The Legal Services Commission has published a plan for the tender process for new interim family contracts to start in February 2012.

It proposes a non-competitive tender, meaning that all applicants meeting the minimum requirements will be awarded a contract.

The LSC will divide the available work into lots, and invite applicants to bid for lots in three volume categories: up to 50 matter starts; between 51 and 150; and over 150.

There will be no minimum amount of work that organisations can bid for, and the LSC guarantees that those tendering for lots one or two will receive the amount of cases that they bid for.

Those organisations tendering for lot three (over 150 matter starts) will be guaranteed at least 150, and will receive an additional pro rata allocation depending on the number of matter starts remaining in a procurement area.

Following the Law Society’s successful judicial review last year, in which the High Court quashed the outcome of the previous family tender, the LSC has had to rethink its family tender process.

It was unable to introduce the new standard civil contract in family cases, and instead extended the unified contract.

Those contracts, which expire on 30 November, will be further extended until the new contracts commence in 2012.

Due to the proposed changes to legal aid, which are expected to be introduced in legislation in 2012, the LSC said it is likely that the new contracts will be terminated before their intended end date.

In its paper the LSC said: ‘In formulating our approach to tendering for new family services, we have considered our experiences of the quashed family tender round to ensure that we apply the lessons learned.

‘We have also considered the wider context in which we are introducing these contracts with particular regard to the Ministry of Justice’s legal aid reforms.'

Given the planned legal aid reforms, which propose the removal of much of private family law from the scope of legal aid, the LSC will no longer require providers to deliver both public and private family advice.

Providers will not have to undertake both controlled work (legal help and family help) and licensed work (representation) but will be able to just hold contracts for licensed work if they wish.

The LSC said it will continue to procure services to provide good geographical access, and providers will be required to have an office in the area in which they are tendering, which meets the ‘permanent presence’ requirements.

However, there will be no stipulation that there must be at least five family providers in a procurement area, although the LSC says that will continue to be a policy aim.

As well as the mainstream family services, the LSC will invite tenders for child abduction advice, and those who win a family contract will also be able to bid for a contract to deliver housing services.

The paper said the LSC will again use the BravoSolutions e-tendering system for the completion and submission of bids, despite the ‘mixed views’ on the system following the previous tender rounds.

A four-week consultation on the proposed process will run until 2 August.

Tenders will be invited in September and providers notified of their contract awards in November.

The consultation can be found here.