On 21 February 2024, GMLC held a film screening to show the film by Alex Boyd and Nuala Fowler that captured people’s experiences of our ‘Ten Years (In)Justice’ exhibition. The exhibition ran at Manchester Museum’s Social Justice Hub in January 2024.
The exhibition focused on people’s experiences of seeking access to advice to justice 10 years after the Legal Aid Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 came into force. GMLC commissioned 10 artists to produce original works of art that represented ideas, emotions and thoughts about the legal system to be shown along the individual stories.
At the event, we heard from our Director Jason and Campaigns Officer Kate, alongside Chloe Cousins from the Manchester Museum, Jamil Keating who helped co-ordinate our exhibition, one of the artists Jolanta Dolewska, and our principal funder Leigh Day’s Ryan Bradshaw.
We produced an exhibition brochure showcasing some of the stories and art from the exhibition, as well as an introduction to access to justice and campaigning for a better system. You can download and share the brochure here: Ten Years (In)Justice brochure.
You can watch the film here (or here if the embedded video isn’t working for you):
This was Ryan’s contribution to the event, which we wanted to share:
I am here as a representative of Leigh Day, as a supporter of the law centre and as someone committed to access to justice. We have recently set up a Human Rights department in Manchester We’re hoping to use our knowledge and understanding to make sure as many people as possible have an opportunity to bring about a positive change that benefits society. We will only be able to do that by working in co-operation with others who are similarly committed to creating a better society, whether that be through activism, education, legal action or otherwise.
It is really important to us that we sponsor and promote events like these. With so many other issues facing society it can feel a little bit like issues with access to justice are a niche concern for the legal community, it is really important that we keep it on the agenda. This event is a welcome change from all the dry responses to consultations and the attempts to get some semblance of sense from the various politicians who come to this city for their party conferences and leave having heard us speak but never really listened to what we are saying.
We all know access to justice is a huge problem, that’s why the people who set up the Law Centre put so much time and effort into campaigning against LASPO [the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, which cut access to free legal advice and representation]. At a certain point we could all see the writing was on the wall, that the decision to implement austerity was not driven by any sort of financial need or logic that stood up to scrutiny. Even now it is easy to reel off the figures – for every £1 spent on welfare benefits advice the state saves £8.80, for employment advice it is £7.13 and for debt it is £2.98. That is to say nothing of the massive impact on the people and families who can longer get access to this advice, left at the mercy of the DWP, the Home Office, bad bosses, rogue landlords and aggressive bailiffs.
It was difficult to persuade people over a decade ago that cuts to Legal Aid were going to impact them but you look at the amount of people who are suffering now, who we used to support but no longer can, and it is heartbreaking. I can well recall working in a team of about 20 high quality dedicated benefits and debt advisers, supporting the work of our colleagues in crime, housing and employment where we could, and then that number slowly dwindling until there were hardly any of us left. Having to jump from benefits to debt to housing to employment to discrimination to avoid redundancy.
All of us who have spent any appreciable length of time in social welfare will have similar stories and have seen dozens of colleagues moving from secure roles to jumping from fixed term contract to fixed term contract, or more often than not leaving social welfare advice behind with the whole sector being robbed of their knowledge and experience. We’ve seen previously good quality advice services pay increasing attention to spreadsheets and statistics and devote less and less of their time and energy to providing quality personalised advice to people who really need someone to see them as more than a tick in a box.
In the midst of all this doom and gloom places like Greater Manchester Law Centre are a beacon of hope, to have been set up in the toughest of times and bring something entirely positive out of negative set of circumstances is a fantastic and inspiring achievement. The work being done here, whether it be in delivering day to day legal advice, taking on strategic litigation or empowering the communities around them, is changing lives for the better.
While we should not forgive or forget the harm that has been caused by austerity, I think we should also celebrate the fact that as a result of our campaigning against it this city got the Law Centre it deserves. Leigh Day are looking forward to continuing to support their important work however we can.”
Thanks to all involved in this event and we look forward to working with you in future.
