Strategic Legal Fund launches
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, Trust for London and MigrationWork CIC are today launching a new pilot to support strategic legal work. The Strategic Legal Fund for Refugee Children and Young People (SLF) will fund interventions and pre-litigation legal research for cases involving asylum-seeking and refugee children and young people.
In the context of serious public sector budget cuts, including to legal aid funding and the advice sector, the primary aim of the SLF is to assist lawyers and the courts to develop the law in a way that promotes the best interests of children in their need for international protection and support. . It will do this by funding preparatory work and expert submissions to court on key issues that can achieve improvements for asylum seeking children as a whole throughchanges in law, policy and practice.
The SLF will run as a pilot for a period of 12 months and will explore the viability of the funding model for this type of work. The SLF is open to applications during its 9 month 'live' phase from 10 October 2011 to 9 July 2012 and will accept applications from not-for-profit organisations that provide specialist level legal advice to refugee and asylum-seeking children and young people, and firms of solicitors that have legal aid contracts covering asylum, immigration, human rights, community care, housing, education, discrimination or health.
The SLF is funded by The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and is being delivered in partnership with Trust for London. The day-to-day management and administration of the fund will be carried out by MigrationWork CIC.
For further details on eligibility criteria and how to apply, please visit the Strategic Legal Fund website.