The Legal Team, a group of legal professionals in the UK, has reacted to a recent report highlighting the damaging effect that legal aid cuts have had on contact centres.

A recent report from the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC) shows that forty contact centres – locations designed to help children stay in touch with separated parents who are unable to agree access rights – have shut down in the last 18 months. According to NACCC, centres are vanishing because of legal aid cuts. It says closures are happening more frequently as spending cuts have halved the number of parents who apply for help via family courts, leading to fewer parents being referred to centres by lawyers.

Don Bird, family law expert at The Legal Team, explained: “Contact centre referrals are falling fast because legal aid cuts have led to less people communicating with lawyers. Sadly, many people are now oblivious to the existence of these centres as insufficient legal aid has prevented them from receiving the specialist advice they desperately need.

Another sad consequence of these cuts is that many people are effectively left to face the court process without legal support, which in turn slows down the entire process and often results in parents and children being kept apart for extended periods of time.

Since the legal aid cuts, we have introduced a range of financial options, such as fixed fees, to try and make sure that legal support is still available to as many people as possible.”

Solicitor referrals last year only amounted to half of that seen the year before, and while 15,000 children in 2013 used a centre, that number was down to 9,000 in 2014.

Elizabeth Coe, NACCC chief executive, said: “Given that family breakdown costs the country an estimated £49 billion a year, family legal aid cuts may prove a false economy unless more is done to let families know that the contact centres are there to help and parents can apply to centres directly themselves.

The best outcomes for children following a separation come when parents can work together and where conflict is reduced. Contact centres can facilitate this at a time when parents are themselves struggling emotionally.”

Simon Hughes, Justice Minister, said: “We are working with the National Association of Child Contact Centres on raising awareness of their role and how to access them.”

Note to Editors:

1.       The Legal Team offers legal services in England and Wales, including family law services. Visit http://www.thelegalteam.co.uk/ for more information.

2.       National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC) operates throughout England, Wales and North Ireland and is the supporting membership body for around 350 child contact centres. Visit http://www.naccc.org.uk/ for more information.

3.       Figures from NACCC as reported by The Guardian, Saturday 17 January 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jan/17/legal-aid-cuts-divided-familes-contact-centres-closure.