ID173 Strengthening Keele’s Civic Impact and Legal Education

The Idea

I propose that Keele University invest in the expansion of its Legal Advice Clinics by establishing a dedicated Employment clinic, Housing &/or Immigration Clinic and increasing the formal allocation of solicitor time for clinical supervision. This development would build upon the exceptional clinical model already operating at Keele, one that offers students a level of authentic legal practice rarely seen in UK university clinics. 

Keele’s clinics already stand apart. Our students act as primary case handlers: they interview clients, draft letters of advice, and work directly on real legal matters under the supervision of in-house solicitors. While many university clinics limit students to observation only, Keele’s approach immerses them in genuine solicitor-level responsibilities. This provides a powerful learning environment and a distinctive educational offer. 

With demand rising, particularly since expanding provision into Keele in Town, there is a clear opportunity for Keele to deepen its civic mission, broaden student opportunities, and strengthen its reputation as a leader in practice‑based legal education. 

Expanding into Housing and Immigration will allow Keele to meet critical unmet community need, support future curriculum development, and position the Law School as a nationally recognised provider of socially impactful legal education 

Expanding into Employment law will position Keele to address common and often unresolved workplace issues within the local community, deliver tangible social impact through early legal intervention, and further establish the Law School as a leader in experiential and socially responsive legal education. 

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Community demand for accessible legal advice continues to grow, especially in areas such as employment, housing insecurity and immigration, where vulnerable individuals often have limited routes to support. Our clinics are now consistently approached for assistance in these specialisms. This demonstrates two things: 

• The community trusts Keele’s clinics, and 
• There is a genuine opportunity to expand our civic footprint. 

The internal data we have shows the need to expand in these legal areas. Although we do not yet currently deal with these areas of law from the start of 2026 to now alone 20% of queries coming into the clinic were looking for Housing advice and 50% of queries coming into our clinic was for employment advice. 

As we are a LawWorks clinic we do share our data with them along with other Law clinics country wide. You can see the overall data overview from LawWorks findings here.

Within their conclusion they do highlight the additional need for Family and Employment clinics. They say ‘The persistently high demand for family and employment law advice – highlighted by a 7.3% rise in family law cases this year – is a growing concern. We will continue to offer our data to policymakers as a valuable indicator of the legal issues people are bringing forward across England and Wales. ‘ 

This does run along side our findings for Employment Matters. From January 2026 to the present, 52% of the enquiries received by the Legal Advice Clinics have related to employment matters, which we have unfortunately had to signpost elsewhere as they fall outside our current remit. This means that more than half of our potential clients have been unable to access support through our clinics. 

It is disheartening to turn away so many individuals seeking assistance, particularly when they are often facing challenging circumstances and may struggle to access affordable legal advice elsewhere. Expanding our service to include employment law would enable us to support a significantly greater number of people within our local community and beyond, while further enhancing the educational opportunities available to our students. 

On page 14 of the document linked above it shows a helpful graph showing the key areas of Law in which clients are wanting advice for. As you can see, the highest area of law is Family (We are opening a family clinic Sept 2026 due to employing a professional within this area) Second is Employment, followed by Civil Litigation (We cover this in our Small Claims Clinic) then Housing and Immigration. It shows how vital it is for our community to access free legal advice within these areas. 

At the same time, the Law School is preparing to introduce a new clinical module in 2027/2028, allowing final‑year students to choose clinic work in place of a dissertation. To deliver a high‑quality, real‑case experience to every participating student, we must broaden our client base and practice areas; otherwise, students risk being placed on simulated files, diminishing the value of the module. 

Investment is also essential to ensure long-term sustainability. The current 20% allocation of solicitor time for clinic activity limits what our legal team can deliver and has already contributed to the loss of a solicitor who struggled to balance multiple competing workloads. Increasing solicitor allocation is not only necessary to support student learning but critical for maintaining staff wellbeing and retention. 

More broadly, prospective law students are increasingly choosing institutions that provide real cases, real clients, and real responsibility. Firms and agencies repeatedly tell us that clinic graduates stand out. They are more confident, more capable, and more practice‑ready. In a competitive higher education landscape, expanding our clinics gives Keele a clear differentiator aligned with both our civic mission and educational values. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

Establish a Dedicated Employment, Housing &/or Immigration Clinic  

• Recruit specialist supervision hours through increased solicitor allocation or dedicated clinical appointments. We do not currently have solicitors with the expertise within these areas. Therefore we would need to look at recruitment of partnerships with external solicitors firms. 
• Build on the existing Keele in Town presence to provide an accessible community-facing clinic base.  
• Partner with local authorities, charities, and advocacy groups to secure referral pathways and high-quality client work. 

Increase Solicitor Allocation for Clinical Supervision  

• Expand clinical allocation beyond the current 20%, enabling solicitors to supervise larger caseloads and more students.  
• Protect time for clinical preparation, supervision, and case management to ensure quality and compliance. 

Align Clinic Expansion with the 2027/2028 Clinical Module  

• Guarantee a strong pipeline of real client cases, ensuring every student undertaking the module has meaningful, authentic work.  
• Reduce reliance on simulations while enhancing the academic and professional credibility of the module. 

Enhance Visibility and Recruitment Value  

• Promote Keele’s expanded clinical provision as a defining feature of the Law School.  
• Highlight the unique model in brochures, open days, online marketing and employer engagement. 

What Success Would Look Like

For Students  

• Increased student satisfaction with authentic legal practice opportunities.  
• Improved graduate outcomes, with Keele students recognised as exceptionally practice-ready.
• Higher recruitment and retention, with students drawn to Keele for its distinctive, hands-on legal education. 

For the University  

• Stronger alignment with Keele’s civic mission and public-good values.  
• Enhanced national reputation, positioning Keele as a leader in clinical legal education.  
• Greater employer engagement and partnership opportunities. 

For the Community  

• Expanded access to free, high‑quality legal advice for vulnerable individuals.  
• Stronger community relationships and increased trust in Keele as an institution that responds to real local need.  
• Tangible civic impact through improved housing stability, immigration support and social justice outcomes.