It is important that Centres have tools to enable them to use data in their planning and decision making. Particularly the ability to:

• Analyse met and unmet legal need to strategically plan service delivery in the context of limited resources.
• Carry out reporting and data analysis for Annual Reports, funding submissions, policy and law reform, or public relations.

CLCs Australia recently ran an Emergence webinar event on legal needs planning which took participants through the key steps in carrying out legal needs planning. You can watch the webinar via your member’s portal by clicking here. 

Legal Needs Planning Guide

We developed the Legal Needs Planning Guide to assist Centres do this. Using this guide, you will be able to:

• Develop an understanding of legal need and what may be driving it within your service catchment.
• Develop a better understanding of your own work and clients.
• Conduct an initial gap analysis of met and unmet legal need in your service catchment.
• Develop a data-informed plan(s) for your organisation, using the analysis you have performed to inform your discussion and decision-making.
• Know where to go for help if you need it.

The approach suggested to strategic planning in this Guide is very flexible—both in its implementation and how it can be adapted to multiple purposes, for both specialist and generalist Centres. It offers a structure for the collection and interpretation of data to predict the prevalence of unmet legal need, as well as a framework for assessing the service data of a Centre and therefore information about legal need being met. The Guide encourages Centres to consider the implications of evidence, in the context of a legal needs assessment framework, which can be adapted to multiple planning uses.

Other legal needs-related resources

For an overall approach to thinking about legal needs orientated strategic planning

• Evidence and Analysis of Legal Need (Community Legal Centres Queensland)
• Legal Need in Western Australia (WA Collaborative Services Planning Group)

Research on Legal Need

• Indigenous Legal Needs Project (James Cook University)
• 
LAW Survey: Legal Need in Australia (Law and Justice Foundation)
• Access to Justice in the Barkly (UTS: Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research with NTLAC, CAWLS, CAAFLU & NAAJA) 


Predicting the prevalence of legal need using indicators – data sources 

• ABS Census – for demographic data  

• Collaborative Planning Resource, Law and Justice Foundation 

• Legal Needs Dashboard, Law and Justice Foundation - for exploring Census, Centrelink and some crime data 
• ABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Mapping of Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) SEIFA scores by 5 geographies 

• Centrelink data, data.gov.au – how many people are receiving different types of payments e.g. DSS Payments by 2016 Statistical Area 2 or DSS Payments by 2018 Local Government Area

CLASS Reports to analyse activity and reach  

• C03 – Clients by priority groups
• S01 – Services for Individuals
• N03.1 – NPA Services by Law Type
• DIY Reports can also be made for Centres on request 


 
If you have any questions or need support, please get in touch with us at [email protected]