LBS Faculty Clinics Report NOV23

Faculty Pro Vice Chancellor

Foreword

As a University located in the heart of the city region, we are student centred, inclusive, caring of our community and courageous – we seek to speak out boldly and be agents for positive change in society. Our clinical practice work in both the Law School and the Liverpool Business School, as set out in this Annual Report, reflects our continuing commitment to our students and the people and organisations in our city region.

Clinical practice provides students with a unique opportunity to develop knowledge in context. Working with academics, practitioners and clients on real legal or business problems creates circumstances in which students can acquire theoretical knowledge and understand its practical application through the act of doing.

This has two outcomes. First, it is of enormous benefit to our students, as they will have a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the subjects they are studying. This will help them develop successful professional careers when they graduate.

Secondly, the provision of free business and legal advice to communities and organisations who may struggle to access such advice contributes significantly to the economic and social wellbeing of the city region.

This Annual Report notes the broad range of legal and business clinical practice services undertaken in the last academic year. We do not currently evaluate the social value of this work, but it is estimated that the financial value of the advice delivered through our clinical practice work amounted to £1.314m. This is a significant contribution by the faculty and University to communities and organisations in the city region.

The Hardman Street facility opened in the 22/23 academic year, has enabled us to expand the provision of legal and business services and to add new services. We have, for example add an accounting review service to our business clinic work specifically aimed at the charitable sector. This helps charities develop good financial and governance practices. The Hardman Street facility demonstrates the University’s commitment to its civic role and the positive work it does to support the social and economic well being of the city region.

Professor Timothy Nichol

Pro Vice Chancellor: Faculty of Business and Law

Professor Timothy Nichol

SCHOOL OF LAW: LEGAL ADVICE CENTRE

Foreword

We have been delighted to operate the Legal Advice Centre for its 9th year. The 2022/23 academic year marked our first year of operation in Hardman Street, in bespoke premises which are publicly accessible, confidential and secure, as well as being a fantastic teaching and working space for our students. Based as we are on a busy city centre street, a growing number of our clients now find us by simply walking in to speak to us about their problem. It was wonderful to show 120 legal clinicians from all over the world around our clinic offices during our hosting of the 9th Conference of the European Network for Clinical Legal Education in July.

The LAC ran this year for the first time as a fully curricular clinic, embedded at all levels of the LLB Law. Beginning with a compulsory module in Legal and Professional Ethics at Level 4, every student on our programme who wishes to continue with their clinic work can do so. This is a unique opportunity in terms of employability, student experience and access to the professions. At present 60% of our students take this pathway and in July the first cohort of students who have studied all three years of the LAC modules graduated with flying colours.

Our key partnerships with Merseyside Law Centre and Support Through Court are flourishing, with our students creating a significant positive impact in terms of capacity building for their organisations and financial recoveries obtained for their service users. Meanwhile our in-house clinic team and research profile are growing, with two new solicitors and a PhD student joining us in October 2023. We are entering our tenth year of operation amid ever more difficult socio-economic conditions, but with increasing confidence that we can be a vital channel for Liverpool John Moores University to support social mobility and provide legal empowerment and support for our local community.

We are immensely grateful to our 50+ local solicitor volunteers who give up their valuable time to help us achieve greater access to justice in the Liverpool City Region. We are proud and grateful to have the support of volunteers from Bingham Long, Brabners, Broudie Jackson Canter, Burd Ward, CMS Mamchester, Crawfords, DWF, Hill Dickinson, Hodge Jones & Allen, Jackson Lees, Liverpool City Council, MSB, Morecrofts, and Weightmans.

Rachel Stalker

Subject Leader and Reader in Clinical Legal Education

Rachel Stalker

Students

FAMILY TEAM REPORT

Solicitors Mary Mullin and Elizabeth Jones have over 50 years of combined legal experience as specialist Family Law practitioners. The Legail Advice Centre (LAC) offers advice, assistance and representation in family cases, supported throughout by LLB Law students. The service is free of charge to clients who are not able to access legal help, due to lack of funds and public funding, and is a vital public service driving social justice and social mobility.

