Yesterday was, and today is fast becoming, one of those where it is meeting followed by the constant fielding of phone and e-mail questions (I try with the latter but am really struggling right now so an attempted call is usually the best option).

The Mental Health deadline now approaches and is consequently the focus today – I DO NOT want to be advising on “publication” at all tomorrow.

Plus now almost all of the CDS Notifications are out – I opened one on-site when with a NE client yesterday and what a nerve wracking experience that was. Initial results are very good – some even more than anticipated though there are now a couple of appeals potentially on the go too. One client even got the notification for a similarly named firm in an entirely different part of the country, fortunately both were successful.

All of this has now given us a much greater insight into the process, especially what special pleadings, to otherwise “fail” answers, seem acceptable.

We like you are in eager, and nervous, anticipation of the announcement of CDS Contract bids, supposedly today. We do not yet know the answer to the question, posed by crimsol in the comments below - how and when will you be notified?

When we do we will update this post, in the meantime fingers crossed.

UPDATE

Friend of this Site, the esteemed Mr R Warren, tells us that you can anticipate an e-mail from Bravo inviting you to view your result on the "messages" function on the "e-portal". They intend to "begin" this process today so it seems by no means certain that you will get your result this Friday. Therefore DO NOT panic, and assume, the worst if this transpires.

Yesterdays update to the Family/SWL Q&A did not have the answers we are awaiting on some of the issues discussed below or another one dealing with Children Only contracts. (There is one answer about this which is particularly unhelpful).

A number of our clients are considering “protective” bids for these non-competitive contracts especially where they are scoring low in tough Procurement Areas. We will of course share any answers with you before the drawbridge is raised next month.

Ring, please don’t e-mail, if you want our thoughts about this.

There was plenty of e-mail traffic from Bravo yesterday over and above that mentioned in the post below. The CDS TIF forms seemed to be causing problems especially regarding postcodes (the PC Tool was never properly set up as we have commented previously). Allowing busy criminal lawyers less than a working day to deal with often complicated questions, 48-hours before decisions are to be announced, strikes me as ludicrous. (Apparently you could not get through to anyone either for a good part of the day because they were in a meeting). It may well strengthen the hand of any resultant appeals though.

The other topic of the moment are the tactical choices faced in Family bidding against the 9 “selection criteria”. These are particularly troublesome for multi office firms. There is also a growing realisation that the process looks likely to lead to a more significant depletion of the family supplier base than that indicated during the consultation process. This will be an issue that will run and run, post bid round, I guess.

CDS, PQQ questions and clarifications seem to be hitting firms at the moment all, seemingly, with a 5pm deadline today. You receive these by e-mail notification and then have to respond using the messaging function in the e-portal.

Please check your e-mail – especially if you had to avail yourself of the text boxes in response to any of the questions.

Here we go again. More "consultation“ on the structure of the CDS - and with it the accompanying panic this creates amongst Criminal Practitioners. It is the obvious headlines - only 8-10 contracts per CJA - which fan such fears however there is nothing here that has not been part of post Carter discussions and they are no closer to a workable mechanism for achieving this than ever before. It is however commendably brief should you wish to read it.

I remain as unconvinced about all of this as even plus we are now in new political territory given the forthcoming General Election. Now, I think, is not the time to panic.

Title theme music.

If you are still struggling with the e-portal and your bid preparation Fridays Webinar may well be just what you are looking for.

We aim to provide an online tour through the bidding software and to offer a surgery for questions about the process including maximising your selection criteria score and bidding tactics.

We are still checking bids and if you want the JRS team to runt our eyes over yours please contact Jayne at Middlesbrough asap.

I would have to put up a fight to get this off the communal HiFi in the kitchen at the moment. I have no inclination to do so however.

Another week has slipped by without us really noticing - and posting here being a little light.

I am beginning to get the feel that Family bidding is going to deliver some unpleasant outcomes in certain areas and that if the LSC imagined subtlety of approaches being adopted they were wrong. I also have a feeling that SWL is going to be a disaster - but perhaps fewer or no suppliers doing less work is what they really want - in direct contradiction to the PR angle of recent years "more individual acts of advice and assistance" being delivered.

Currently the Civil rounds are much less frantic than Crime though with an elongated window this is pretty much to be expected. They are however much more fussy than CDS and the competitive bit makes it all the more nerve-wracking.

I get to go to the office on Monday.

I have a replacement mobile and will soon, after a 2pm, Webinar on demand, be able to take calls again. If you text can you tell me who you are as I have lost all my contacts!

Low volume tenders now out.

With almost perfect symmetry they close on 4th May and I fly to sunnier climes on the 9th - no that is a diary date.

Managed to lose most of yesterday - including a post here. Having lost my mobile (for the first time ever) over the weekend there was not the constant demand for my attention and with tonsillitis in the house I had to do some ferrying of a poorly person about.

I also think I am a bit out of gas after last week - so didn't really get stuck into much, just did a bit of tidying up.

Replacement mobile will arrive shortly, though having had a couple of days without it, I am starting to feel deeply ambivalent about its return.

The main office line is warming up again though and once again our available slots are filling up quite quickly. Next break 31st March.

Will 15.27 be that latest I talk a firm through the “publication” process?

Hums Countdown music in French and Saunders style.

