Civil Legal Aid Tender 2017

Transcription

1 Civil Legal Aid Tender 2017 Richard Miller Head of Legal Aid Law Society David Gilmore DG Legal What we will cover Overview and structure of the tender Timetable Key tender requirements Contract terms Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme Details of tender process Verification 1

2 Overview and Structure of the tender What are you bidding for? Contracts available: Face to face contracts in all categories of civil legal aid Community Legal Advice telephone service contracts Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme contracts Contracts for three years, extendable by the LAA for up to two further years Bids within procurement areas In face to face tender Matter starts still exist, but with fewer restrictions System of bidding for lots for face to face contracts Face to face contracts will start on 1 st September 2018 HPCDS contracts start on 1 st October

3 Tender Process Tender through Bravo as before Selection Questionnaire(formerly Pre-Qualification Questionnaire) Invitation to Tender Face to face and CLA tenders are open HPCDS ITT will be slightly later FAQ process The face to face process is not competitive The CLA and HPCDS processes will be competed on quality and price Timetable 3

4 Timetable 1 SQ for all contracts and the ITT for face to face contracts opened: 19 September 2017 ITT for CLA contracts: 26 September 2017 Deadline for questions: on 19 October 2017 ITT for HPCDS: October 2017 Final FAQs to be published: w/c 30 October 2017 Face to face tender closes: on 10 November 2017 Timetable 2 Notification of rejection based on SQ responses: January 2018 Notification of awards for housing/debt/welfare benefits expected: January 2018 Notification of awards for all other categories expected: March 2018 Verification deadline: CLA contracts on 10 June 2018 HPCDS contracts on 8 July 2018 Face to Face contracts on 20 July 2018 Face to face contracts start 1 September 2018 HPCDS contracts start on 1 st October

5 Key Tender Requirements Tender Requirements A completed tender will include: A response to the Selection Questionnaire A response to one or more ITT A response to a face to face ITT may cover one or more procurement area, and one or more offices The term Individual Bid is used to describe each bid for a category for an office A completed tender may also include A delivery plan business case for compensation claims for the victims of human trafficking/modern slavery An additional office form 5

6 Organisation Requirements You can only bid as a single legal entity You must bid as the entity that will hold the contract You must have either Lexcel or the SQM It must be in place by the verification deadline and valid until after the contract start date It is your responsibility to ensure this the LAA will not remind you You must also have appropriate authorisation from a Relevant Professional Body Your COLP or HOLP must verify the bid Procurement Areas Procurement areas are different for each category Family and housing broadly based on counties or urban boroughs Other categories regionally based Full details in Annex A of the ITT IFA Tool to check: 6

7 Office Requirements Permanent presence: family, housing/debt and community care Permanent or part time presence: claims against public authorities, clinical negligence, public law Mental Health: one permanent presence in England and Wales, and one office which is a permanent presence or alternative arrangement in each procurement area you operate in Immigration: for each procurement area, one permanent presence in the main Access point from which services are delivered; a permanent or part time presence in any other access point from which services are delivered Supervisor requirements Family, housing/debt, immigration, mental health, community care: FTE supervisor 1 FTE supervisor to four caseworkers ratio Claims against public authorities, clinical negligence, public law: PTE supervisor 1 PTE supervisor to two caseworkers ratio 7

8 The System of Lots 1 Matter starts still exist but you do not have to compete for them You can bid for a lot, which will permit you to undertake up to a specified number of matter starts, OR If the biggest lot is too small for you, you can bid above lot X for a number of matter starts which you select No lots for clinical negligence, debt, welfare benefits or mediation The System of Lots 2 Higher lots and above Lot X bids include additional requirements If bidding above Lot X, you may have to submit a delivery plan Cf the self-grant of additional matter starts All contracts will automatically include a small allocation for miscellaneous matters 8

9 The System of Lots 3 You can also bid for miscellaneous matters specifically to deal with compensation claims for the victims of human trafficking/modern slavery Immigration includes separate lots for bids to do Detained Duty Advice work at IRCs (Lot 2), or to do both Advice and Asylum Casework (Lot 3) Immigration work in the Upper Tribunal will be paid as licensed work Category-Specific Requirements: Immigration 1 For any bid, you must conduct the full range of controlled work; have all your caseworkers accredited under IAAS; and have at least one FTE Senior Caseworker for every two caseworkers on lesser accreditation For anything other than Lot 1, you must conduct the full range of licensed work For Lot 3 or Above Lot 3, you must have an FTE Advanced Caseworker at the relevant office 9

