Review of Specialist Support Service and CLS Grants
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About this consulation
We are consulting on the future of the Supplier Support Service. This represents around £3.5m in funding from the CLS Fund and is used to maintain services that cannot be funded through the Unified Contract.
The service comprises two key areas:
- Specialist Support Service - provides second-tier support to eligible advice organisations
- CLS Grants Budget - provides funding to advice related projects and activities.
These services have made a valuable contribution to improving access to justice. However, we believe they need to be updated to align more closely to the CLS Strategy and the LSC’s corporate objectives, and to deliver better value for money.
The consultation paper outlines proposals as to the continued funding of these areas and on what terms.
We hope that the Supplier Support Services will, in future, be structured towards helping as many people as possible with civil legal problems, and will target those groups who otherwise might not have ready access justice.
Your response to this consultation will help us shape the future of the service and will inform the tender processes that we will carry out this autumn to award new contracts and grants from April 2008.
List of documents
A document entitled Specialist Support Services and the Community Legal Service Grants is available under Documents. This contains three appendices:
- Appendix 1: Proposed new funding criteria and application process for the CLS Grants Budget
- Appendix 2: Review of the Specialist Support Service
- Appendix 3: Priorities of the CLS Strategy and the Legal Service Commission’s strategic objectives
The document is bilingual (English and Welsh).
A draft Regulatory Impact Assessment is also under Documents. A Welsh version is also available.
How to respond
Please send written responses only by email to simon.stanley@legalservices.gov.uk (with the subject of the email as ‘SSSR’).
Alternatively, please send by post to:
Simon Stanley, SSSR
Civil Policy Team
Legal Services Commission
First Floor
12 Roger Street
London
WC1N 2JL
DX 328 London/Chancery Lane.
Further information
If you have any questions about the consultation process, please contact Simon Stanley:
- email: simon.stanley@legalservices.gov.uk
- telephone: 020 7759 1438
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we may publish your name and the contents of your response.
If you provide reasons why you do not wish these details to be disclosed, this will be taken into consideration if a request for such information is received.
If you have concerns about any disclosure, you should mark your response clearly to identify the areas to withhold. In any event, responses will be disclosed in an anonymous or summary format.
Last updated: 15 August 2007