The Legal Services Commission (LSC) is to release nearly £3 million in training grants to enable law students to qualify as legal aid lawyers - but is also spending almost £700,000 on training its own middle managers, it emerged this week.

Lawyers expressed concern over the LSC's decision to channel £690,000 into a two-year leadership training programme for 160 middle managers. However, they welcomed the LSC's further investment in grants to fund training for 100 new lawyers, to be targeted at mental health, childcare, immigration and crime.


The new money will bring the LSC's investment in future legal aid lawyers to £10 million since the grant scheme began in 2002.


The training grant will cover the £8,000 cost of each student's legal practice course tuition fees. It will also meet 75% of the Law Society's minimum salary level during their training contract and the cost of professional skills courses to be completed during the traineeship - amounting to around £20,000 over two years.


Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: 'The training grants are one of the most positive moves the commission has ever made. I have met a number of lawyers who were able to qualify because of the grants, and they are very committed to legal aid, which is what we need.'


Remarking on the spending on LSC management training, he added: 'None of us underestimates the value of training to perform well in any organisation. Taken in isolation, [£690,000] seems to be a large chunk of money.


'I just wonder what leadership skills [the managers] are hoping to acquire that they do not have already. [But] it is very important, with preferred suppliers on the horizon, that those members of the commission dealing with law firms are adequately qualified to do so.'


Legal Aid Practitioners Group director Richard Miller said he welcomed the money being put into grants, but added: 'All areas need support at the moment, not just the target categories the LSC is prioritising.'



Mr Miller said the spending on middle management training seemed an 'odd priority for the commission's limited resources at the present time'.


LSC director of human resources George Lepine said: 'Training is paid for out of the commission's administration budget... we face the same financial constraints as everyone else in the public and the private sector, but we believe that developing our people is essential to the future success of the commission.


'Our figures show employee confidence in managers has increased since the course ran. Our 2005 supplier survey of over 6,500 providers also showed significant rises in satisfaction. The correlation between these improvements and the investment we have made in leadership should not be lost.'