The review concluded that while the literature on the effectiveness of PLE is limited, it does give evidence that PLE is effective in developing people’s legal capabilities.

Conclusions and recommendations

Whilst it was growing, the literature on the effectiveness of PLE is limited. It provides strong evidence for the effectiveness of PLE in developing PLE participants’ knowledge and confidence. There is moderate evidence that PLE can impact decisions and actions, but it is not clear as to how this happens.

Where PLE has been effective, for example in family law interventions, it can reduce time and costs in court and reduce some emotional factors, e.g. conflict.

Short and targeted interventions generally are more effective than longer, more generic work.

When designing PLE, it is important to define outcomes and measure against them. Such work should combine qualitative and quantitative evidence. Evaluation should be co-designed, working with those for whom the intervention is set up.

Baseline and post-intervention data collection are key in establishing impact of interventions, and where possible should connect individual responses to enable comparison. Such testing and observation is preferred to using participant self-reporting.

Future research should look at developing control groups and longitudinal approaches. The effectiveness of the processes of PLE should be covered as well the outcomes.

Research should go beyond questions of individual capability to consider broader issues of access to justice and the rule of law.
 

Methodology

A search of sources was carried out. This was limited to English language materials from 2000-2020, primarily from the UK, using key legal and general databases and selected specialist sites. 

The results of the search were then screened to produce a set focused on effectiveness, which consisted of five articles.