UPDATE

It was – well that’s that then – until 31st March

We tried for a topical choice and only came up with "Push the Button", "Friday Im in Love" (which we have done before) and on a more sombre note "My Way". So thought against that approach.

Alternatively, and without doubt, the music which will most remind me of all the miles I have put in the car, listening to CDs when the radio won't play or is boring, during this bid round will be Belle & Sebastian. (It will remind me fo the Tyne tunnel in particular as the radio always has to go off in there). So here is another of theirs from the Mercury nominated 2005 Dear Catastrophe Waitress.

If you DO NOT get a confirmatory e-mail concerning the publication of either your PQQ or your ITT (especially the former) could you please let me know.

Have heard some outrageous stories about the consultancy charges some of our rival have been levying for assistance with bidding - in one case more than 3 times - either that or we are undercharging!

We will not however be raising our fees for the Civil round, which we can now get our teeth into (though I have one less of those following an emergency extraction last night). If you want some help with Mental Health, Family or SWL, give us a ring, our order book is once again open.

On second thought though CDS bidding has resulted in addittional costs, which any commercially astute business would seek to pass onto its clients, such as;

Our copier/fax machine (even though this has nothing to do with bidding but everything to do with costs drafting)

Over £100 of parking tickets (1 due to bravo solutions software, the other due to me being distracted by a phone call whilst buying a pay display ticket and forgetting to have it print)

Increased comfort eating and drinking

Possible new tyre on Jayne's car

A tooth extraction @£16 - which is also clearly the fault of the LSC

Probable trip to the vets with possibly 2 poorly dogs

Think we will get away with it?

If you are a couple of rounds into a drink, in the last chance saloon, using the free WiFi and your laptop to complete a CDS Procurement Bid please remember; it is time gentlemen please at 4pm tomorrow.

If I hear the words "just one more thing" again today I will scream.

Everything changes - as the Arctic Monkeys told us .

In our current world it means that the phone stops ringing off the cradle and we can get some "physical" work done on virtual bids. If we sound brusk and impatient on the phones at present please accept our apologies - we are just trying to get through as many as we can in the quickest possible time.

The old Marton Office is once again a hub of post sundown activity with the, now close to being pensioned off, original, dome based, iMac providing the soundtrack.

I have recently listened to

Lots of Miles Davis (esp Doo-Bop)
Lots of Belle & Sebastian (esp Life's Pursuit)
Weller - just loads of the rarity stuff
Corrine - because she is back
Plus a couple of long spells of "shuffle"

Just put on an Alan Jackson LP called "like red on a rose" which I chanced across on Bob Harris Country ages ago. It was produced by Alison Krauss and is wonderful. I got it for a pittance on i Tunes but it is now a tenner - worth it for late night workers.

Stick with us normal service will begin on Monday.

We are getting close to the closure of the Crime bid window. You do not want to get your head stuck, in a large sash window, silent movie style scene.

You MUST "publish" both the PQQ and the ITT, the latter of which must contain a TIF and should have attached a supervisor checklist (although if you are committing to have a supervisor by June 15th this is not strictly necessary).

When you have done this check that both have the title of this post in the "response status" column at MY PQQs and MY ITTs.

Head stuffed down the e-portal, someone constantly flushing the chain, no time to blog. No time to answer e-mail enquiries but you can try the lottery that is the phone if you like.

It wont be "thank Crunchie its Friday" I say at 4pm in 4 days time

Best version I could find in a hurry - apposite!

You will have guessed that I have little time to blog – made worse by another WiFi disaster tonight – this time at my hotel. A Webinar attendee suggests a Tips post however this would be impossible for us to do right now – simply where to start being another stumbling block. So here I shamelessly post his first suggestions (I will name and thank him if he agrees to going public). Please add in the comments box.

Once registered -

*Place the link on your desktop so that you do not have to continue to navigate to the submissions page

*That you need to go to the general PQQ link first and once you have indicated that you wish to show interest then the system will have automatically created your own PQQ ( or ITT) and therefore the next time you enter the system you go to Mr own PQQ or ITT link.

* Remind people that they can print of the PQQ and ITT Application form before filling anything in - so as to peruse it first. (But not after clicking on [response])

* That when you start to complete the information you will need to scroll down a couple of pages before you get the first line of input

* When you start to complete the data remember to constantly save the information ( in case the system times you out) and that the Save button is on the last page of the input form ( Control End) - which is a bit of a pain

* Once saved the system takes you right back up to the top of the application form, and not the last point that you inputted data - real pain again.

Oh no it isn't. Inappropriately named Bravo Solutions cost me £50 today as their crap, clunky software made me run out of parking cover. Will this procurement round never be over?

And in the middle of all this chaos;

A New Vision for Legal AId Delivery

God knows what, "In The Thick of It" style, machinations took place but what a time to make the announcement and (force?) the Chief Exec to resign.

Back to ITTs for me.

HAT TIP

Nigel

You should be checking the Q&A documents as they expand and mutate. Question 12, or rather the answer, is important. Bids need to be sent from a login in a Partner's (or member of "key personnel in e-portalese) name.

You would not find out from the LSC website, rather from an advert in the Gazette, that tendering in "low volume" categories - Clinical Negligence, Actions against the Police etc. will open after Crime on March 12th.

That aside, no time to stop.