A presentation and talk given by Patrick Torsney to the Contracted Advice Agencies Network (CAAN), 3rd October 2012, Liverpool

1. Invitation to Tender
for 2013 face-to-face contracts
A presentation and talk given by Patrick Torsney
to the Contracted Advice Agencies Network
(CAAN) 3rd October 2012 Liverpool

2. Please note:
This presentation is for information purposes
only and does not constitute legal or strategic
advice on bidding. It is your responsibility to
ensure you submit your bid in accordance with
the relevant rules
Please bear in mind that subsequent to this talk
at CAAN, the LSC published the first version
of its FAQ on the ITT on 5th October. A final
version is expected on the 12th October
Please read the FAQ 2

3. Please note:
This presentation considers the Housing & Debt
ITT only. However, the general principles may
also be applicable to the other face-to-face
Tenders: Family, and Immigration & Asylum
All numbered paragraph references are to the Information
for Applicants (IFA) Family, Housing & Debt unless
otherwise specified
3

4. Background
 LSC (now) knows it is bound by EU procurement law when
commissioning services
 Public Contracts Regulations 2006 and EU Council Directive
2004/18/EC now dictate the process
 A contracting authority shall treat [suppliers] equally and in a non-
discriminatory way; and act in a transparent way (see Reg 4(3))
 Any technical specifications defined in terms of
performance/functional requirements must be precise enough to
allow a [supplier] to determine the subject of the contract (see Reg
9(7))
 Simplified YES/NO answers wherever possible
4

5. Tender essentials - look at
 Tender documents inc attachments
• Get them from the online Tender Portal: http://bit.ly/a7e3zT
 Background docs from the LSC:
• The relevant Procurement Plan(s) + Tender FAQ
documents: http://bit.ly/SWAEvU
• 2013 Standard Civil Contract http://bit.ly/SpOtTA
 Tech help documents from the Tender Portal
• Technical support and guidance (PDF): http://bit.ly/RsbCb1
• Bravo’s Supplier Help: online training, quick guides,
FAQs: http://bit.ly/R4kwtm
 Impressions? Lessons learnt? 5

6. Timescales and deadlines
1. 1st October: Second chance PQQ bods invited to ITT
2. 8th October: questions for ITT FAQ closes
3. 12th October: final ITT FAQ document published
4. 22nd October: ITT closes
5. January 2013: outcome of ITT announced
6. January 2013: verification begins
7. 1st April 2013: contract begins
6

7. Procurement Areas & what’s on offer
Category of No. of PA’s Total volume of
Law NMS advertised
Family 134 95,761
51,889 (Housing)
Housing & Debt 134 4 Debt NMS per
Office (bid)
Immigration &
6 40,831
Asylum
Some Family and Imm/Asy PA’s split down into Access Points 7

8. Individual Bids (4.5)
 As Services will be delivered at individual Offices, an
Applicant Organisation must detail the Services that it is
tendering to deliver for each Office in its ITT response.
 A tender to deliver Services in a specific Category of Law
from a particular Office is known as an “Individual Bid”.
 Consequently, the ITT response of an Applicant Organisation
wishing to deliver Services from multiple Offices will contain
Individual Bids for each Office in the applicable Category of
Law.
NB: Must have an office in the PA/Access Point by
the Contract Start Date 8

9. Common Criteria (5.2)
By the Contract Start Date, an Applicant
Organisation‟s Office must be a
Permanent Presence in the
Procurement Area (or where relevant,
Access Point), in which it is tendering to
deliver Services;
See 2013 General Specification for definition of
„Permanent Presence‟ paras 2.33 – 2.34 9

10. Common Criteria (5.2) cont…
By the Contract Start Date, an Applicant
Organisation must employ at least one
Full Time Equivalent (FTE) individual
who meets the Supervisor Standard in
the relevant Category of Law and will
actively supervise the Services
tendered for; and,
10

11. Common Criteria (5.2) cont…
By the Contract Start Date, an Applicant
Organisation must employ at least one
Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Supervisor
(who meets the Supervisor Standard in
the relevant Category of Law and will
actively supervise the Services) for
every four FTE caseworkers at each
Office from which it is tendering to
deliver Services
11

12. Clarifying notes
 FTE = 35 hours (doesn‟t matter if actually work
more)
 “Employ” defined as “holding a contract of
employment with the Applicant Organisation or
being a partner of the Applicant Organisation.”
 External (or non-employed) supervision not
permitted)
 Must not have had confirmed Peer Review of 4
or 5 in category within which it is bidding since
14 Sept 2009
12

13. Additional Criteria: Housing & Debt
 By the Contract Start Date, an Applicant
Organisation must employ,
 for at least 17.5 hours per week,
 an Authorised Litigator
 who will be available to each of its
Offices to deliver Licensed Work.
See 5.8 13

