Rocky road to legal aid reform

Steve Orchard reviews a year of ups and downs as the legal aid system embraced change, and he argues that contracting has brought benefits

We are now coming to the end of another year of major change in the legal aid system.

The highlight has been the launch of the Criminal Defence Service and the opening of the first public defender offices, both of which caused no little excitement, some of it the result of some basic misunderstandings.It has been put to me many times that public defenders are offered as a 'third choice' to defendants in the police station alongside their own solicitor and the duty solicitor.

In fact, public defenders contact potential clients in the same way as any other solicitor.

They may be asked for by name, or be selected because they are duty solicitors.

They are in no different a position from solicitors in private practice.There are also major misunderstandings about the role of Tony Edwards in the Public Defender Service.

Mr Edwards will be well known to criminal practitioners as a major player in his own right.

His role on the Legal Services Commission, at least so far as public defenders are concerned, is to act as the professional head of the service - which means, in effect, that he is there as a safety valve for public defenders to approach if they believe their professional judgement and independence is being undermined by the demands of the commission's executive.

He also deals with complaints against public defenders and can provide advice and guidance on legal and technical issues.We are now in the process of opening the fifth and sixth public defender offices, which is the limit of our commitment in this area.On the civil side, there has been misinformation about the chance of publicly employed civil lawyers offering services directly.

We have never considered this, though the legislation does not preclude it.However, there are exciting real developments in the civil field, all designed to improve coverage and to reach clients who might, for one reason or another, not normally access the traditional services.For example, we are committed to a telephone advice service in geographical areas and categories of law where no service is reasonably available.

We are testing innovative methods of delivery through the partnership innovation budget, and we have been pro-active in expanding the availability of asylum advice and representation.We want to expand the availability of specialist support services, which can assist front-line advisers in difficult cases or on particular issues.

Our involvement with the advice sector continues to grow, particularly in the areas of debt and welfare benefit.We are heavily engaged in discussions over the size of the legal aid budget from 2003.

There are massive competing demands on the public purse, which have grown in recent months for reasons of which all will be aware.Nevertheless, contracting has been able to demonstrate that we can target publicly funded services on the most needy, and in accordance with centrally driven and locally identified priorities.

We can increasingly prove value for money by looking at outcomes in some areas of work, not least in those areas which are so important in supporting the government's agenda on social exclusion.

It was because of our success in introducing contracting that the Lord Chancellor was able in April to announce the first significant increases in remuneration for years.It was inevitable that the first year or so of contracting would have its difficulties.

Reconciliation and contract compliance audits have not been easy to bed down.These are always likely to be areas of tension but as the rules become increasingly understood, I hope we can look forward to a smoother relationship with the legal profession.Steve Orchard is the chief executive of the Legal Services Commission