So I, and my informants, were correct. It also explains the lack of fanfare regarding "procurement plans" in the post 2 down.

The Chief Exec says

"We have listened to recent comments made by providers and their representative bodies and, in view of the importance of securing more accessible and integrated client services in the future, we feel that it is only prudent to afford more time to providers to prepare properly for this tender."

Right.

This weeks song was also strangely prophetic.

Did our "first fix" with the kids for our one night of full on 4/5 piece electric performance. The stuff we are doing in not desperately difficult but I am always amazed how quickly they pick it up and we get to a good basis standard. We are closing with this and yes I do have a wha wha pedal and I intend to use it

Thanks to Rob in the comments for pointing out where the Civil Procurement plans (only some North West examples published to date) are housed. I had anticipated a little more of a fanfare and, given my slightly fractured week, had only been looking at the front pages for news and this page is somewhat round the back.

Will keep a closer eye on this page from now on.

Do not ask about my journey back from the deep south yesterday unless you particularly enjoy loud, sweary rants.

I am now off to do the CDS BVT webinar, some admin and tidy tomorrows session.

There is no further news on CLS procurement plans either BTW (as the kids say on the interwebs and such)

My current daily LSC site search is for the Civil Procurement Plans but again no luck today. This is more an irritant than anything at present, not least hindering 'phone advice to intrigued firms. (There will be some new applicants on the basis of the enquiries I have been dealing with).

Alongside this comes some gossip and rumour that the plans are to receive a similar hoof into the long grass that mainstream CDS BVT received - perhaps with the Family Advocacy Scheme getting the same treatment. If you are hearing the same let us know.

Right now I am off to get a plane to the deep south.

We are back up to full complement in the Middlesbrough office again and the half hour of indecision over sandwich orders, sandwich provider and sundries has returned. Our very own, daily, Procurement Round.

I sat next to a GP in the pub last night and so am fully qualified to say that JRS has been struck by swine flu - well it looks like Andy has gone down with it at least. We have quarantined him - not even text message contact allowed. I will handle his phone queries this week, except - I am training most of Wednesday and we have two webinars this week. During which I will be unavailable.

The Webinar sessions are;

"CDS BVT"

on Thursday - an emergency special and

"Business Planning - the basics"

in the usual Friday slot.

Same time same channel etc.

Not done anything by The Blue Nile for ages - I wanted to put "Headlights on the Parade" up but that is "embed disabled" so also form Hats her you go....

Changes, improvements in fact, to the CC Litigators Fee come into effect on August 3rd. The issue of breach hearings and certain post sentence hearings - for which some new fees will be payable is a welcome response to a live issue.

This article on BVTs includes the following bold prediction from friend-of-this-site Andrew Keogh:

"The pilots won’t happen. It's a monumental shift by the LSC, kicking everything into the long grass."

Let us hope that he is better at predictions than this shower.

You might get to find out the details of your local "Procurement Plan" this week or perhaps next. Why does this type of thing always make me nervous about the underlying veracity of the numbers.

I skimmed the Q & A document this afternoon and it has some interesting clarification as well as some less helpful sections. It will become an essential read in the 6 weeks from September 7th.

Picked up sufficient interest in a CDS BVT Webinar to schedule an extra one next Thursday - details:

Thursday 30th July 2009, 1pm

CDS BVT - the Consultation Response

The Commissions plans for Best Value Tendering of the CDS have now been published. Next week we are offering an additional session to provide an outline of the proposals and to suggest some preparatory steps firms, especially in the "pilot" areas can begin to take.

For most there is a welcome slowing down in the implementation timetable for this ill considered nonsense. For Manchester and Avon no such luck. This suggests no national "roll out" of BVT until 2013 following the "pilot" evaluation. As I have said before it is difficult to see how this can be called a pilot as it goes live with potentially significant reductions to the supplier base. The absolute minimum of 8 providers per scheme has been dropped, for a scheme variable alternative, so most "pilot" areas face a potential decimation in firms.

The bidding is to be the "declining clock" auction based on price competition for Duty slots. A threat of "fines" and a secondary scoring procedure for tied bids has been added to reduce the risk of suicide bids.

There is some minor tweaking elsewhere but that looks about it to me on a quick first read.

We might do an extra webinar next week if there is sufficient interest - let us know and I will get too it - after doing other pressing tasks and holiday relief.

Manchester and Bristol firms you know what you have to do!

We were expecting the Civil "Procurement Plans" today but got the CDS BVT consultation response instead.

Not sure when I will have a chance to read it - an "on-demand" webinar and a continuing PR appeal might slow me down tomorrow. I will however to post here when I can and I will either add in an extra webi or replace the one a week on Friday.

On a first scan it is not good news.

There has been quite a bit interest in the issue of Peer review and Quality Assurance in the letters page of the Gazette since the article we commented upon here.

