The Family and SWL tendering round has opened, unfortunately not at 4pm when I was with clients eager to get all their bids finalised in one session.

There is now a bewildering array of ITTs (some 120 or more) for all the differing Procurement Areas. The key element is the Tender Information Form which contains all the essential supervisory requirements and also the scoring questions. Also there is NOT, as predicted on the basis of the Immigration round, a "commercial response" section of the ITT. So there is only the technical ITT response to complete and upload to.

This will be the focus of the next Webinar on 12th March, so civil firms wanting a shove in the right direction this is the course for you.

Steve asks essentially this question in the comments below which received the following response in the Mental Health Q&A;

100.1 On the ITT form at section 11, question 4 refers to organisations with limited liability, however there appears to be no appropriate response where an organisation is neither a charity or has limited liability (eg sole practitioner or partnership). Please advise.

Unfortunately, the answer to this question should have also made reference to organisations without limited liability (in addition to charities). Rather than making a change to the ITTs, organisations that do not have limited liability should select the answer option ‘No –registered charity’.

This is of course a cruelly ironic statement about the nature of much Legal Aid work.

I am trying to make up for the time lost on Monday due very-poor-indeed East Coast Railways (or whatever they are called). It is marginally better today, random WiFi access every once in a while, but not when you need it. I am currently in a fallow period and trying to get an answer to the question multiple callers are asking regarding some further contract documentation sent out by the LSC today.

Will add more if and when we get an answer.

And tonight, after some Tapas at Brindisa, Mrs SP and I are off to see Corrine BR at the Shepherds Bush Empire;

As you will guess we are very busy. For significant parts of each day, we are now on divert to Jayne, or the Costs Drafting team, in Middelsbrough. They will try and assist as much as is possible. Andy and I will however get back to you as soon as we can and the FREE advice lines are still in operation. Please just bear with us.

One final point a call to Steve's old number will be a wasted one as it is presently, for reasons I won't go into, not on divert.

I checked a bid yesterday where a regular mistake was made in the form of a "YES" answer to the ITT question -

"Have you had a confirmed Peer Review rating of 4 or 5 in the Mental Health Category of Law since 10 February 2007?"

The correct answer is "NO" – unless you have failed of course. (The same question turns up in all the ITTs)

We are also still getting calls from firms needing to confirm that they have to bid, still thinking the cancellation of the BVT exercise had stopped the process.

Be careful out there.

Then don't miss Friday's webinar!

I am not sure that this guidance will be much news to anybody and there is some with which I disagree (mandatory DSCC numbers on files). It is however worth a quick once over.

There is so much to say about this story but so little time right now. It has long been my formed view that quite often the Criminal sole practitioner is just as “efficient” and/or innovative as the large CDS firm. In fact some larger firms are amongst the most inefficient we have experienced. Hey ho on with procurement.

The fantastically poor East Coast Mainline has failed again – no WiFi so I am unable to do the half dozen on-line tasks I planned to do this morning (which freed me up to get frozen on the beach with the dogs yesterday afternoon).

I am on my way to that London for 3 days of Procurement fun and a Wednesday night trip to Shepherds Bush Empire to see the return of Corrine Bailey Rae. More hotel blogging to follow.

Not common I know but we live in unusual times.

The CDS Q & A document is, and will become, essential reading. Please note Q. 12 make sure you have a Partner/Director with user logon details for final publication.

The Tender Information Form V.3 does not incorporate the functions of the Post Code Tool i.e. it does not restrict your application to those schemes on which you can have membership.

The Post Code tool has reappeared here in the main LSC website. Presumably you have to use that first and then select the allowable schemes in the all UK list at stage 2 of the TIF.

The, obviously sensible, attempt to incorporate these functions has clearly failed. Why not just tell us that collectively or at least answer individual questions?

UPDATE

My individual question has now been answered and the above is correct. Cross reference your TIF satge 2 response with the Post Code tool. Not clear what happens if you bid for a scheme you are not entitled to though.

The Private Sector Applicant Information Form (PSAIF) is an element of the Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ). This is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet seeking financial disclosure and equal opportunities profiles which you are "required" to upload to your final bid. During the Immigration bid window the LSC refused to clarify if this was mandatory, and continue to do so publicly. They eventually fudged the issue by saying that the spreadsheet was corrupt and that the information could be provided later.