10 Category-specific requirements: immigration 2 To do work at IRCs, you must bid for and be awarded an IRC Exclusive Schedule You must be able to meet all the contract terms when delivering services for detained clients All IRC casework must be undertaken by a Senior Caseworker or above it cannot be delegated For work at Yarl s Wood, you must have a female Senior Caseworker working at least 17.5 hours per week You must have access to interpretation services at short notice You must agree to meet any urgent request by the LAA to assist clients anywhere in the procurement area Category-Specific Requirements: Other Categories 1 Family: for Lot 3 or Above Lot 3 you must have at least one PTE panel member Housing: for all bids, you must have a PTE authorised litigator available to the office; for Lot 2 or Above Lot 2 the authorised litigator must be based and regularly working in the office 10

11 Category-Specific Requirements: Other Categories 2 Mental Health: in Lot 1 you must have at least one FTE member of the Law Society s accreditation scheme; in Lot 2, two members; in Lot 3, three members; and above Lot 3, four members Community Care, claims against public authorities and public law: for all bids you must have a PTE authorised litigator available to the office The Self-Grant Provisions During the life of the contract, in each year, you can self-grant an additional allocation of up to 50% of your matter starts Subject to confirmation from your contract manager The provision is cumulative If you cross a lot boundary, your contract manager will require you to meet any additional requirements before confirming the additional allocation In immigration in Lot 3 and Above Lot 3, your ability to self-grant extra matter starts is not limited to 50% but is still subject to contract manager agreement This does not apply to miscellaneous matter starts 11

12 Contract Terms New Contract Terms: Standard Terms Embarrassment Clause You shall ensure that neither you nor any of your Affiliates brings the legal aid scheme into disrepute by engaging in any unprofessional or unlawful conduct which is likely to substantially diminish the trust the public places in the legal aid scheme, regardless of whether or not such conduct is related to your obligations under this Contract. The engaging by you or any of your Affiliates in any lawful challenge to or criticism or complaint of us or any of our decisions, when acting in clients best interests or otherwise acting in your professional capacity, is not within the scope of the words unprofessional or unlawful conduct under this Clause

13 New Contract Terms: Standard Terms and 8.3: advocacy services and demonstration on file of suitability of advocate These require that the clients are advised about the use and selection of in-house advocates and counsel Before instructing counsel or an in house advocate with higher rights of audience you must consult the client about the use and selection of such advocate advising the client of their name, status, experience and suitability Exception where the circumstances of the case mean that it is not practicable or appropriate to do so New Contract Terms: Standard Terms (j) You must have at least one operational account, which must be able to send and receive s which may contain sensitive information over the Government Secure Intranet The requirement at 7.19(j) above shall only apply where we have provided you with not less than 3 months written notice of the date by which such account must be operational. 13

14 New Contract Terms: Standard Terms 4 Clauses 9.4 and 9.6(f) If the LAA is undertaking an official investigation and requires access to any records which are not held at your premises you must arrange for the LAA to have access to the records at premises where they are held (including access to the premises of subcontractors) To facilitate this clause providers must require third party contractors to agree LAA access to their premises New Contract Terms: General Specification Use of interpreters The LAA has reserved the power to set up a framework agreement for translation and interpretation, and to require you to instruct interpreters in accordance with that agreement You may only instruct interpreters who have a specified form of accreditation In exceptional circumstances you may instruct an interpreter who does not meet this standard. 14

15 New Contract Terms: General Specification Matter start allocations in second and subsequent years 3.17 Postal applications (increase in permitted percentage) 4.27 Three quotes for disbursements outside Civil legal aid remuneration regulations schedule Assessment of hourly rate enhancements Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme 15

16 Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme 1 Courts will be grouped together, not tendered individually The number of schemes has been consolidated down from 113 to 47. Only one provider per procurement area will be awarded a contract You must have a face to face contract to get a HPCDS contract Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme 2 Tender will be price competitive Price will account for 30% Quality, service and experience will account for 70% Providers will bid a separate price for each court within a procurement area Prices could go up as well as down There will be a soft cap on prices There will be a minimum quality threshold 16