I remain physically hemmed in by archive boxes full of files and mentally by an array of supplier friction with the LSC which makes a Technicolor dream-coat look positively black and white.

Failed bid appeals
Low new matter starts commiserations
RMS visit outcomes
More bloody Peer Review appeals
Supplier Assurance
UPOA
more UPOA
even more UPOA
Costs appeals

We have today decided to move offices (within Queensway House) simply to have a bit more space!

UPDATE

Add in NAO assurance files

Immigration bid results are out and the pattern established in the MH round continues - fewer NMS being awarded than firms sought and also need. There do appear to be some erroneous outright refusals too - but the scoring and ranking competitive element has been applied.

There are some unhappy people out there.

More Peer Review horror and this time on a very tight deadline so my head is down again. See you soon!

Only 3 this month as I am on hols in the middle of the month.

Friday 2nd July

Family Private Law claims.

These have proved the most troublesome and contentious claims during the recent round of audits, assessments and visits. In the session we will cover all the key rules and guidance so that you can be confident that you are getting it right and so avoid any friction with the Commission.

Friday 23rd July

The New Criminal Contract

A chance to get up to dat with the changes to the contractual framework under which CDS work is conducted.

Friday 30th July

A Risk Management Plan

In this session we intend to combine all the advice - across contracts and franchise categories - we have given about being successful if subject to scrutiny by the LSC. The aim is to provide a checklist of quality control measures which should ensure you avoid making the main mistakes currently leading firms into difficulties with the Commission.

More of this for me this weekend - back Monday

Or I soon will be. The number of files to review pre and post RMA visits is increasing now on a daily basis. My small corner of the office is starting to look like an archive box replica of the Great Wall of China.

CDS firms please not that you have until 4pm today to respond to the latest set of Duty Scheme lists.

This week the webinar will take place on Thursday and not Friday lunchtime.

This concludes this months themed program which has been looking at managing risk in you relationship with the LSC. This has been inspired, if that is the word, by the flurry of recent audit and assessment activity undertaken by the Commission. This session rounds up and summarises our experience of the various "assurance" and financial stewardship initiatives and provides guidance on how to avoid falling out weigh your Relationship Manager.

This is my new ringtone, largely because the choice at iTunes is much more limited than it really should be!

Interesting set of events around the place yesterday mainly related to the RMA process (relationship manager assurance). This is going to form a major element of next Friday's webinar - concluding this months theme about managing the "risk" in your relationship with the LSC.

I am not sure if anyone at the LSC reads this site anymore but I will save the details, and my thoughts, for more private space - you can always ring but preferably not on a World Cup webinar Friday, in which two emergency events have also kicked off at the same time.

In a piece of good news TLS have knocked back the cap, at LA rates, on claims from Central Funds. If you suffered one of these you have 21-days to seek a redetermination.

This week has been dominated by 3 issues; the CDS contract endgame, Mental Health NMS allocations and the Relationship Manager (RM) Assurance process.

CDS firms should by now have confirmed their “Contract Liaison Manager” and, according to the latest LSC missive via the E-portal message board, can await final draft lists of Duty Scheme membership shortly. Our north east clients will surely be hoping to learn that they will not be required to deliver the Bedford scheme!

The MH NMS issue continues to rumble and I hear that the proposed meeting between the LSC and the MHLA has now been pulled – by the LSC. If anyone knows better please let us know – if true this does not bode well.

RMA visits are currently rife in the North of England –I am blogging from one right now and spent yesterday on-site preparing for one next week. Most worryingly we are increasingly advising about the outcomes. The latter seems to involve an almost obligatory “Contract Notice”, in essence a yellow card against future billing mistakes/disagreements. These cannot be immediately appealed, this right arises when a contract sanction based upon the CN is proposed, but obviously need resisting. DO ring us if you would like some help with that resistance.

The draft are Duty Lists causing a significant amount of difficulty. Some schemes have have completely disappeared whist a common error is for the LSC to only look at a single CDS 12 when multiples have been sent.

I cannot believe that this approach is any easier than collecting together a set of paper forms - the old approach certainly did not end up in this sort of mess.

As I said I would last week I have revisited the Mental Health IFA subsequent to the disappointingly low allocation of NMSs. My reading of S.10.23 is that there is not an appeal against these schedules. Let us hope that the MHLA can achieve some sense.

There seems to be chaos concerning the draft lists for the Duty Rotas - if you can even read them you might well have been left off. These are very much DRAFT lists and should be checked and the LSC informed of mistakes by 4pm on Thursday 17 June 2010.

Mental Health awards are being announced and the NMS awarded all seem to be way below those requested and to make the work viable. The MHLA are on the case and seeking an urgent meeting - I am sure that any further ammo would assist.

More on Monday when I hope to have a bit more time.

These were the shine out band at last weeks Middlesbrough Music Live.....

After 16 years with Orange we are moving to O2 today. Advanced apologies if there is a disruption to phone contact. I should now be able to receive calls from my home office so an improvement in my availability is on the way.

CDS firms you MUST reply to the LSC, via the E-Portal message board by Tuesday next regarding you "Contract Liaison Manager" and any other outstanding issues from your bid - supervisor forms etc.

This post from last week has a download that might help.

Friday's webinar is on File Review, and how to make it work for you - especially as you don't get paid for it anymore. Given all that is going on on the "assurance" front it will be worth tuning in. (More evidence of Relationship Manager contact again today).

Those who have booked for 25th June we are unfortunately having to change the date - my fault. Apologies and refunds for anyone who can't make the new date.

"The greatest Dobro player ever"

You may well, by now, have heard the shocking news that Cumbrian solicitor Kevin Commons was a victim in the appalling incident in that County yesterday.

JRS have a longstanding relationship with Kevin's firm and would like to use this space to express our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

"Kevin was a man committed to the service of the local community here in west Cumbria and beyond, and his passing will leave a massive void in the legal community in particular as well as the local area in which he had made his home for many years."

Tim Frost, KJ Commons & Co. Solicitors

“Kevin cared deeply about the job he did and felt it was a privilege to be a solicitor. If anybody came through the door to ask for help, he’d help them, irrespective of whether they could pay. Nobody was ever turned away, and that was the principle on which he started the practice in 1986. If somebody needed help, he was your man.”

Markus Nickson, KJ Commons & Co. Solicitors

On a day when we have Jayne away from the office and everyone else engaged in urgent work every CDS firm in the country seems to have received the same lazy e-mail from theLSC. This, if you have not seen it, asks for information which has largely already been provided (or should have been asked for as part of the tender process). It also fails to distinguish between those firms who "committed to provide" further information and those who gave full, original disclosure.

Unsurprisingly our lines of communication are swamped.

Here is a simple pro-forma response which you can complete and attach to a message in the e-portal.

You have until 15th June.

Any problems please can you hold your calls until next week? (Monday and Friday only).

With a Peer Review appeal lodged yesterday, another on the runway, a third in a box by my desk and a set outstanding representations now way "out of time" for their consideration - it has been something of a PR morning.

I am now off to deliver and "Update on Legal Aid" training session, which should be cheery in current circumstances!

By Friday I might have caught myself up which is vital as both Andy and I will be away between Tuesday and Thursday next week.

Last week ended up being the most depressing and disturbing in our recent history. This was not improved by an over 5-hour return journey at the start of a Bank Holiday.

Obviously I cannot go into too much detail but we now have a significant appeal on our hands to safeguard a firm's mainstream contract. One thing is for sure nobody, however secure they feel about their relationship with the Commission, is safe under the new "audit" regime.

There is another message too:

Don't ring us part way through an audit
Don't ring us when you get an audit notification
Ring us now.