Legal Services Benchmarking Club 2012

Transcription

1 Legal Services Benchmarking Club 2012 IMPORTANT GENERAL GUIDANCE Please do not enter any comments or data outside the cells provided or within the return , as these are processed automatically and your comment will not be seen. If you wish to make any comments, please enter these in the boxes below. Change of contact details should be ed separately to Throughout this questionnaire, please do not leave blank any box that requires numeric data: if figures are unavailable, please enter "na" only enter zero if this is the true figure or if the figure is too small to be material do not enter other symbols such as ", as these are ambiguous to avoid ambiguity, we have already entered "na" in some cells, so we will assume your answer is missing unless you enter a figure, or 0. If you do not have figures for the exact categories on the questionnaire, you should make an attempt to estimate the split, as we cannot use figures that are bracketed together and cut across two or more boxes. Throughout the questionnaire, you can link to the associated definitions and guidance by clicking on the white '' in the top right corner of each section. To return to the questionnaire please click on the 'Questionnaire' tab at the bottom of the window. COMMENTS Please include here thoughts regarding difficulties completing the questionnaire or other general points about your service that you feel would be of interest to other members. Please do not use these cells to update contact information. any such amendments to us at benchmarking@cipfa.org.uk. 1. SERVICE DELIVERY Service Structure To what extent is your Legal Services function outsourced to a SSA or private company If any of your Legal Services function is outsourced which of the following best describes the structure Please describe the structure e.g. Partners etc. Not Outsourced please select Legal Services Page 1 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

2 2. LEGAL SERVICES EXPENDITURE (a) Best estimates for year ending March 2012 Central Legal Service Practitioners/Fee earners Qualified lawyers Others 411 k 0 k FTE staff Charged hours 4.7 6,700 Boughtin & disbursements Solicitors Counsel Expert fees Court fees All other disbursements Payments to local authority partners Subtotal Other inhouse costs Support staff Books & publications (hardcopy) Research facilities Training Other direct costs Central overheads Gross cost Less: Income from local authority partners Other external income Legal costs recovered Net cost of central service Other Departments Legal staff Boughtin & disbursements Subtotal Net cost of legal services to LA 0 k 0 k 411 k 411 k 0 k 411 k These figures are net of the cost and FTE time spent on work not attributable to legal services. Total for LAxix Avg cost/hour Charged hours done for LA 4.7 6,700 Charged hours done by LA 6, Legal Services Page 2 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

3 3. WORKLOAD BY TYPE OF WORK (a) Best estimates for year ending March 2012 Adult Social Care/Community Care Child protection proceedings Child protection advice Charged hours Cost of boughtin Civil Litigation debt recovery Civil Litigation other (excluding housing) Commercial, Contracts & Procurement Corporate Governance/democratic process Criminal Litigation Education Employment Freedom of Information/Data Protection Highways/Traffic/Parking Housing Licensing Planning Property All other legal work Total Total from 2(a) Difference 6,700 6, k 0.0 k 0.0 k Legal Services Page 3 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

4 (b) Partnership working Adult Social Care/Community Care Child protection proceedings Child protection advice Charged hours done for LA partners Charged hours done by LA partners Civil Litigation debt recovery Civil Litigation other (excluding housing) Commercial, Contracts & Procurement Corporate Governance/democratic process Criminal Litigation Education Employment Freedom of Information/Data Protection Highways/Traffic/Parking Housing Licensing Planning Property All other legal work Total Legal Services Page 4 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

5 4. CARE PROCEEDINGS (a) Number of Care Proceedings Cases Number of cases completed during 2011/12 Number Number of new cases opened during 2011/12 Number of cases still open at the end of 2011/12 (b) Costs of Care Proceedings Work Share of total costs given in section 2(a) Fee earners Qualified lawyers Others Boughtin & disbursements Solicitors Counsel Expert fees Court fees All other disbursements Payments to local authority partners Overheads & support staff Total (c) Time To Completion % of cases completed within 40 week PLO target No. of weeks Average Time to complete a case 232 k FTE staff k 232 k 2.6 % Legal Services Page 5 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

