Background
As members are aware considerable the funding reductions imposed by both state and federal governments have led to a Legal Aid to restructure. While precise figures have not been provided by Legal Aid NSW, amounts of between five and six million dollars have been discussed.
The Client Services Division was one of the first areas to be restructured. The PSA was advised that the proposal involved the following changes:
- Proposed Content, Education and Engagement (CEE) Function
- Proposed staffing changes
- Changes to Business Partner roles
- Other impacts on roles
Consultation period
- Consultation period: four weeks
- Consultation closed: 16 September 2026
Members can review the previous bulletin HERE
Update
The PSA commenced consultation with members. Member meetings were held and the PSA invited members to make submissions which it would co-ordinate and provide to Legal Aid.
The volume of submissions was high. The submissions the PSA received from members was of an incredibly impressive standard. Some submissions were provided by individual members, others were a collective contribution worked on by multiple members.
All up, members provided submissions of a calibre rarely seen by the PSA in a consultation process.
After careful consideration of the feedback received, the PSA made the following general submissions to Legal Aid for consideration.
- The timing of announcements to staff are causing distress. The main announcement is being made the day after a public holiday. While the PSA accepts that this is a working day, the consensus is that this announcement should be made either Wednesday or Thursday.
- There is a consensus Legal Aid has an insensitive approach for conveying career outcomes “If there are changes to the proposal that impact you in a different way to what you were originally told, you will be advised of this directly in an individual meeting prior to the group briefing.”
A better approach would be for all staff whose positions are being deleted are provided direct advice. This could occur on Tuesday/Wednesday following the long weekend if the general announcement day was shifted.
- Job losses should be minimised.
- Opportunities for direct employment should be maximised (for example, appointing from talent pools) in line with the GSEs provisions.
- Workplace psychosocial hazards should be minimised. It is noted that some feedback includes expressions relating to emotions the process has had on employees/members.
- Support appears to have been less than ideal and some feedback expresses that the employee feels isolated or uniformed. There is also feedback about failure to appropriately support impacted staff.
- Feedback around management of workload once the restructure occurs is concerning. The PSA seeks an understanding of what risk mitigation strategies Legal Aid have identified to ensure:
- Work overload is reduced
- Burnout due to increased workloads
- Quarantining of front-line staff from hostility/negativity resulting from customers/clients who may no longer be eligible for Legal Aid support.
- Our members are concerned about maintaining Legal Aid’s good reputation in the community given serious job losses are occurring along with a massive reduction in programs and support for the NSW community (based on monumental funding cuts)
- Members are concerned about managing organisational risk in the provision of accurate and current legal resources given some functions which had dedicated staff no longer present post-restructure. The PSA agrees with the general feedback received raising concerns about the reduction of service quality, accessibility/availability, and program delivery into the community.
- There is a general view, gained by way of meetings, emails and other feedback that Legal Aid’s decisions around the restructure (to varying degrees) abandons the most legally vulnerable citizens of NSW. This is also underpinned by the funding reductions.
This could result in an increase in difficult client interactions for officers of Legal Aid across the breadth of CEE functions.
Members can review the full collated submission HERE.
The PSA wishes to thank:
- All members who provided feedback.
- Local co-ordinators of the group submissions.
- And Sally Deans as the local point of contact and liaising with PSA industrial staff.
What’s next?
Legal Aid advised staff of the final structure in an announcement on 6 October 2026. Recruitment into the new structure will progress as detailed in the change management plan.
Since the announcement, individual members have progressively contacted the union for guidance and support as needed.
If you are a PSA member and require additional advice, your PSA contacts are: