A visit to the Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice has enabled us to extend our advice and support into family courts in Exeter, Newton Abbot, Plymouth, Bodmin and Truro until April 2025. We’ve been chosen for the innovative Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support Fund (distributed by The Access to Justice Foundation). As a result, families going through courts in Devon and Cornwall without legal representation will now be able to get support from CASS+.

Thinktank at the Ministry of Justice

We were invited to join a group of key influencers at a roundtable in London. Consequently, HMCTS national teams are gaining understanding about the court-user experience at the Crime Jurisdictional Public Engagement Group. By sharing our knowledge, experience and ideas, we can all discover what works and what doesn’t.

Knowledge exchange

To clarify, we are one of just a couple of organisations who offer court-specific help. However, everything is interconnected. As a key referrer, we were so pleased to exchange ideas with many of our national partners face-to-face:

Citizen Advice Witness Service

Crown Prosecution Service

Hibiscus Initiatives

Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS)

Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research

The Intermediary Cooperative

Justice

KeyRing Living Support

Legal Aid Practitioners Group

Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime

NSPCC

Office of Victims’ Commissioner

Rape Crisis

Rights of Women

Together

Transform Justice

Victim Support

Revolving Doors

Youth Justice Board

Lynchpin in the South West

On top of this, we felt honoured to represent both rural and urban communities in Devon and Cornwall at a national level. We aim to be the connector in this huge chain of services, ready and willing to deal with social inequality.

Evaluation

Most importantly, we need to evaluate our impact. With the support of the Lloyds Bank Foundation, Cornish+Grey have advised us on new tools for collecting data. On top of this, The Theory of Change will be our starting point for an outcome measurement framework. As part of this project, we are taking advice from respected evaluators at The Centre for Justice Innovation and Tina Wilkinson of Wilkinson Evaluation to improve evaluation.

Working together

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice has already sent a representative to Truro to observe our team and we look forward to working with them to improve the lives of those facing court. In the same vein, we will ensure that our local HM Court & Tribunals Service teams get the chance to contribute to this vital research.

Right place, right time

We are in the right place at the right time, independent of the system, and completely free. We will continue to use our knowledge and connections to find solutions to complicated situations.

Carole Edwards, CEO

Contact us

If you need support at court in Devon or Cornwall, please contact CASS+: admin@cassplus.org, or visit https://www.cassplus.org/contact-us/ for your local office.