Liz and Mary offer LAC clients pro-bono representation, spending a total of 37 days in courts across the North West during this year. They have continued to promote excellence in the profession in the representation of vulnerable clients at court, including appeals where client have had learning difficulties, language barriers, health conditions and have mentored students to understand the importance of client care and working with peers across the profession. Mary and Liz receive direct enquiries from Support Through Court regarding their most vulnerable court users. They are part of the CLOCK scheme run through Keele University and their work is a template for CLOCK’s developing family advocacy scheme.

Most of our clients are not IT literate so prefer telephone or face to face appointments. Mary and Liz ensure students offer appointments for clients according to their accessibility needs. A case management system allows for robust data protection and a system that allows clients to access communication and documents remotely. Students learn about the importance of case management and record keeping.

Students see the impact that negotiation and collaboration can have on reaching agreement and negating the need for a full hearing, or on other occasions see how a court conducts

a hearing, the role of the advocates and the challenges for the judge and to be hands on in supporting anxious and disempowered clients. Liz and Mary have been successful in lodging and representing clients in appeals that may not otherwise have been issued due to cost implications and lack of representation, ensuring access to justice was available. Clients felt their human rights to a fair hearing and a right to family life were respected.

Liz and Mary organised for HHJ Malcolm Sharpe and HHJ Mark Hedley to talk to students about life as a student, counsel and a member of the judiciary. Students develop vital legal skills and experience that they would normally have to wait several years to obtain as paralegals or trainee solicitors. Liz and Mary regularly update their security awareness and equality and diversity training, passing this on to students. Liz and Mary support Dr. Michele Waite and her students in applying for Exceptional Case Funding in family cases and referring clients to local solicitors. Mary has trained in Lego Play as another form of communication and learning and its ability to help students and clients in the legal advice and clinic setting. As a direct result of Liz and Mary’s innovative experiential teaching approach, a growing number of students successfully gain placements and employment.

Some of the more notable achievements of the team have included:

n A successful appeal from the Family Court for a litigant in person

who had learning difficulties and dyslexia. It was accepted on appeal that their Article 6 rights had been breached.

n Successfully representing a parent with limited literacy on an application for contact with their daughter whom they had not seen for many months.

n Representing a client applying for an Adoption order in respect of their two children, issued prior to the change in the Legal Aid Regulations in May 2023.

n Obtaining a Forced Marriage Order. Liz is a member of the Liverpool Law Society Family Committee, the Court Users Group and Merseyside Family Justice Council. Mary is a member of the Law Society Access to Justice committee and the Access to Advice network which links with local charities and advice providers.

They provide outreach advice at the St Vincent de Paul Food bank.

Liz and Mary have presented nationally and internationally at academic conferences regarding best practices in pro bono family justice (Clinical Legal Education Organisation, London, June 2023, European Network for Clinical Legal Education July 2023). They have been recognised for their work by the award of a LJMU Rising Star Award in the 2022 Teaching and Learning Awards and they are now shortlisted for a Liverpool Law Society Award for best Family Law Team 2023.

EXCEPTIONAL CASE FUNDING AND RESEARCH

September 2022 marked the formal launch of Dr. Michelle Waite’s Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) clinic. Michelle trains her student team and supervises them in assisting individuals whose cases are generally excluded from the scope of legal aid to make applications for ECF. This is a form of legal aid, designed to be a safety net, that must be made available where - without access to legal advice/ representation - an individual’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights are at risk of violation. Applications are complex and timeconsuming.

Michelle is carrying out a collaborative advice-led ethnography of decisionmaking in ECF cases to understand the circumstances in which a human right to civil legal aid can be established; gaps between the law, guidance issued to Legal Aid Agency decision-makers, and decision-making practice; and the barriers that get in the way of making (successful) applications for ECF.

