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King’s Legal Clinic
The Dickson Poon School of Law

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Windrush Justice Clinic

The Windrush Justice Clinic (WJC) is an award-winning partnership  made up of community organisations, law centres and Universities.  King’s Legal Clinic (KLC) joined the WJC in October 2021 as part of its aim to proactively engage students in equality and racial justice through experiential learning. KLC has a specific partnership with Southwark Law Centre (SLC). The WJC aims to:

  • promote the compensation scheme amongst the community;

  • provide Windrush victims with free legal advice and representation to secure just compensation for their loss and suffering.  

  • conduct research on the accessibility and fairness of the Windrush Compensation Scheme. 

 


Historical background

In 2018, the UK government finally accepted that it had wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights to the Windrush generation and other commonwealth citizens and their children in what is now known as the ‘Windrush Scandal’. The impact on victims was profound, many victims lost jobs, their homes, were deprived of healthcare, and were threatened with removal from the UK. Some were sent to countries they had not visited since early childhood. Then Prime Minster Theresa May, and successive Home Secretaries, apologised for the scandal and committed to right these wrongs. Set up in 2019, the Windrush Compensation Scheme aimed to provide fair and accessible compensation to the victims of the scandal. In the years since the scheme has been subject to extensive scrutiny and repeated calls for reform.

King’s Legal Clinic activities and impact

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the WJC this year. It has been an amazing experience getting to help make a difference for people who have suffered due to this scandal, and it has further cemented the reason why I chose to study law – to help people who don’t have the means to seek help themselves.

Tilly Soerenson (LLB, 2023)

King’s students provide casework support to Van Ferguson, a solicitor at SLC, in the preparation of claims for compensation and reviews to the Windrush Compensation Scheme. The work of the WJC has helped to secure British citizenship and compensation for a number of applicants. Please see our Annual Report for further details. In December 2022 King’s students provided invaluable research support to SLC to assist in the preparation of a strategic legal challenge to an effective blanket refusal by the Legal Aid Agency to grant legal aid to victims of the Windrush scandal.The High Court  found in R (Joyce Oji) v Director of Legal Aid Casework [2024] EWHC 1281 (Admin) that WCS claimants are not eligible for legal aid, SLC are seeking permission to appeal. Please read here for further details.

The King's research report ‘The Windrush Compensation Scheme:  A comparative analysis’ (February 2024) examined three other contemporary compensation schemes relating to harm caused by the State: namely the Lambeth Children’s Home Redress Scheme, the Horizon Shortfall Scheme and the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme. The report evaluates the structure and performance of each compensation scheme to the Windrush Compensation Scheme. The findings indicate a range of structural weaknesses present in the Windrush Compensation Scheme which require urgent reform.  

In light of the problems identified in the compensation schemes explored in the research, King’s explored the wider changes needed in a roundtable event 'Reforming Redress Schemes Roundtable Report' in June 2024 with a range of stakeholders from the WCS, Infected Blood Compensation Scheme, Post Office Schemes and the Lambeth Children’s Home Redress Scheme. You can read and hear about the recommendations for change in  King’s 'Reforming Redress Schemes Roundtable Report (October 2024).  


Watch one of our students offer their reflections on their involvement with the Windrush Justice Clinic and the strategic litigation. 


 

 

The Promise

In collaboration with King’s Culture, the Windrush Justice Clinic, members of the Windrush community and co-creators Brian Mullin and Tian Brown-Sampson, King’s Legal Clinic produced several performances of ‘The Promise’, a work-in-progress immersive theatre piece.

Drawn from research undertaken by King’s Legal Clinic and the real-life testimonies of Home Office-Windrush Scandal victims, ‘The Promise’ took audiences on an interactive journey of tests and trials across multiple rooms at King's. On this journey, audiences experienced the frustration and betrayal of those navigating the Windrush Compensation Scheme and gained insight into the resilience of the activists who are uniting to fight for reform. King’s law students supported the development of the performance, including devising realistic props and documents relating to the WCS and performing in the Promise.  

On 4th July, the Clinic invited the Windrush community and a range of Government, Policy and legal press stakeholders to a VIP performance and lunch. The following day, ‘The Promise’ was open to the public, with each performance followed by a reflection and discussion session. In each session, members of the public were able to engage with the Windrush community and develop their understanding of the Home Office-Windrush Scandal and its ongoing impact. After the event, audience members expressed that ‘The Promise’ was ‘very moving’, ‘deeply engaging’, and left with the belief that the Windrush Compensation Scheme needed urgent reform.

King’s Legal Clinic are working with co-creators Brian Mullin and Tian Brown-Sampson and the Windrush community to further develop the piece and reach more audiences.

Find out more about ‘The Promise’.

75th Windrush Anniversary 

2023 marked the 75th anniversay of the arrival of the passengers of the Empire Windrush in the UK. To mark the anniversary, King's Legal Clinic and their partners the Southwark Law Centre who form part of the award winning Windrush Justice Clinic, made a series of videos to observe the occasion.