Long-standing friend of this site, and CLSA Director, Rodney Warren has similarly raised the issue he has recently commented as follows:

The LSC has been very clear that the financial information is not compulsory. They have repeatedly stated so at CCCG meetings and confirmed as much to me on the phone on Tuesday.

They say they are likely to seek the information before contract starts if not provided now and point to the contract terms which allow them to see financial information.

Some definitive clarification from the LSC would of course be ideal.

My trans-pennine trip has had to be aborted due to the closure of the M62, snow and ice. So after a very early start (for me) I am back in my civies at my home office. I will now try to do the days work on-line instead. This seems like an appropriate song in the circumstances;

Version 3 of the CDS Tender Information Form might be broken as well. It seems to allow you to bid in every Duty Scheme in the UK at "Stage 2".

Is V.4 on its way soon?

The "e-portal" (Malcolm Tucker trans. 'e-S*!thole morelike') opened on Monday at 4pm.

Off we went, Andy and I, neither of us with a spare half hour of business time available before the portal closes, to assist our clients. Returning from such a visit I listened to left-field, whimsical, popsters Belle and Sebastian to calm my anger on being told that today's, and all previously completed CDS bids would have to be done again on V.2 of the TIF and SACL forms (see comments below).

I now discover that we are onto Version 3 of the TIF, all this within a mere 48 hours.

What should we do? Wait until they finally get it right, with a - "no, absolutely, completely certainly, can't possibly go wrong this time, 100% correct, Version 7.23", or should we carry on completing this entirely-pointless-in-every-conceivable-manner exercise? As you can tell the effects of the Scottish songsters has now worn off.

My mood is worsened by the fact that my new, essential, "WinTel" combine PC Laptop, running "state of the art" Windows 7, will not down load the Webinar software that we have happily run, without bother, on this beautiful Macbook Pro, for nearly a year, with another hour wasted on this episode. (Oh and to cap it all two deadlined appeals came in today which I currently think this is a deliberate ploy on the part of the LSC)

Andy and I have just exchanged "told you sos". I can't tell you what he was right and I was wrong about except to say I am a daft and over-trusting idiot. He on the other-hand, admittedly with extenuating circumstances, actually "published" a finished bid yesterday afternoon.

Lessons for today - don't be an over trusting idiot and don't publish your bids until much closer to the deadline.

An early morning phone call reminds me there are still those who think that the cancellation of the BVT pilots means there is nothing for CDS suppliers to do in advance of July.

For the avoidance of doubt;

The 2010 Standard Contract Tender is now OPEN.

Every renewal we encounter firms who misunderstand and consequently miss the absolute deadlines - 4pm 12th March in this case. Do not be one of them.

A month of madness has begun. General tasks, follow-up work, preparation, management and posting here are all banished to early mornings and evenings. All our days, up to the close of the Crime bid window, are now full, and that with the window only a few hours open.

We do have space for a small amount of at-a-distance interactive support and/or some final checking and have just made an executive decision to be available throughout the weekend of 6 & 7th March.

If you would like to book a slot please ring Jayne.

As I said last week Gil Scott-Heron's new album, "I'm New Here", is out now. It is a fantastic piece of work. I have never been any good as an amateur music critic but it as powerful as any of his previous work whilst being musically more radical (or at least contemporary). For those who know him, and perhaps more importantly his recent story, it is also incredibly moving. We have tickets to see him in April too, cannot wait. Enjoy is the wrong word, so here is the "single";

Here is a useful Practice Note from TLS concerning 2010 Civil Contract and especially, in Section 3.1 the pending definitions for supervisory status. These are released before their appearance on the LSC site.

This will be of particular interest to family firms.

Mental Health bidding is now live and open on the "e-portal". It also looks as thought there is now a single, generic, Civil and Crime PQQ which you can access and begin to complete (we advise against "publishing" this until closer to the deadline).

The MH ITT, including the Tender Information Form are also available for MH providers.

My nation-wide touring to provide face-to-face assistance begins in an hours time and I will out of the office solid for a month (bar one webinar on this topic on 26th Feb). I will be available on the phone however on my handset free.

Will try and keep something going here as regularly as possible.

Most all of the Family and SWL Procurement Plans are now back up, available and showing a 10%ish reduction in "over fished" areas. Can't find Notts however, perhaps they will not have to bid after all.

