Govan Law Centre hails successes in face of ‘challenging’ year

Despite its services being reduced due to the pandemic, it was still able to offer free advice and legal representation to 4,500 clients, as well as influence the policy and practice of Glasgow City Council and the Scottish government.

In response to the lockdown restrictions, GLC reconfigured its services to reach people by setting up a digital communications platform to configure messages from across its different social media platforms.

Since March 2020, GLC campaigned to protect tenants from evictions, ensure accommodation for those who needed it, and address homelessness.

On 1 June 2020, the Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament. The bill was drafted by GLC along with all accompanying documents.

On the back of this, GLC, working with the Living Rent tenant’s union, identified a private renter who would be affected by the inability of Holyrood to consider the need to strengthen fair rents for tenants in the private sector. GLC managed to secure legal aid for this client and raised judicial proceedings against the Scottish Parliament’s corporate body seeking a declaration and reduction of the Local Government Committee’s decision not to consider the bill.

The law centre also reported that it worked with a number of other organisations, including Shelter, British Red Cross, and Govan Community Project, to maximise its client outcomes.

In particular, GLC was able to assist the Roma and Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities in Govanhill and has helped many of its clients with questions about leaving the EU and the settled status procedures. It reported that 4 in 10 of its clients are from a minority ethnic background.

The team also worked closely with women and children experiencing domestic abuse and violence and provides a trauma-informed service to support those vulnerable groups.

Children and young people with additional support needs was another vulnerable group that the Govan Law Centre worked closely with over the past year, with over 770 education cases.

Overall, GLC concludes that despite a difficult and challenging year due to the impact of Covid and the lockdown rules preventing its team from meeting clients face to face, it has overcome these challenges and provided vital free advice and legal support.