Southwark Alliance

Community Legal Services Partnership

The Southwark Community Legal Services Partnership (SCLSP) was set up in 1999 to ensure that all those who live, work and study in Southwark have access to good quality legal and welfare advice, information and representation services. The SCLSP aims to challenge the social exclusion of individuals through the legal and advice services that are provided. The Partnership seeks to:

Encourage service providers to be aware of and receptive to the needs of users, both current and future
Implement preventative measures to reduce potential need for advice
Work towards a seamless network of quality advice organisations.
The Partnership structure comprises a Steering Group which meets bi-monthly, and Southwark Advice Forum which meets 3 times a year.

The Steering Group reflects both the diversity of the community and the range of advice providers in the borough. It includes: Southwark Law Centre, Southwark CAB, Multi-Lingual Community Rights Shop, Southwark Welfare Rights Unit, Blackfriars Advice Centre, Cambridge House Law Centre, Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers, Southwark Disablement Association, private solicitors firms and Southwark Council as a key funder of advice services.

The purpose of Southwark Advice Forum is to foster close working relationships between the front line staff of agencies which deliver advice; improve referrals between the agencies for the benefit of clients; enable front line staff to share information and build capacity of advice agencies and improve services by social policy work.

In a new development Southwark Citizens Advice Bureaux is the lead partner in the Southwark Integrated Legal Advice Network, a 3 year Big Lottery Fund project starting in 2009. The partners to the network are 7 voluntary sector advice & legal service agencies, and 2 private solicitors. The project will build on the work of the existing SCLSP.

The overall aim of the project is to improve access to quality assured advice services and self help information in Southwark for people in greatest need.

Southwark Financial Inclusion Forum also meets on a regular basis.

The key aims of the Southwark Financial Inclusion Forum are:

· To ensure that local residents have access to high quality debt advice

· To develop financial education to help local residents avoid financial crisis, and help to remove barriers to returning to education, training and employment

· To make effective linkages to developing areas of policy and local delivery in the regions – such as that relating to the Treasury’s Financial Inclusion Fund, local authority Community Strategies or the work of Local Strategic Partnerships etc

· To contribute to local policy including demonstrating the importance of financial inclusion to meeting national indicators

For information about where to get advice please see www.southwark.gov.uk/YourServices/adviceservices/

For more information on the SCLSP & Southwark Advice Forum, please contact Andy Matheson, Social Inclusion Division, West House, Town Hall London SE5 8UB.
Tel: 020 7525 7648
Fax: 020 7525 7424
Email: Andrew.Matheson@southwark.gov.uk

For more information on Southwark Financial Inclusion Forum or Southwark Integrated Legal Advice Network please contact Sally Causer, at Southwark CAB Service sallycauser@tiscali.co.uk

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Meetings

Please see below for a list of SCLSP related meetings:-

Dates	Meeting
27/01/09	Financial Inclusion Forum, 2-4 pm, Blackfriars Advice Centre, 199 Walworth Road, London, SE17 1RL
10/02/09	SCLSP Meeting, Learning and Business Centre, Cator Street, London, SE15 6AA
05/03/09	Advice Forum, 5th Floor, Peckham Library, 122 Peckham Hill Street, London SE15 5JR