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Children's Legal Centre joins the Coram group

1st September 2011

Children’s charity Coram and specialist legal charity the Children’s Legal Centre are amalgamating.

The partnership of these two influential charities, which will officially begin on 1 September, will unite Coram’s social-work led expertise and extensive reach to schools nationwide with the legal experience of the Children’s Legal Centre (the CLC) in promoting the rights of children throughout the UK and beyond.

Coram's motivation for amalgamating with the CLC, which will now be known as Coram Children’s Legal Centre, was to enlist the expertise of a charity whose mission was complementary to its own to enhance impact and reach.

Coram creates better chances for children, from finding loving adoptive families for those who need them most to providing supported housing for care leavers. Founded in 1739 as the first children’s charity, Coram today provides practical support to more than 15,000 children, young people and families each year, and reaches a further 800,000 school children through educational programmes.

The CLC, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, provides free legal information, advice and representation to children, young people, families, their carers and professionals, as well as consultancy on child law and children’s rights. The national charity is staffed by lawyers and professionals who specialise in child, family and education law. They work to ensure that children’s interests are represented at every level of the legal process and in the production of legislation both here in the UK and globally through the charity’s international projects. The charity hosts the Migrant Children’s Project and the Refugee Children’s Rights Project, influencing policy, carrying out strategic litigation and advising professionals working with migrant children. In addition, the CLC works to promote children’s rights in more than 30 countries assisting the UN and governments to implement the convention on the rights of the child.

Dr Carol Homden, Coram’s Chief Executive, said: ”We are delighted to be welcoming the CLC to the Coram group so that we can combine our expertise to extend children’s access to justice.

“We will draw on Coram’s pioneering work in concurrent planning and family assessment and the CLC’s expertise in educational, family and children’s legal advice to advance the cause of children, young people and families in care proceedings.

“We are stronger together than apart, particularly during this time of economic uncertainty and burgeoning contract culture, and look forward to extending our impact from joint learning and strengths.”

Carolyn Hamilton, CLC Director, said: “We’re very pleased to be amalgamating with Coram and our combined strengths, knowledge and know-how will maximise our commitment to improving the lives of children and young people.

“Coram’s long history of providing practical support to large numbers of children coupled with the CLC’s rights-based approach makes us both a stronger force in the UK and will help to extend our international reach – by working together we can really make a difference now and in the future.”

The CLC has 38 staff working across two sites, in central London and Colchester, Essex. No job losses are anticipated as a result of the amalgamation.

Coram’s Bloomsbury head office will become home to some of the CLC London team, with its Essex legal practice and Child Law Advice Line continuing at its existing Colchester base in partnership with the University of Essex.

-ends-

Notes to editors

For more information or to arrange an interview with Dr Carol Homden or Carolyn Hamilton please contact Sue Massey, Head of Marketing and Communications, on 020 7520 0346 or email sue@coram.org.uk

Coram - www.coram.org.uk

Coram has been providing better chances for children since 1739, through adoption, education and a wide range of other programmes to support children and families.

This is not the first time Coram has amalgamated with another charity. In 2009, Coram successfully partnered with the charity Life Education, taking a 75 per cent membership stake in Life Education, but enabling the charity to retain its own identity and culture. Coram Life Education continues to go from strength to strength, benefitting from Coram’s infrastructure, financial and fundraising capacity and opportunities for joint project working.

Coram’s adoption service has one of the highest placement success rates in the country.  The charity has been pioneering Concurrent Planning for more than 10 years, which involves close working with the courts to achieve consistent care for vulnerable children. Concurrent Planning involves babies being placed with specialist foster carers while their long-term future is being decided, so that babies who cannot return to their birth parents can be adopted by those foster carers, avoiding unnecessary and often traumatic disruption.

Children’s Legal Centre- www.childrenslegalcentre.com

The Children's Legal Centre is an independent national charity concerned with law and policy affecting children and young people. The CLC provides legal advice and representation to children, young people, their carers and professionals throughout the UK.

The CLC, which is funded by grants from central Government and charitable trusts, provides the following services:

1. Free legal advice online: www.childrenslegalcentre.com
2. Free Child Law Advice Line: 08088 020 008
3. Family and children's legal advice and representation
4. Education legal advice and representation
5. International consultancy (we host the Children and Armed Conflict Unit –a joint project with the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex)
6. Expert publications for professionals
7. Legal policy and research
8. Migrant Children's Project
9. Refugee Children’s Rights Project (a partnership with Islington Law Centre)
10. Child Protection project – a new bespoke source of tailored information and legal advice for professionals and not-for-profit organisations.

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