Foreword
The allocation of State and Commonwealth funding for legal assistance through competitive tendering is a new process in the history of the legal assistance sector in Queensland. While it can be a challenge for organisations to respond to a tender process, it is also an opportunity. The tender is an opportunity to ensure that resources for legal assistance are allocated in a way that reflects the values of:
- Collaborative service planning;
- Maximising the accessibility of services; and
- Ensuring transparent decisions based on the available evidence of legal need.
The legal assistance sector has a commitment to an evidence-based approach so that transparent decisions are made about funding allocations. This application process is an opportunity for the sector to articulate the legal needs of their community to ensure that resources are appropriately directed based on the best available evidence. Organisations that are providing free legal services or court/tribunal support advocacy services are already well placed to engage in the tender process. A proven history in providing services to vulnerable and disadvantaged Queenslanders means there is already a wealth of experience, expertise and information about how services are best delivered to those that most need them.
This tender process is opportunity to collect and collate your expertise to continue a viable service system in Queensland.
This Guide
This document was developed by Community Legal Centres Queensland to assist community legal centres and other eligible organisations to apply for Queensland and Commonwealth Legal Assistance Service Delivery funding 2017-2020, administered by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.
The purpose of this guide is to provide assistance with responding to the Application Form and in particular, assistance with interpreting the quality evaluation criteria. The interpretative aspect of the guide is based upon concepts in the National Strategic Framework for Legal Assistance 2015 – 2020 and the Reshaping legal assistance services: building on the base. A Discussion Paper by Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales. This guide provides some practical examples of responses to parts of the application. The examples are not the “perfect response” in both content and length, but an indication of how the theoretical concepts could be applied to a response. It was intentional to have mix of examples that is representative of the diversity of eligible applicants, such generalist, specialist, rural, regional, metropolitan and court or tribunal support settings.