(I am immersed in a PR appeal at the moment and have the distraction of a "formal review" of a PR related termination this morning. I have had a phone call about an alternative on-site visit into the bargain).

What strikes me about the LSC position - we are now commissioners not regulators - is the lack of public discussion there has been about this reversal. It is something we began commenting on with the change of name and the introduction of contracting in 2000. The process has certainly accelerated under the current leadership with any number of previous initiatives being dropped PR included - despite what the LSC reps say in the Gazette.

Now this is a decision with which I agree - PR is not a test of substantive legal quality but rather of certain (important) service standards which can be undertaken without the clunky and expensive PR infrastructure. As ever however these unceremonious tacks in LSC practice are never accompanied by any detailed public accounting.

My younger lad bought the album this is from last week and it is pretty good. Not sure quite who it reminds me of, I know its a bit like the Cranberries but there is something else there.

Long day out in-house training yesterday so missed the chance to blog about this.

As predicted there are to be changes to the Prison Law class of work which will include;

A portfolio based supervisor standard - with the usual 350-hour casework requirement

A move to standard fees - surprise, surprise

A tighter Sufficient Benefit Test

Will give it a more detailed read when time allows - CCLF webinar to do now!!

HAT TIP: Steve

The Young Legal Aid Lawyers group have drawn our attention to the launch, this afternoon, of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid.

Friend of this site Mr Rodney Warren will be giving evidence. I will not let my ever-present pessimism stop me from wishing it well - it is a necessary and valuable development.

We have had a very positive response to last weeks Civil Bid Round webinar. We have also been asked to re-run it for those who could not make it last Friday - if you are in this category please let us know so that we can plan a return date.

On the same subject comes this report from Citizens Advice suggesting that there continues to be a problem with the "supplier base" in advance of a measure which might result in further reduction in access.

This weeks Friday lunchtime course covers the Crown Court Litigators Fee.

Not much more to say about it than that - I hope it does what it says on the tin.

Here is a booking form.

2 items on my desk this morning, on top last weeks Gazette and underneath a red Per Review appeal file.

On the front page comes the anticipated retreat from Peer Review as the major "quality" assurance measure. Hence forth it will be used on a "risk based" and "random" basis. This of course requires you to continue to manage your files so as to ensure a Cat. 3 outcome should you be unlucky enough to get selected.

Meanwhile I have another firm to try and haul back out of the abyss a Cat 4 results creates. At least these will become less frequent however.

We saw these do an excellent acoustic set at Middlesbrough Music Live (drummer was revising for A levels -bless). This is their first single.

Apologies for the dearth of posting here this week. Neck problems Monday, training off-site yesterday, appeals, webinar preparation and more beside have just used up the available time.

Plus there hasn't been anything that earth shattering going on although I did spot something in the civil contract that is interesting but which I would rather not draw too much attention too in so public a space. (Give me a ring if you are intrigued).

Serviced car to go and collect now.

Song to follow.

Having broken off from some appeal representations on a couple of occasions this morning to answer queries regarding the Civil Bid round I thought it might be worth mentioning this Friday's webinar again. This is your first opportunity to get our take on the proposals in, hopefully, a highly concentrated and focussed format. Ring or e-mail to book - a booking form can be downloaded here.

As this is Steve's last day he gets to choose the Friday song - so here is a bit of Pete and Dud:

Tonight we will be going here to say tara and thanks to Steve who is leaving us after 6 years. I am sure that I can pass on your good wishes too and would join with me in making public our gratitude for all those years of sterling work.

All the best from all at JRS.

We are doing 4 more Friday webinar sessions in July starting with the introduction to the Civil Bid Round 2010 mentioned in the post below. The other 3 topics are

The Crown Court Litigators Fee

Back to Franchising?

and

Business Planning - The Basics

The descriptive flyer is here. If you are interested you can down load this booking form.

I have had a quick first read of the Civil procurement proposals and have decided two things;

1 - I will do a webinar session on them a week on Friday - I like the way this form of training can be so reactive.

2 - We will do a more thorough 3-hour session in early September - I appreciate that this will overlap with the 6-week bidding window but courses in school holidays never seem to work

I wont steal my own thunder by giving chapter and verse here (long posts are dull too) except to say that there are not any major surprises, save the one below. It is a bit disappointing from a trainers point of view however, that certain key elements, which are the integrated A and B areas, what are the local minimum NMS volumes etc., are not reproduced at this time.

This section did however stand out to me - did anyone have a discussion about this at their consultation events?

5.20. Where the total number of matter starts requested exceed the volume available for the procurement area, we propose that new matter starts will be allocated to providers following a ranking exercise using selection criteria. Providers would receive matter start allocations in order of ranking up to the point where the available new matter starts were used up. The remaining lower ranked applicants would have their bid rejected.