6 5. STAFFING (a) By Pay Band (b) (c) (d) Qualified Lawyers Over 60k 50 60k 40 50k 30 40k Under 30k Total By Qualification Qualified Lawyers Barrister Solicitor Legal executive Total Total Sickness Absence Longterm sickness Shortterm sickness Other Staffing Information Breakdown of staff time (from staffing sheet) Guideline available hours Charged legal hours per annum Child care proceedings All other legal work Not charged to clients Internal, management etc Training Work not attributable to legal services Balance Qualified Lawyers 9,158 4,400 2,300 1, FTE Staff FTE Staff Avg work days pa per FTE Other feeearners Legal Services Page 6 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

7 6. CHARGING RATES (a) Current Standard Charging Rates By Hour Head of service Deputy head of service Principal lawyer/solicitor Senior lawyer/solicitor Lawyer/solicitor Senior legal assistant Legal assistant/paralegal Trainee solicitor Please briefly describe the method used for calculating the standard charges given above (b) Current Standard Charging Rates By Work Type Highways Act section 38 Town and Country Planning Act section 106 Highways Act section 278 Standard lease Standard license Other 1 Other 2 Other 3 Other 4 Internal ( ) Please state 'other' Section 106 ( ) Other external ( ) Fixed fee ( ) Target chargeable hours p.a. Hourly charge ( ) Legal Services Page 7 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

8 7. MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (a) Online Legal Research Facilities (b) Hardcopy/Paper Legal Research Facilities (c) (d) Systems Information Time recording system Case management system Court bundling system Digital dictation system Do you use DX If yes, what is the cost Do you scan your incoming mail If yes, where is scanning performed Legal services section Centrally Both Quality Accreditations Lexcel ISO9000 IIP CharterMark EFQM Service used Service used Total Cost pa Total Cost pa Total Cost pa Legal Section Number of licenses Number of licenses Number of licenses Approx annual outofpocket cost of maintaining accreditation Renewal month Renewal month System used Yes Yes No No tick one box only Approx annual legal staff cost of maintaining accreditation Whole LA Legal Services Page 8 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

9 (e) Additional Management Practices Is the monitoring officer the head of the legal service Yes No Does the monitoring officer sit on the authority's highest management board (f) Framework Agreements Do you procure any legal services through a framework agreement Yes No Solicitors Barristers 8. CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION Measures of Authority Size Population Gross expenditure Highways: please indicate whether you are an Agency or Section 42 authority Housing: does your authority have an HRA Estimated % of legal services time spent on commercial property portfolio work Please list which of your major services have been transferred/privatised so that the LA is no longer responsible for their legal work 9. LOCAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Performance Indicators, Targets and Achievements Performance Indicator Target Agency Sec. 42 Yes #N/A 'm #N/A Achieved % No Legal Services Page 9 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

10 10. SCRAPBOOK QUESTIONS (a) Internal Charging Systems Please describe briefly the basis on which your costs are charged to internal clients e.g. if you use a Trading Account system for legal services, please describe briefly how this operates in terms of where budget responsibilities lie, basis on which users are charged etc. (b) (c) (d) Work For External Organisations (i) Please describe briefly the basis on which costs are charged to external clients and levels of charges, e.g. in relation to the standard charges shown above. (ii) Where you provide legal work for external organisations, please give details of the organisations here. Charges To Third Parties In what circumstances do you charge or not charge legal costs to third parties who are not clients Shared Services Please describe any "shared service" initiatives with other local authorities in which you are involved. Legal Services Page 10 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012

11 (e) Procurement of Legal Services (i) Where your authority buysin legal services please describe the procedures you follow and controls that you have in place. (f) (g) (ii) If you are involved in any joint procurement activities with other authorities e.g. for the procurement of training, research facilities, licenses etc, please describe here. Support Function To what extent is the support provided to the legal service centralised Is this going to change over the next 12 months Academies To what extent are you providing your Academies with a legal service (excluding work on school appeals) (h) Examples of Innovative Practice If during 2011/12 your Legal service has developed any particular examples of innovative practice that you would be willing to share with other members of the club, please describe these here. Examples of good practice could include costsaving measures, incomegeneration initiatives, improvements in the output of the system (e.g. useful reports) etc. Legal Services Page 11 of 11 Copyright CIPFA 2012