What Works?
Over the past 10 years, the Foundation has built a significant and well respected body of knowledge about the legal and access to justice needs of disadvantaged people in NSW. The logical next step for our research program is to identify strategies that will meet that need. Using our
A2JLN analysis to prioritise areas for ‘what works’ analysis, the Foundation is building build an evidence base of what is effective to meet these legal and access to justice needs.
In order to do this we are undertaking:
- systematic reviews of evidence to identify what is currently known about what is effective in assisting people to met their legal needs
- evaluations of new projects aimed to assist people to access the justice system, in order to learn new lessons.
In progress
The Foundation aims to publish two more systematic reviews in the next year together with more information on how this methodological approach can be used in socio-legal research.
- Effectiveness of public legal service provision This systematic review will focus on aspects of public legal service delivery to determine how effective they are at achieving their aims. It will be published by the end of 2011.
- Effectiveness of community legal education. This systematic review will focus on community legal education in order to determine how well it achieves its aims.
- Methodological paper on systematic reviews of socio-legal research. This paper will explore the use of systematic reviews in the context of socio-legal research.
Published reports
Outreach legal services to people with complex needs: what works? (Justice Issues Paper 12)
This paper examines outreach legal services to disadvantaged people with complex needs. In undertaking this first systematic review, the Foundation had two purposes:
- to synthesise the best available evidence on the effectiveness of outreach legal services and the features which contribute to effectiveness
- to trial and refine a methodology to conduct rigorous systematic reviews of qualitative and mixed method research and evaluation which are common in the field of socio-legal research.
The resulting paper drew together evidence to inform service providers about the features of outreach legal services that increase effectiveness for people with complex needs. It also described for the first time a set of criteria by which qualitative socio-legal research can be assessed for quality and for inclusion in ‘what works’ style investigations.
Managing mortgage stress: evaluation of the Legal Aid NSW and Consumer Credit Legal Centre Mortgage Hardship Service
The evaluation process, which culminated in this report, has provided a valuable opportunity for the Foundation to work closely with two key legal assistance agencies to monitor and evaluate strategies and outcomes of a service introduced specifically to assist people in NSW experiencing problems with their mortgage. From this partnership, CCLC and Legal Aid NSW have gained independent and expert assistance in measuring and understanding the impact of their work. The study has provided the Foundation with an excellent opportunity to learn more about what is effective in meeting legal need. It has enabled us to examine the impact of providing prompt and responsive legal assistance and, in particular, to develop research methodologies to assess these types of early intervention strategies.