Michelle is working in partnership with Merseyside Law Centre (MLC). Together they organised and ran a knowledge exchange event in September 2022 for potential users of Michelle’s research. It was attended by 22 representatives of local law firms, advice agencies and third sector organisations. The event shared information about the ECF Clinic, Michelle’s research, sought views from attendees about their experiences of the ECF scheme and client’s needs, and shared research-informed

information about how people can spot potential ECF cases.

From this Michelle developed a network of partners who refer clients to the clinic and share their expertise. For example, the Big Help invited Michelle to provide a briefing to their welfare rights team (this took place on 24 May 2023). They are now referring clients to the ECF Clinic and are supporting the Clinic with their welfare rights expertise.

Michelle has succeeded in increasing awareness of ECF, evidenced by the steady flow of referrals from partners from the September event including Morecrofts, Greater Manchester Law Centre and Liverpool Law Clinic. The Joseph Lappin Centre informed us that, in response to the September event, they decided to start offering coffee mornings to their service users to connect appropriate service users with Michelle and better meet service user needs.

In October Michelle presented her innovative research at the International Access to Justice Forum 2023 at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, as the only UK academic in attendance.

Through working with network partners Michelle and her student team have achieved a 100% success rate for the ECF applications they have made. (Two are subject to on-going appeals with the Legal Aid Agency and therefore final determinations are pending). The ultimate beneficiaries of Michelle’s work are the students

who experience this opportunity to enhance their drafting skills and cocreate unique research, and the clients who are awarded ECF and who can therefore access the representation they need. Michelle’s work directly and positively improves access to justice for vulnerable people in the Liverpool city region and her methodology is highly innovative and internationally unique.

Our ECF work is a key driver for research and impact in the Legal Advice Centre (LAC). During this academic year we have also been hosting an impact consultancy action group led by Professor Charlotte O’Brien of York University, and which involves clinic staff within the Legal Advice Centre (LAC) and across the wider School of Law.

In October we were also joined in the clinic by Reem Abdulhakim, who successfully competed for a threeyear clinic PhD studentship. Reem’s research will focus on barriers to access to justice in the civil law system with a particular focus on individuals for whom English is not a first language.

CIVIL AND COMMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Matters involving civil litigation, small claims and contentious wills matters are a major area of the work we do. Joe Dawson joined us from Leigh Day in October as a highly experienced international travel litigator, and is leading on our civil clinics at levels 5 and 6. We have been onboarded by CMS Manchester as their Northern Partner and were honoured to receive a generous donation from them towards our access to justice work. We have also connected with solicitors from Hodge Jones & Allen who are assisting us in offering initial advice in personal injury matters. Meanwhile solicitors from DWF will shortly start volunteering with us to increase capacity in this field.

Community Economic Development (CED) is a concept which puts communities at the heart of devising processes for solving economic, social and environmental issues and helps build economically sustainable and healthy communities. We began working last year with entrepreneurs,

start-up businesses and creatives in the Liverpool City Region to support their legal matters. We supported local charities and social enterprises with public legal information projects around topics such as Intellectual Property and Contract Law, including with our own Start Up Hub and LBS’ Scale Up MBA.

This year we have instituted a specialist CED clinic. This offers help in matters concerning commercial, contentious, employment, GDPR and contract issues. In October 2023 we were joined by a new colleague, Paula Doran, a Commercial Property solicitor from Weightmans who can now add her significant expertise to our CED work. We are now busy developing our core ethos alongside our ongoing client case work, and are building relationships with our key local stakeholders including the Liverpool Chamber, Knowsley Chamber, the Business and Intellectual Property Centre at Liverpool Central Library and many more.

PLACEMENTS –REPORT FROM SUPPORT THROUGH COURT

The 2022-2023 academic year saw the implementation of a five-year partnership with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). University support gave stability to the Liverpool service through sustainable funding, donated IT equipment to increase online support, and guaranteed student placements to support service delivery. Student support and availability directly contributed to Support Through Court Liverpool returning to full time operating hours which had previously been reduced due to the impacts of the pandemic.

