We carry out our work through an integrated work programme, including a mix of: Direct legal representation and support for children and young people (via our pioneering child-centred and holistic legal and advocacy service). We represent children fleeing war, conflict, abuse and persecution, trafficked into the UK for exploitation and slavery and undocumented young people effectively “invisible” in terms of civil and legal status because of UK immigration laws. Strategic litigation (to bring legal change with wider impact and benefit for all young people). Policy and influencing work. Consultancy (supporting the work of statutory and non-statutory agencies to design and develop child rights based services, training and evaluation). Legal education work (training legal and non-legal professionals nationally on the needs, rights and entitlements of young people seeking international protection or whose lives are impacted by immigration laws). Public legal education work – the lives of young people are governed by an array of laws and policies. We design legal education courses with young people for young people and for the important people in their lives. For more information about our work programme, please visit the What We Do page .

[fusion_builder_container type="flex" hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="true" min_height="" hover_type="none" link="" border_sizes_top="" border_sizes_bottom="" border_sizes_left="" border_sizes_right="" first="true"][fusion_text columns="" column_min_width="" column_spacing="" rule_style="" rule_size="" rule_color="" hue="" saturation="" lightness="" alpha="" content_alignment_medium="" content_alignment_small="" content_alignment="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" sticky_display="normal,sticky" class="" id="" margin_top="" margin_right="" margin_bottom="" margin_left="" fusion_font_family_text_font="" fusion_font_variant_text_font="" font_size="" line_height="" letter_spacing="" text_transform="" text_color="" animation_type="" animation_direction="left" animation_speed="0.3" animation_offset=""] Who is involved? Kids in Need of Defense UK is led by Central England Law Centre (CELC), with advice and representation hubs based at CELC and MiCLU from 2017, and at Coram Children’s Legal Centre via their Children’s Pro Bono Legal Service, which will form part of Kids in Need of Defense UK from 2018. The UK law centres involved specialise in providing legal advice and representation to vulnerable migrant groups with a mission to protect children’s rights. Each law centre partners with corporate law firms, providing training to their lawyers in relation to immigration law, and working with children and young people, providing a supported referral stage, and then providing close support and mentorship throughout the client’s application. Kids in Need of Defense UK offers a chance for corporate lawyers to use their existing skills, while gaining new skills, to transform the life of a young person. We focus on a child-centred approach, with the best interests of children at the heart of our service, and a commitment to improving their circumstances and life chances. Wider work By working nationally we hope to gather further evidence of the challenges faced by undocumented children, and to provide a voice for these marginalised young people that increases the possibilities for them to fulfil their potential and to fully integrate into life in the U.K. MiCLU’s pro bono partners Each Kids in Need of Defense UK hub works with a group of pro bono partners to deliver the Kids in Need of Defense UK service. MiCLU’s pro bono partners in Kids in Need of Defense UK are currently: Covington & Burling LLP Microsoft (in house legal team) Ropes & Gray International LLP Reed Smith LLP A&O Shearman Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP Ashurst LLP Cooley LLP Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP K&L Gates LLP Farrer & Co LLP We are very grateful for the support and commitment of our pro bono partners and the dedication and care they show to their Kids in Need of Defense UK clients. It has been a pleasure to train all of the legal teams involved, and the calibre of the service provided to the children and their families is phenomenal. In a time of austerity and cuts to services, it is such a pleasure to work with people who consistently want to do more! [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

How does it work? By training teams of pro bono lawyers to provide advice and to prepare applications for leave to remain on behalf of children, we seek to try to regain the ground that was lost when legal aid was removed, to increase access to justice for undocumented children, and to ensure that each child receives high quality, tailored advice and representation. MiCLU’s supervising solicitor provides training to the pro bono lawyers, prepares template documents for use in the cases, provides close supervision throughout the life of the case, and mentors the pro bono legal teams as they work on applications and submit them to the Home Office. Referrals come from frontline agencies direct to the MiCLU team, and suitable cases are then placed with legal teams at each pro bono partner. Pro bono lawyers feel confident in their knowledge, and supported to provide the same high quality service to pro bono clients that they provide to their more traditional client base. We embed a child-centred approach to running these cases, ensuring that the needs and best interests of children are central to every step, and are at the forefront of the evidence the legal teams gather in support of these applications. Referral agencies feel confident that they are referring service users into a high quality programme which will lead to the best possible application being submitted to the Home Office. Clients are offered a lifeline – free legal advice from a dedicated team which combines the resources and quality of a corporate law firm, with the knowledge and understanding of the sector offered by a law centre.

FAQs Archive - Page 8 of 8 - Migrant & Refugee Children's Legal Unit

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