local authorities. This created a perfect storm, with more people than ever needing free legal advice and providers having less capacity to meet the demand.
CUTS TO LEGAL AID
To add to this already challenging environment, the introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing, and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) saw major cutbacks to legal aid and the levels of support available. Legal aid is funding that is accessible to help people afford solicitors fees and the costs of courts and mediation. Before the introduction of LASPO, four in five people were eligible for legal aid - this has been reduced to now only one in every four people being eligible. This is because LASPO stopped people who received means-tested benefits from being immediately eligible for legal aid and reduced the maximum income someone could have to be eligible.
Furthermore, LASPO decreased the number of issues that could be dealt with under legal aid. The issues no longer eligible included housing, debt, benefits, employment, non-asylum immigration cases, and many more. These issues did not simply go away; instead, they worsened as people struggled to find free or affordable help.
These sweeping reforms meant a multiplication of the demand faced by free legal advice providers. People depended upon legal aid because they could not afford the cost of a solicitor; this did not change because legal aid was taken away. Instead, the demand shifted to an already underfunded and overstretched voluntary free legal advice sector which was left to plug the gap left by the reduced availability of legal aid.
OUR BEGINNINGS
Dr. James Organ and Dr. Jennifer Sigafoos from the University of Liverpool's School of Law and Social Justice had been carrying out research into access to justice in Liverpool in the years throughout austerity measures. They presented their research on the effects of LASPO in the city to Liverpool City Council's anti-poverty committees, such as the Poverty Action Group chaired by Councillor Jane Corbett. This allowed them to begin conversations about what measures could be put in place to improve access to advice.
In 2019, plans were put in place to establish a body which fostered collaboration, resource-sharing and partnership working between the organisations delivering advice and pathways to advice in Liverpool. This body was funded by Liverpool City Council, with the necessary funds secured by Councillor Jane Corbett, the Council's Mayoral Lead for Anti-Poverty. This marked the foundation of Liverpool Access to Advice Network. Funded by Liverpool City Council and research-informed by The University of Liverpool, our work was delivered by Citizens Advice Liverpool.
WHERE WE ARE TODAY
We're proud to be the community of practice for Liverpool's free legal advice sector. With over 120 members, we're a thriving membership organisation - and we're continuing to grow. Our work is bringing the people and organisations providing free legal advice and access to advice in Liverpool closer together.
We engage in both research and operational work so that we can improve today while working to build a better tomorrow. We know that our work is vital in ensuring that people can access the advice and support they need, when and where they need it. Our research and campaigning is helping to address the causes of advice needs and is delivering better outcomes for people in Liverpool.
Meet Dr. Jennifer Sigafoos and Dr. James Organ. Their research into access to justice in Liverpool led to the founding of Liverpool Access to Advice Network. Hear why they believed our network could help ensure access to advice for all.
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"We founded Liverpool Access to Advice Network as part of Liverpool City Council’s anti-poverty strategy to understand better the grind of everyday legal problems that people face, and how organisations might change the way they work together to help them. Free legal advice is essential for people to maintain a decent standard of living in terms of their housing, jobs, health and so on. We founded Liverpool Access to Advice Network to see how we could develop free legal advice and help the dozens of organisations involved in the advice sector and try to change policies."
The details and information used to create this account of Liverpool Access to Advice Network's history come from a forthcoming book of which Dr. Sigafoos and Dr. Organ are co-authors.
Legal Advice, Health Inequalities and Poverty: Everyday Law in an Unequal Society
Sigafoos, J., Organ, J., & Wickham, S. (2025). Legal Advice, Health Inequalities and Poverty. UK: Bristol University Press.