THE IMPACT LJMU STUDENTS MADE

We recruited and trained 24 School of Law undergraduate students who committed to weekly placements between the start of November 2022 and the end of April 2023. During this period, the students assisted clients on 1376 occasions and supported 178 hearings (a 147% hearing increase from the preceding 6-month period when students were not on-site in Liverpool).

OUR CLIENTS

Overwhelmingly, the majority of our cases in Liverpool for 2022-2023 related to family issues, and most significantly children.

CHARITY AWARDS

Support Through Court was one of three charities to be shortlisted for the Charity Awards 2023 under the category of education. Despite not winning, we were delighted that the partnership working with universities such as Liverpool John Moores was recognised.

DEVELOPMENTS FOR 2023-2024

IMPROVING OUTCOMES THROUGH LEGAL SUPPORT (IOTLS)

LJMU students will perform a pivotal role in Support Through Court’s IOTLS work with Merseyside Law Centre and Citizens Advice Liverpool, together with James Murrey Solicitors, around Housing support. This will be by facilitating the practical elements of triage and referral when Support Through Court are approached by clients with housing needs.

WE ARE DIGITAL

It is believed there are currently 10million people in the UK who cannot get online independently. The digitalisation programme within the courts and tribunals service poses an additional barrier to accessing justice for many of our clients. Support through court has partnered with We Are Digital to provide essential digital support to clients to enable them to submit online court forms.

“The students are a real asset to the service. They provide resilience and energy to our service offering. They have directly impacted in a positive way, the number of clients supported and the variety of cases we can support. They are ambassadors for STC outside of court.

Liverpool Family and Civil courts have welcomed the students with open arms and a number of Judges and court staff have gone out of their way to provide opportunities for students to learn.”

Dave Ascough, Service Manager, Support Through Court October 2023

CLIENT FEEDBACK FROM DROP-INS

PLACEMENTS – REPORT FROM MERSEYSIDE LAW CENTRE

Merseyside Law Centre (MLC) has been in existence (previously as Merseyside Welfare Rights) since 1980’s. We became a Law Centre in 2015 and secured Charity status in 2022. The head office is based in the heart of Liverpool City Centre at premises in the multi use Kuumba Imani Millenium Centre. Additionally there is a community office in Dovecot and the Law Centre provides appointments in St Helens, Halton and at Liverpool County Court. All of these areas suffer from exceptionally high levels of disadvantage and poverty worsened by the current cost of living crisis.

MLC has an excellent reputation for delivering a high quality free legal advice service and for combatting poverty and preventing homelessness. MLC are members of the National Law Centre’s Network and provide services accredited to the Legal Aid Agencies Specialist Quality Mark, who independently audit the standards and quality of the work we undertake. MLC hold Legal Aid contracts in housing in Liverpool, Dovecot and St Helens and for welfare benefits appeals to the Upper Tribunal across the North West. MLC also partner with Shelter and James Murray Solicitors to deliver a housing possession Court Duty Desk service in Liverpool and Birkenhead County Courts.

Merseyside Law Centre deliver services in person via drop ins and appointments and online.

MLC have established a successful a partnership with the Legal Advice Centre through which student volunteers assist MLC to deliver our vital free legal advice service to the local community.

This has expanded Merseyside Law Centres ability to assist the local community through providing generalist advice and information and specialist legal advice, advocacy and representation on housing, welfare benefits, asylum support and immigration and protection matters.

OUTCOMES FOR CLIENTS

Over the course of the project MLC have seen concrete outcomes on the cases student volunteers have worked on. Working with MLC is an opportunity for students and LJMU to be actively involved in the local community and contribute to changing the lives of our service users as well as gaining valuable legal experience in a busy Law Centre. MLC have engaged with the community and assessed local need leading to expansion of our legal aid work by delivering court duty advice schemes, achieving OISC accreditation and establishing an immigration area of practice.

