Youth Access

Copy of Rights to Access press release

31 October, 2005

21 April 2005

IT’S A RAP! Youth Access launches project to develop young people’s access to legal advice. Youth Access today launches its Rights to Access Project (RAP), aimed at addressing young people’s lack of access to high quality rights-based legal advice services.

Barbara Rayment, Director of Youth Access, says: “Youth Access’ work has identified an alarming gap between young people’s relatively high needs for advice on social welfare issues (such as housing, benefits, debt, employment and domestic violence) and their ability to obtain appropriate professional advice to help them resolve their problems. Recent research conducted by the Legal Services Research Centre has confirmed this - for example, although young people are 7 times MORE likely to experience a homelessness problem than the rest of the population, they are over 10 times LESS likely to obtain advice, increasing their chances of spiralling towards social exclusion."

“Existing legal advice services, such as those provided by solicitors and Citizens Advice Bureaux, are rarely used by young people, whilst services designed for young people, such as Connexions, rarely have the competence to provide good quality legal advice. Good joint-working and referral relationships between advice services and young people’s services urgently need to be developed.”

RAP, supported by 3-year funding from the Big Lottery Fund’s Strategic Grants Programme, will work with advice agencies, youth services and policy makers to develop legal advice services focused on meeting young people’s specific needs. Amongst other activities, the project will develop the first ever national youth advice training programme to enhance the skills of practitioners and will pilot the Youth Access Law Centre service model, which has been developed by Youth Access and the Law Centres Federation as a joined up solution to young people’s continuing marginalisation from access to legal advice.

Barbara Rayment heralded the new project by saying: “We believe that every young person has a right to access high quality legal advice services. Young people need expert help to resolve problems to do with housing, money and employment that can blight their lives and lead to their exclusion from society. It’s a scandal that such help is not currently available to most young people. Despite the introduction of initiatives like Connexions and the Community Legal Service, the Government has failed to offer a coherent response to young people’s legal advice needs – something which we believe it could address through its planned Youth Green Paper. RAP will equip youth workers and advice workers across the UK with the tools they will require to work together to provide the good quality advice young people deserve.”

RAP’s first task is to map existing legal advice services for young people and youth advice training programmes. The RAP project workers are keen to hear from any agency already working in these areas.

ends

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Youth Access is the national membership association for a network of over 200 youth information, advice, counselling and support services across the UK. It believes all young people have a right to locally accessible, free, confidential and impartial information, advice, counselling and support. Youth Access concentrates much of its activity on developing two key areas of service provision: rights-based advice and counselling services for young people.

2. In 2002 Youth Access published its acclaimed report ‘Rights To Access: Meeting Young People’s Needs For Advice’, which set out the available evidence regarding young people’s needs for advice, their advice-seeking behaviour and barriers to access to advice services.

3. As yet unpublished evidence from the Legal Services Research Centre’s First LSRC Survey of Justiciable Problems confirms high levels of unmet need amongst the 18-24 age group relating to housing, homelessness, employment, domestic violence and other ‘legal’ problems.

4. The Rights to Access Project (RAP) is supported by 3-year funding from the Big Lottery Fund’s Strategic Grants Programme until February 2008.

5. Two services in London – Streetwise Community Law Centre in Bromley and Streetlegal in Enfield – are already developing the Youth Access Law Centre model very successfully.

For further information, including case studies, or to notify Youth Access of legal advice projects for young people, please contact:

James Kenrick, Advice Services Development Manager, Youth Access Tel: 020 8772 9900 ext. 25; Email: james@youthaccess.org.uk

Free Workshop for Managers

07 February, 2012

  Introduction to Quality Standards in the New...

Youth unemployment putting strain on NHS

19 December, 2011

Thea’s story highlights an urgent need to improve advice...

Advice improves young people’s lives

18 December, 2011

   A major new report launched today by Youth...