Challenge Group - Exploring How We Do Systems Change
How can legal advice organisations use what they learn from helping individual clients to change the systems that create or keep those problems going?
First Session is 21st January
Let us know if you’re interested in joining but can’t make this date - managementleadershiphub@gmail.com
Challenge Groups are reserved for organisations that have funding from Access To Justice Foundation ‘ILTA’ or City Bridge Foundation ‘Access to Justice’ Programme.
The Systems Change Challenge Group convenes 12–18 people with a shared interest in exploring how they can embed systems change in their organisation. It is a community of interest for people facing similar challenges, working together to co-create practical responses, share learning and make progress in their own organisations.
You will work alongside others facing similar decisions, bringing your own experience and learning from theirs. Through peer challenge, practical tools and facilitated discussion, you will test your thinking and develop realistic plans for a new service or the next stage of an existing one.
When the same problem keeps coming up in casework, advice organisations are often well placed to see what is going wrong. Turning that insight into change takes judgement. Which problems can we realistically influence? Whose experience and evidence do we need? What can we do with the time and resources we have?
Over six months, this group will bring together 6–10 leaders from legal advice organisations to explore those questions. We’ll draw on what participants have tried, including what worked, what got in the way and what they would do differently.
Who is it for?
The group is for people in leadership roles in legal advice organisations who have been directly involved in trying to achieve wider change. Your experience might include using evidence from casework to challenge a recurring practice, working with communities to influence a decision, bringing a strategic legal challenge or contributing to policy or campaigning work.
You don’t need a systems change job title. You’ll need a practical example you can share and a willingness to reflect on it with others. We want to bring together people from organisations of different sizes and with experience of different approaches.
We’ll ask you to take part in all six sessions, share examples from your work, offer constructive challenge and help shape the final guide. Between sessions, there may be some light preparation, such as reflecting on a case or speaking to a colleague. Together, we’ll develop a Practical Guide to Systems Change for Legal Advice Organisations. It will be designed for leaders and managers, including those in smaller organisations without dedicated policy or influencing staff.
This is a challenge group: the purpose is not to convince each other that our plans are good ideas, but to help each other work out what it would take to make them work.
The first session convenes on Thursday 21st Janurary 2027 online at 10am-12noon.
The group will set dates together and meet monthly over the next 6 months.