“That’s a big weight lifted off my mind, I’m so glad I came here today”

“Having a home is the most important thing-you helped me keep mine-thank you so much”

COMMENT FROM Janet

Coe, Director and Solicitor at Merseyside Law Centre

“I studied for my undergraduate law degree and LPC at LJMU so I know what a great Uni it is and how committed it is to supporting access to justice locally and providing excellent opportunities for it’s law students. As soon as I finished my degree I volunteered at Merseyside Welfare Rights, now MLC. The experience was invaluable and convinced me to follow a career as a social justice lawyer. Hopefully we can inspire more LJMU students to do the same.”

IMPACT OF LJMU STUDENTS ON MERSEYSIDE LAW CENTER’S WORK

April 2022-March 2023 April 23-September

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AWARDS AND EVENTS

In July 2022 Mary Mullin and Liz Jones won a Vice Chancellor‘s Rising Star award in recognition of their Family law work.

In October 2022 we had the honour of hosting Joshua Rozenberg KC in the LAC. He spent time interviewing staff and students to produce a Law in Action episode focusing on the pro bono contribution by university law clinics. Since many of us have been reading his legal journalism since we were ourselves law students last century, it was fair to say we were all somewhat star struck! You can listen here to the resulting programme: https:// ddec1-0-en-ctp.trendmicro. com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/ query?url=https%3a%2f%2fwww. bbc.co.uk%2fsounds%2fplay%2fp0 ddsjr3&umid=a977abdd-aac9-4e7ebd72-70b6c1a47074&auth=6b639a 990a359ff1d6cc8761081d57748ce3 c81e-1f6bd13f6b4c87d55d6a54d8d10f133bf86bfce1

In November 2022 Rachel Stalker was shortlisted and Highly Commended for Liverpool Law Society’s Outstanding Lawyer Award.

In the same month, the LAC was shortlisted and Highly Commended by LawWorks in the Category of Best Contribution by a Pro Bono Clinic.

In July 2023 we hosted the 9th Annual Conference of the European Network for Clinical Legal Education (ENCLE). 120 delegates attended from across Europe, Africa, the USA, South America and Australia over two days to exchange our reflections on the past ten years of clinical legal education in Europe and our aims and ambitions for the next challenging decade to come.

During two weeks in October 2023, we hosted a Fulbright Specialist, Professor Susan R. Jones of George Washington University Law School, Washington DC, USA. Professor Jones has run her Small Business and Community Economic Development clinic since 1988. During her time with us she taught a number of sessions for our current CED clinic students, as well as delivering an inspiring keynote to the Faculty. She has helped us and our students co-create a blueprint for the next stage of developing our CED work and we will continue our dialogue with Professor Jones and her students as our work progresses.

LIVERPOOL BUSINESS SCHOOL: BUSINESS CLINIC

Foreword

The student led Business Clinic within Liverpool Business School was established to provide a range of support options to SMEs, multi-nationals, start-ups and not for profit organisations in the Liverpool City Region. As a modern civic university, LJMU, aims to serve its people and communities and the Business Clinic acts as a source of support that businesses within the Liverpool City Region can access to help them address the challenges they face moving forward.

We are delighted that the student led Business Clinic is embedded in even more undergraduate programmes this year, playing a vital part in the curriculum and the student journey. There was a 43% increase in the number of students involved in this learning experience alongside a 32% increase in the number of projects in the academic year of 2022/23.

The clinic provides students with the opportunity to practically apply and develop their theoretical knowledge in a real-world professional environment. Projects delivered to date for our clients include market planning, strategy planning, diversify of products and services, market research, social media campaigns, competitor analysis amongst other things to help plan for new business opportunities. Our students provide research and genuinely innovative, creative and fresh solutions to all types of problems and challenges.

Now at the end of its 5th year, the Business Clinic is set to grow further next year with a projected 10% increase in student involvement. This growth is set to continue, and we are proud that over the next few years the Business Clinic will be embedded into all undergraduate and postgraduate provision across the School of Business and Management, including programmes such as Events Management, International Tourism Management and Human Resource Management.