14. Authorised Litigator:
A solicitor or other authorised litigator as defined in
Section 119 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990.
An authorised litigator, as defined by the Act, is “any
person (including a solicitor) who has a right to conduct
litigation granted by an authorised body.”
An authorised litigator‟s role is primarily to issue
proceedings and apply for a funding certificate for Legal
Representation, and then to conduct the litigation.
Without an authorised litigator, an Applicant will not be
able to provide the full range of services up to full Legal
Representation for their clients
Annex E: Glossary of Defined Terms 14

15. Lots – general points
 LSC says take into account the reduced scope of legal
aid work available to ensure bidding for realistic
volumes
 stipulate the number of Matter Starts required for each
Individual Bid. Individual Bids will then classified into a
corresponding “Lot” size
 if you wish to bid from multiple Offices within a single
ITT (and therefore submitting multiple Individual Bids)
you can submit Individual Bids with different Matter
Starts which may then be classified into different Lots
 Make sure to use the „Postcode Tool‟ to check which
PA any particular Office you intend to bid from should
belong to 15

16. Lots: Housing
16

17. Key Points: Lot 1: 40 or less
 You don‟t have to ask for 40 exactly
 You could ask for 0 (Licensed Work
only)
 Providing you pass the ITT, you will get
exactly what you asked for
 You will be able to self-grant up to an
additional 50% of NMS in the first year
 Therefore, maximum could be 60 NMS
17

18. Key Points: Lot 2: 61 – 100 NMS
 Providing you pass the ITT, you will get
what you ask for if your bid is between
61 and 100 inclusive
 You cannot self-grant additional NMS
 Maximum number of assured NMS is
100
 No restriction on you submitting
individual (assured) bids from multiple
offices that are cumulatively more than
what LSC says is available in the PA 18

19. Let‟s look at Shropshire…
 Procurement Plan says 100 NMS available in
total in the PA
 And currently 4 Provider Offices
 ShropsAdvice Inc. has two offices in the PA
(both Permanent Presence)
 It decides to put in two individual (Lot 2) bids,
one from each Office, of 100 NMS each
 It would be assured this amount
 So, the organisation would get 200 total
19

20. …further points
 If the other 2 Offices/Organisations both bid for
100 NMS too, that would mean the Shropshire
PA should receive 400 NMS in total via
„assured‟ bids
 NB: “Indicative Matter Starts Advertised”
 Shropshire is but one of 12 PA‟s within the
Birmingham Region
 Bear in mind each Office would need to be a
Permanent Presence and, a Supervisor would
have to be working from that Office (though not
necessarily full-time in that particular Office)
20

21. Key Points: Lot 2: over100 NMS
 You can bid for more than the upper
limit in Lot 2 (more than 100 NMS)
 No upper limit on what you can bid for
(subject to Bravo)?
 However, even if no-one else bid, why
would the LSC give you more than what
it has said is the maximum NMS
available in the PA?
 Answer: it wouldn‟t
21

22. LSC approach to allocation: Step 1
 Lot1: get what you ask for (40 max) +
4 Debt
 Lot2: gets what it ask for if your bid =
100 or less
 Lot 2: if you bid for more than 100 you
will initially be allocated 100 + 4 Debt
NMS
… continued on next slide
22

23. Step 2:
If any Matter Starts remain after Step
1, Individual Bids in Lot 2 for over
100 Matter Starts are allocated an
equal share of the remaining Matter
Starts available in the Procurement
Area (up to the Applicant
Organisation‟s requested amount)
NB: “equal share” does not mean pro-rata
23

24. Step 3:
If any Matter Starts remain after Step
2 in the wider Region, Individual
Bids in Lot 2 for over 100 Matter
Starts are allocated an equal share
of the remaining Matter Starts
available (up to the Applicant
Organisation‟s requested amount)
24

25. Verification
 Verification requests go out with the
offer of a Contract, January 2013
 Offer conditional on satisfactory
verification
 “Verification requests will be tailored
according to the information outstanding
from an Applicant Organisation”
25

26. 26

27. LSC reserves the right to carry out further due diligence checks in respect of
PQQ and/or ITT prior to awarding a Contract (10.41) 27

28. Other points
 Now on Version 2 of the face-to-face IFA
 Capacity test in IMM/ASY (10.19)
 If spare NMS after verification (someone‟s bid fails verification)
they won‟t be allocated until after Contract Start Date (9.22)
 New Offices need to complete an AC1 form as part of verification
to get an Account Number
 Contract documentation will be made available online to
successful bidders. You download, sign and submit (9.24)
 You can amend and re-submit ITT response at any time up to
deadline – the latest one will be the one assessed (10.10)
 If > one bid per Office, LSC will use the lower NMS one (10.12)
 If your Office bid is in the wrong PA it will fail (10.15)
 Must provide all levels of service from each Office you bid from
(10.16)
 If conflict between documentation, LSC will accept least
favourable to you, without contacting you (10.30)
 There is no right of appeal (10.32) 28