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  • Our Vision
  1. About us
  2. Vision and values

Our Vision

We are the largest Law Centre in the UK. We provide specialist legal advice to people across Central England.

We want to live in a society where people’s rights are upheld, their needs met and they are enabled to thrive.

What we do

We provide free specialist legal advice to those most in need and use legal processes to fight social exclusion.  We advocate for people, challenge unfair decisions, take cases to the highest courts and work in partnerships with other support services.

As well as helping people move from crisis to stability, we deliver services that help people anticipate problems by acting early and tackling the root cause.

 “I thought there was no way out ....until you took on my problem, and now I have got my life back on track.”

How we do it

Provide free specialist legal advice and representation in Birmingham and Coventry to people who cannot afford to pay for it in the following areas of social welfare law:

  • Social Care and Health
  • Welfare Benefits
  • Housing
  • Public Law
  • Immigration and Asylum
  • Employment
  • Family

Make our services easily accessible to those who need them most - in person, by phone, in people’s homes and online.

Increase people's knowledge of legal rights and build confidence and ability to manage day to day issues that have a legal solution.

Support other organisations that work with vulnerable people,  by providing advice, information and training to their staff and volunteers, blending our work with theirs so that together we can offer more holistic support to people.

We work to create a more equal society by changing the law and influencing policy at a local and national level providing a voice for those who are seldom heard and using legal practice to change the law by pursuing cases that have a wider public interest. We work inside public sector services to help find new, more effective ways to deliver them that uphold people’s rights.

Our guiding values

These are the values and principles that guide us and ensure we never lose sight of what we are trying to achieve:

  • We provide specialist, high quality legal advice that is free
  • Clients are treated with honesty and respect
  • We are independent and politically neutral
  • We build confidence and legal capability that helps people act early to tackle their problems
  • Working in partnerships will further our aims and complement our skills
  • We are evidence driven and impact focused
  • We innovate to meet changing needs and emerging problems
  • We are a team - we use all of our expertise and skills together to get the best outcome for our clients

Published: 2nd August, 2016

Updated: 31st July, 2020

Author:

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  • Contact Us

  • Who we help

    Who we help

    All of our services are free. We prioritise people who would not otherwise be able to access legal advice and representation.

  • Volunteer

    Volunteer

    The Law Centre is a resource for the whole community and we rely on our amazing team of volunteers help us reach more people with our services.

  • Our Vision

    Our Vision

    We want to live in a society where people’s rights are upheld, their needs met and they are enabled to thrive. We are the largest Law Centre in the UK. We provide free specialist legal advice to people across central England.

  • Child and Family Law

    Child and Family Law

    Following the breakdown of a relationship, we provide advice and representation on all aspects of family and childcare law.

  • Asylum and Immigration Law

    Asylum and Immigration Law

    Legal advice and representation to people seeking to regularise their immigration status.

  • Funding

    Funding

    All our services are free funded by a wide range of partners and supporters.

  • Our history

    Our history

    The national Law Centre movement was started in the 1970s by radical lawyers who were disappointed in the failure of the welfare state to eradicate poverty and deliver a more equal society. Coventry Law Centre was founded in 1976 by four Councillors: Tom McLatchie, Gilbert Richards, Arthur Waugh Senior and Charles Ward. Coventry City Council has been a key supporter of our work ever since.

  • Our impact

    Every day we help people to know their legal rights and have them upheld. We change the lives of the people we help, and change society to make it fairer for all and more equal.

  • Chief Executive - Sue Bent

For general enquiries or to make an appointment contact us on:

Coventry: 02476 223 053 Birmingham: 0121 227 6540
Central England Law Centre logo

Registered office:
Oakwood House, St Patricks Road Entrance, Coventry, CV1 2HL

Email [email protected]

Phone 02476 223053

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Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority No. 617398

Member of the Law Centres Federation.

Registered with the Charity Commission No. 1087312. VAT registration No. 544 9032 44

Registered in England & Wales as Coventry Law Centre Ltd, a company limited by guarantee No. 4149673