We specialise in bringing cases on behalf of public service users and organisations who wish to challenge harmful alterations and cuts to public services.

Cases can often involve overlapping issues of procurement law and equality and discrimination.

We have an excellent track record in getting decisions overturned without the need for court proceedings, and in getting decisions quashed following applications for judicial review in the High Court. In the vast majority of cases our clients have secured new funding for the vital services they rely on, or had services reinstated as a result of the legal work we have done on their behalf.

Our casework in this area covers a wide range of cuts and restructuring decisions taken by local councils, NHS trusts, central government departments and many other state agencies. We are expert in helping clients identify the potentially discriminatory impacts of such decisions.

We also provide advice, training and briefings on how to protect services and ensure that public authorities make lawful decisions when considering restructuring, or consulting on cuts to vital provision. We have particular expertise in relation to women’s services (including services for racially minoritised women), and specialist provision for disabled people.

We always work closely with local voluntary sector organisations and national NGOs as part of any wider campaign to protect the services under threat and regularly share our expertise on a pro bono basis. We often take referrals from organisations, which include ex-clients, such as Southall Black Sisters, Women’s Aid, Imkaan, Inclusion London and others.

Some examples of our work in this area:

• We helped victims of domestic violence and Roma parents to challenge cuts to voluntary sector grants by London Councils worth millions of pounds. As a result, over 300 unlawful decisions were quashed and the public body in question found millions of pounds of extra funding to put into the voluntary sector in London.
• A series of cases helping our clients to protect funding of services for black and brown women who are survivors of domestic abuse.
• Challenges to the withdrawal of funding for user-led projects for people with learning disabilities, vital provision for people with mental health problems and safe houses for gay men fleeing domestic violence.