Published in April 2017 Legal Action - see www.lag.org.uk
12
Opinion and analysis
LegalAction April 2017
Vicky Ling
Submitting bids for the
2018 civil contracts
It’s time to think about
your organisation’s bid for
the 2018 civil and family
legal aid contracts.
T
he tender process for civil and
family legal aid contracts starting
in April 2018 was, at the time of writing,
due to begin next month, May 2017 (‘Civil
news: our approach to civil legal aid work
from 2018’, Legal Aid Agency (LAA) news
release, 20 January 2017, updated by a further
announcement on 17 March 2017).1
All organisations wanting to do legal aid
work from April 2018 will need to submit bids,
whether they currently hold a contract or want
to start delivering legal aid services for the first
time.
Timetable
• Selection questionnaire (SQ) and invitations
to tender (ITTs) open: May 2017.
• Verification process: January–March 2018.
• Contract starts: 1 April 2018.
If you are thinking of starting a new
practice at the same time as a new legal aid
contract, you will be able to do so, but factor
in time for authorisation by your chosen
professional regulator (Solicitors Regulation
Authority or Bar Standards Board). You will also
need to prepare documentation and apply for
the Specialist Quality Mark (you can only apply
for Lexcel if your practice has been operating
Lexcel procedures for at least three months).
Process
The LAA will operate a one-stage process.
It stresses that the tender will simply test
organisations’ ability to meet minimum tender
AprilLA_12_Ling.indd 12
requirements and all organisations that can
do so will be awarded contracts (except for
Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes
(HPCDS) and telephone contracts). However,
organisations seeking higher numbers of
matter starts may need advanced panel
accreditation, so if you are a volume provider,
or want to scale up, you should start thinking
about this now. Family practitioners will be
able to apply for licensed work-only contracts
if they wish.
Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes
The government has recently ended its
consultation on whether to increase the size
of the schemes. The LAA is considering an
element of price competition in relation to
HPCDS work, although it is difficult to see
how economies of scale could be achieved
by simply grouping courts over wider
geographical areas.
More flexibility
Tips for successful bids
The LAA says that the new contracts are likely
to be more flexible in a number of ways:
• allowing remote working arrangements such
as delivery of advice by email, telephone or
video conferencing where appropriate;
• the ability to self-grant up to an additional
50 per cent of matter starts over those
awarded;
• the ability to reallocate up to 50 per cent
of matter starts between your own offices
(subject to LAA consent); and
• all organisations will receive five
miscellaneous matter starts in addition to
their category-specific matter starts.
• Create a bid team of at least two people.
• Go through the Information for Applicants
and work out what information you may
need to gather before completing the
response on the Bravo portal.2 In larger
organisations, you may need to involve
several people/departments.
• Submit questions on any point where you
are not clear about what the LAA wants.
• Check the FAQs (and answers) as they will
often deal with a point that concerns you.
• Get someone who is not in the bid team
to read the tender and your proposed
responses – they are more likely to see any
errors and raise potential queries.
• Get someone to sit with you when you
submit your response via the portal and
carefully go through every answer together.
• Submit your response after the final FAQs
have been published but comfortably before
the closing date and time.
Likely changes you may need to plan for
• Stricter definition of ‘employ’ in relation to
supervisors.
• Changes to the mental health supervisor
standard.
• Limits to representation by counsel/agents in
mental health.
• New mental health capacity (welfare)
accreditation will become mandatory for
that work when appropriate.
• The immigration and asylum contract will
reflect changes to the Immigration and
Asylum Accreditation Scheme.
• Immigration and asylum bidders in
higher lot sizes will also be able to bid for
immigration removal centre work.
1 Headline intentions documents are available at: www.
gov.uk/government/publications/civil-2018-contractstender
2https://legalaid.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.shtml
Vicky Ling is a consultant specialising in legal aid practice
and a founder member of the Law Consultancy Network.
[email protected]
24/03/2017 11:47