Examining access to legal assistance

With a focus on improving outcomes for people experiencing complex life challenges and marginalisation, Eastern Community Legal Centre (ECLC) initiated a research project to improve access and intake pathways to legal assistance.

Supported by a VLF Knowledge Grant, ECLC’s Strengthening Intake Quality in Legal Assistance project improved the use of data to inform service design in conjunction with their person-centred and trauma-informed approach. The project built on ECLC’s long commitment to address the barriers faced by people experiencing marginalisation in accessing legal services.  

The project highlighted the importance of a help-seekers perception and comfort during the intake process and emphasised the significance of ongoing collaboration, flexible service delivery, and adequate resourcing throughout a help seeker's journey.

The project's findings and insights are being shared with the legal assistance sector to improve the overall experience for individuals engaging with legal services, particularly at the front end of service delivery.

Embedding relevant and measurable indicators is essential to help ECLC’s legal assistance services create real change by providing insight into legal help-seeking needs, patterns and emerging trends of priority communities.

Donna Askew, Director, Partnerships & Community Engagement at ECLC.

A person-centred and trauma-informed approach

Recognising the diverse challenges faced by individuals in seeking legal assistance, ECLC's intake team, known as AIRR (Assessment, Intake, Referral, and Response), use a person-centred and trauma-informed approach. Rather than following a rigid script during intake, the team engage in a conversation with help-seekers, building rapport and creating a safe space for discussing both legal and non-legal needs.

Central to the Strengthening Intake Quality Project was the development of a quality and capability framework aligned with this approach. This framework used data to help identify barriers and help-seeking behaviour to better understand the needs and experiences of community members. ECLC teams also leveraged the project data to enhance their reporting and inform service design to provide holistic, high-quality legal assistance that prioritises community members facing multiple and intersecting complex life challenges.

The project's insights were instrumental in evaluating service demand and refining legal assistance offerings. By examining the journey of legal help-seekers, ECLC gained valuable knowledge about the initial point of entry and tailored its services accordingly. This evidence-based approach facilitated adaptive and person-centred service design, ensuring that legal assistance met the diverse needs of help-seekers.

The benefits of collaboration

ECLC's commitment to collaboration and knowledge sharing played a pivotal role in the success of the project. Drawing on the expertise of various stakeholders, including researchers from the Victoria Law Foundation, the Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria and Justice Connect, ECLC combined its enhanced triage practices with input from the sector to drive improvements to legal assistance services.

ECLC's Donna Askew presenting research findings at Victorian Law Week 2023.

Data-driven decision making

In addition to improving service delivery, the project enabled ECLC to improve its data and technology capabilities. By utilising new digital contact systems and tools, the project expanded ECLC’s ability to use technology to collect and analyse data on legal help-seeking and needs assessment. This data-driven approach has enabled ECLC to make evidence-based decisions, inform service design, and measure outcomes.

The data-driven focus of this project has led to positive results in other areas, such as the implementation of an online Appointment Request Form to accommodate individuals seeking legal assistance outside operating hours. This tool not only facilitates convenient appointment scheduling but also enhances response times for processing online inquiries, further improving the overall experience for help-seekers.

By demonstrating the value of an enhanced intake quality and capability framework, as well as the value of improving the use of technology, ECLC has laid the groundwork for future developments in service design and outcomes measurement. The project's outcomes have not only informed ECLC's own practice but have the potential to shape the broader landscape of legal assistance services, ensuring that the rights and interests of help seekers experiencing complex life challenges are considered and the help seeker supported into service pathways appropriate for their individual needs.