As part of our commitment to the Principles of Responsible Management Education, we will continue to develop projects and work with organisations associated with sustainability and digital transformation where students can successfully deliver to businesses across the Liverpool City Region.

This year our thanks go to:

The amazing staff we have working in the Business Clinic, both academic staff which have pushed the boundaries with the curriculum and the Business Clinic project officers who have worked to foster some fantastic external relationships.

The 416 students who have worked in the Business Clinic this year supporting 95 projects.

Our 13 business consultant mentors, who show up week after week to support the consultancy groups to deliver a quality piece of work that has value to the client.

Last but by no means least a massive thanks to all the businesses and organisations who have provided projects to the Business Clinic. Without your support we would not be able to provide our students with such an amazing and valuable experience.

Dr Track Dinning Subject Leader, Liverpool Business School

Dr Track Dinning

Over the last two years we have seen an increase in the number students, projects and organisations going through the Business Clinic, and 22/23 I am pleased to report was no different. Throughout 2022/23, 416 of our students worked across 95 projects with the Business Clinic supporting 70 organisations within the Liverpool City Region and beyond.

No. of organisations supported by the Business Clinic

Value of the Business Clinic activity 2020-2023

The Business Clinic is embedded within both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Liverpool Business School.

OUR STUDENTS TELL US:

BUSINESS CLINIC FEEDBACK

“Deciding to take on the Cains consultancy project was a risk, but I am glad I took it. Consultancy can be difficult, but it has taught me to learn, adapt and also not be afraid of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. This is my final year in education and I’m glad I took a consultancy module instead of the standard dissertation. LJMU gives you opportunities to grow as an individual and the Cains Consultancy module was definitely one of these opportunities. I would recommend it to anyone.”

Final year undergraduate student, BA (Hons) Marketing

“I have learned that the end goal imagined when starting the project is not realistic in real-world working and through working with the company, visiting their locations every week, meeting staff throughout their departments, and conducting thorough research how different the real-world outcome is. The business clinic allowed me to provide meaningful impact to a local charity.”

Final year undergraduate student, BSc (Hons) Business Management

“I’m very thankful to LJMU, my colleagues and Viz Box for this opportunity as I learnt a lot about myself during this project as I was able to develop confidence and apply skills I’d learned during my studies through collectively creating and then presenting the business model to the NHS at the end of the project showcasing the value the project will bring. I can’t speak highly enough of Carl & Vizbox as adding value to a business can be a very difficult thing especially for a VR company developing a project to improve stroke treatments, the support they provided us and the meetings we were able to be a part of made this whole experience feel very natural and really enjoyable.”

Final year undergraduate student, (BA Hons) Business with Finance

Clients who want to work with the Business Clinic are asked to outline an initial project brief. Then, working alongside one of our Business Clinic project officers the brief is developed to include not only clear aims and objective but also a set of outcomes in order that the clients’ expectations can be met. The majority of the projects are delivered over a 10-week period with student groups meeting on a weekly basis. The student groups are guided by the academic member of staff on a weekly basis. We also work with 13 Business Consultants, who are attached to a group and provide weekly support to those students to deliver a high-quality project for the client.

BUSINESS CLINIC FEEDBACK

OUR CLIENTS TELL US:

“The students have been a delight to work with and their youthful perspective has certainly helped with ideas for my business. They have always conducted themselves in a friendly and professional manner. I am so grateful for their help and support and wish them both all the very best for the future.”

Angela Howarth, Angela’s Tai Chi

“I’ve been really impressed with the team and their overall desire to make improvements to our football club. They’ve been incredibly independent and shown outside-of-the-box thinking to come up with some great ideas to impact us now and in the future. The communication has been clear throughout, and I can tell they are really bought into what we are trying to achieve. Honestly, I can’t fault them, and I am really grateful they have come on board during a pretty pivotal time in our club’s development.”

