Leading law firms and NAVCA team up to help local charities challenge unlaw
Understanding public law will be vital for local charities and community groups as they brace themselves for another round of public spending cuts. NAVCA, the national charity for local umbrella charities, has teamed up with leading law firms Doughty Street Chambers in London and Irwin Mitchell in Sheffield to provide training to help local voluntary organisations combat the latest round of cuts.
For several years, public law has been used to challenge local cuts and reverse unlawful decisions. In Southall, Birmingham and Leicester, local authorities have had to reverse cuts after challenges promoted by local charities. As recently as last week, the Isle of Wight Council’s plans to reduce its adult social care budget were declared unlawful. A case led by one of the speakers at the events, Alex Rook of Irwin Mitchell.
There are two events, one in London on 7 December and the other in Leeds on 10 January. They will give charities and voluntary organisations the knowledge they need to use public law to defend funding and services for disadvantaged and vulnerable people. These events build on NAVCA’s successful public law training programme, a five year partnership with the Public Law Project. The events also form part of NAVCA's support to members in the face of local funding cuts.
Kevin Curley, Chief Executive of NAVCA said:
“NAVCA has been at the forefront of efforts to help local charities and voluntary organisations to understand and use public law. Our ‘Evaluating the Voluntary Sector’ training programme on using public law and the Compact has saved the sector hundreds of thousands of pounds over the last five years. More importantly it has helped local public bodies and voluntary organisations to improve working relationships because they both know what to expect.
“This project has come to the end of its funding. However, we believe this is so important we are continuing to fund the work ourselves, whilst looking for partners to help support it. These events will enable NAVCA to support many more charities and voluntary organisations facing unlawful funding cuts.”
