The PSA is assisting members who are staff of the Client Assessment and Referral Section (CARS) and the future of their roles. Over the years CARS has assisted with reports to help at sentencing.

The PSA is concerned that these roles will be changed to take a focus off the reports and concentrate solely on casework/case management instead.

The PSA has written to the CEO to express our concerns, and the concerns of many solicitors who have already provided submissions of support, and ask that further consultation be held around this apparent decision.

The PSA has developed the following short survey for members to have their say.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LegalAidCARS

The views obtained from the survey above will help the PSA advocate on behalf of CARS and hopefully maintain the report writing service currently available in-house.