Abby Pope, Liverpool Feds WFC

“The project journey has been excellent since the students were very proactive and enthusiastic on the subject. I must say they continue to show the same level of energy during the whole duration. I also appreciate their earlier understanding of retail space through their earlier experiences. This helped a lot to create interest and excitement.”

Ajay Aggarwal, 100watts

SPOTLIGHT ON THE MERSEY YOUTH SUPPORT TRUST (MYST)

The MYST is a registered charity supporting entrepreneurs setting up and starting new businesses. MYST particularly seeks to collaborate with people who are unemployed or underemployed or may be disadvantaged, allowing them to take responsibility for their own future.

Working for MYST, Baltic Solutions was made up of final year undergraduate students studying on the BA (Hons) Business with International Business Management programme. Tasked with undertaking a feasibility study for a new community cafe in Kirkdale Liverpool, the students produced both the floor plan and the concept design for this initiative. This took into consideration some of the “must haves” that MYST required, including a digital suite and an open entrance. They also created and presented a cost analysis, a competitor analysis and strategies to make the cafe more sustainable.

“The two most notable skills that we feel we have gained throughout this experience would be time-management - demonstrated through the process of meeting team deadlines and completing work around other assignments. And secondly, team-communication skills - gained through our weekly team meetings, delegation of tasks and different communication channels.” Baltic Solutions.

Kevin Lovelady at MYST, said, “working with the students has been fantastic - their enthusiasm, diligence, attentiveness and creativity has been exemplary. Their work will be of enormous benefit to the organisation both in the short term and longer term, in helping us focus on some key strategic areas, backed up by their in-depth research and findings. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with them and we would have no hesitation in recommending them for any future opportunities.”

SPOTLIGHT ON REGENERUS

Regenerus is a registered charity and social enterprise based in Sefton. Providing a wide range of services for the local community, they aim to improve health and well-being and create a better, more inclusive society.

Two Liverpool Business School Business Clinic project teams worked with Regenerus on separate briefs to offer live business consultancy.

Project 1.

DIGITAL MARKETING FOCUS:

Increasing occupancy rates at the Investment Centre

Team MGMT consisted of final year undergraduate students studying on the BSc (Hons) Business Management progarmme . Their brief was to develop strategies to increase occupancy rates in the Investment Centre in Bootle, which offers a range of managed workspaces. Ruth Livesey

of Regenerus said, “Bringing creative new ideas to add to our approach, the team have been enthusiastically busy designing marketing materials, drafting social media posts and producing virtual tours on video, a valuable contribution and much appreciated.”

A team MGMT student has commented “Working on this project has provided me with invaluable real-life consulting and marketing experience. It has allowed me to put my theoretical knowledge into practice, which I believe will be highly beneficial for my future career. I have developed key transferable skills, such as effective communication, project management, teamwork, analysis and in-depth research. Overall, the project has been a great alternative to a traditional dissertation.”

Project 2. SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS: Climate Action Festival

Final year undergraduate students from theBA (Hons) Business with Marketing and the BA (Hons) Business with International Business Management programmes, formed Team Quatro.

They worked with Regenerus to promote their upcoming Climate Action Festival 2023, developed in support of their environmental objectives of health, well-being and cleaner air.

We were asked to research and identify sponsorship opportunities, as well as review the marketing strategy development to ensure active participation in the event on the day. “Team Quatro have successfully identified new contributors and sponsors for this year’s festival, designed some great marketing content and introduced us to some bang up to date social media approaches.” Ruth Livesey, Regenerus.

“During this project, I have most enjoyed the responsibility and freedom we were given by Ruth to be creative with our own ideas. For example, when creating the marketing material, I had full control of what to produce, the colour schemes and images included.”

Team Quatro student.

MOVING FORWARDS

We are building on our previous work to track the value that the Business Clinic work can bring to an organisation within Liverpool City Region with a commitment to developing this value beyond just financial and what can be seen as that ‘extra pair of hands’. In the Business Clinic value is defined in its broadest terms and includes not only financial value but also social, cultural and environmental value. The broadening of the term ‘value’ allows projects to meet a broad range of business needs and it is our intention to develop clusters of projects around these different types of value over the next few years. By working closely with the Liverpool City Region business community these project clusters will be developed so that dedicated multi-stakeholder special interest groups are formed and active communities of practice incubated.

To evaluate the types of value being created over the next year, it is our intention to develop a framework from which we can measure the impact of the Business Clinic work for businesses and students. This framework will not only evaluate project inputs and outputs (quantitative summary of the activity) but will also evaluate project and special interest group outcomes, that is changes that stakeholders’ experiences as a result of the activity. For example, outcomes could include changes in circumstances, behaviour, capacity, awareness or attitude (Social Value UK 2023). The resulting evaluations will allow the Business Clinic to channel and review its resource allocation effectively. This will ensure that in our annual planning cycle resources are allocated intentionally for maximum impact. This impact will allow the Business Clinic to provide valuable contributions to both practice and theory not only regionally but also nationally and internationally.

Working alongside the Global Alliance for Entrepreneurial Universities, Liverpool Business School is to launch a global network for experiential learning.

LIVERPOOL BUSINESS SCHOOL: ACCOUNTING CLINIC

Foreword

LJMU positions itself as a pioneering modern civic University that is rooted in the idea of serving the city community through educational opportunity, public service and welfare. The Accounting Clinic is an excellent example of how Liverpool business School aligns to this. Now in its second year, the Accounting Clinic is unique to LJMU, it sets the Accounting and Finance programme apart other northwest Universities and is something that prospective students and families are always interested to hear about at Open Days.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the mentors and academic staff who have supported the Accounting Clinic during its formative first two years. Your dedication and guidance have been instrumental in its success. As we look to the future, we are excited about the collaborative efforts that lie ahead. Together, we aim to expand the Clinic’s reach, enabling more students and charities to benefit from this impactful initiative. Your continued support will be pivotal as we strive to enhance educational opportunities and make a meaningful difference in our community.

Pam Dodd Subject Leader, Accounting Clinic Lead

Pam Dodd

ACCOUNTING CLINIC OVERVIEW

The Clinic gives students from the Accounting and Finance degree an opportunity to work with an external client from the charity sector and undertake the organisations independent examination on a pro-bono basis. The students actively, learn whilst dealing with real-life clients on their real-life accounts.

The students are given the opportunity to put into practice skills, such as working collaboratively as part of a team and communicating with their peers and clients. Students have the space to build a knowledge base of relevant material and learn to go to the client to ask for more.

The Accounting Clinic is currently an extracurricular opportunity for the students and has been running now for just over an academic year. During this time the students who’ve worked for the Clinic have completed 21 independent examinations. The benefit of the Clinic being extra-curricular is that students are free to focus on the task in hand, and not on ‘how does this count towards my degree?’

For the next year we are looking to grow the Clinic and explore the possibility of setting up a National Network of Accounting Clinics.

Statistics to date

40 students have worked with the charities

The relationship we’re building with the Association of Charity Independent Examiners (ACIE) who have trained approximately 100 of our students to undertake this work

We were invited by accountingcafe.org to present at their symposium in April

OTHER UNIVERSITIES HAVE CONTACTED LJMU TO ASK HOW THEY GO ABOUT SETTING UP THEIR OWN CLINICS

The money saved that has gone back into the community over the past two year-ends, approximately £16,000 (this is an approximate of the actual money saved based on the Independent Examiner’s fee from the previous years’ accounts)

The 17 charities that are using the Clinic for their independent examination. Some of these charities have used us for two year-ends.

CONTACT

LEGAL ADVICE CENTRE

Rachel Stalker R.Stalker@ljmu.ac.uk

BUSINESS CLINIC

Dr Track Dinning T.M.Dinning@ljmu.ac.uk

ACCOUNTING CLINIC

Pam Dodd P.Dodd@ljmu.ac.uk