Nowt on the e-portal to play with, no live PPQs or ITTs, but there should be tomorrow when Mental Health gets going. So don't panic if you can't have an experiment today.

Ears beginning to hurt from phone calls though.

And finally; off to the Sage for another top night out.

SP

"I will need access to an Internet ready PC with Microsoft Excel installed or alternatively WiFi access - do you have that?"

Client

"We don't even heating in this office so no chance of WiFi"

We are not surprisingly very focussed on the forthcoming CDS and Civil procurement rounds right now. This is reflected in the training we will be undertaking in the next month, all of which will be directly aimed as helping firms make successful bids.

We have two forthcoming face-to-face sessions on the CDS process

Newcastle/Gateshead 16th February

Leeds/Bradford 18th February

(Those who missed the Civil version of this course might still find this of some use).

We also have two web based "surgeries" dealing with both Civil and CDS taking place in February - the first this Friday 12th, the second on the 26th. These will have up to date content on the live bid rounds plus an extended opportunity to ask questions.

For more information or to place a booking give us a ring.

Strange not doing a webinar today, so I have chance to do a bumper Friday Song post with loads of extra links and stuff.

Am off to see Nanci Griffith (again) on Monday. Despite her recorded output being a bit lacklustre of late she is usually very good live and we are hoping for some of the classics like this;

We are also going to see Mariza the day after and are up in Newcastle on Friday for an SP junior stand-up performance as well. Sadly we missed out on tickets for Stornoway and Beth Jeans Houghton also at the Sage on Sunday. Talk about Tyneside busses!

New Gill Scot Heron album next week too - guess who's Friday Song artist next week?

Preview here.

Sorry should have conveyed this much earlier in the week - and saved us all a lot of phone related hassle. Today's PPQ deadline is for Immigration Removal Centres ONLY.

So calm down and relax.

Here we go again more Legal Aid related JR activity.

Hat Tip

Tim @ No 6

Here are 6 million pounds worth of Legal Aid savings.

Not likely to result in loads of NMSs in my estimation. (I am always a little suspicious of "crack downs on fraud")

The key proposal - a 14 day representations period - for the other side to grass up the ineligible looks like becoming fun.

The MoJ releasing this sort of stuff over the heads of the LSC continues mind.

Well that's all my appointments for the Crime bid window all but filled up, with only 1, half-day left and only 2 short visits to the office available. For the first time in years I will be on the road for basically a month solid. This is certainly the cue for loads of deadlined appeals to drop on my desk - or rather arrive in boxes at my home address to be completed during the ad break in TV Burp.

Keeping this place up to date might prove somewhat demanding - the pressure being exerted to go onto twitter is mounting. I really do think I am too much of a GOM to do that though. (Any thoughts would be welcome).

Fortunately the Civil windows are a bit bigger so there will be a bit of respite after March 12th.

Revised procurement plans are trickling through. There are not any up yet for areas where I saved the first edition. I have however had a look at Walsall and spoken to a resident there - my guess is that the new Family NMS procurement target is now 10% lower than originally set and, consequently, what was actually delivered in 2008/9.

In other news we continue to hear from clients at the end of this years NMS allocation and still being refused increases - this despite the raids on under utilising firms. The formal review process should also allow the LSC to run down the clock until there is no realistic prospect of a legal challenge.

Bleak at the moment then and possibly bleak from October - except for firms doing their own advocacy under the Family Advocacy Scheme.

The LSC have outlined (and it is a bit of a thin outline) their reinterpretation of Rule 2.5 - proof of means on Legal Help. We are currently involved in a couple of appeals which test this reading of contract. What is sure is that the are taking a fairly draconian line.

It does however yet again make clear the need to obtain appropriate proof at the outset of all controlled work - be warned they are looking at this.

With the major category procurement rounds taking place this month we are consequently immensely busy.

We have therefore decided to prune the Webinar programme down to two "Procurement Update" sessions on Friday 12th and 26th. These will involve up-to-date information on the projects and an extended opportunity to ask questions and resolve issues with your bids.

As ever there is a £60 fee or you can do both for £100.

I read this to mean cuts in Family NMS in certain areas. I don't have any of the new Procurement Plans yet so I can't do a comparison for confirmation.

You will, as anticipated, get an interim allocation of starts for April to October based on "current usage rates".