The Health Justice Landscape in England & Wales

Background
Social welfare legal problems are significant underlying causes of illness and have a substantial impact on health. They include issues relating to housing, benefits, debt, employment and family law. These problems can be addressed and resolved through specialist legal advice and assistance. Provision of legal assistance services in healthcare settings can both improve access to advice and support health services to manage non-clinical demand. Collaborations between health and social welfare legal services exist across the country, but little is known about these partnerships and their activities. This study builds on previous work to update knowledge of current services.

Methods
We sought to map services providing social welfare legal advice and assistance in healthcare settings across England and Wales. Information was obtained by requesting input from organisations across health and advice sectors, distributing a call for evidence through professional mailing lists and searching information resources. An online survey was circulated and sent to the identified services to gather data on key aspects of their work, such as the types of advice provided and the nature of their connections with healthcare. A number of services were contacted to provide more in-depth information, in order to better understand their activities and explore their experiences of partnership working.