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Public child law – a service priority?

This paper explores the impact of changes to the Legal Aid regime on public child law, drawing on data from a major qualitative study: Parents' Representation in Care Proceedings (ESRC RES-062-23-1163). Specifically, it examines the strategies solicitors adopted to maintain profitability under the fixed fee regime, the impact of the 2010 contract process and advocates' views of the Family Advocacy Scheme, as well as the likely effect of the changing context for practice from the withdrawal of most Legal Aid from private family law. Despite a rhetoric of protecting service quality, little account has been taken of clients' needs in the mechanisms for quality assessment. Reductions in the supply of lawyers and in service quality threaten access to justice for parents despite the retention of Legal Aid for public child law.