Civil news: CCMS mandatory for Special Children Act applications on 1 February 2016
The vast majority of civil legal aid will be online from February as planned.
All providers making applications for work under the Special Children Act must use the Client and Cost Management System (CCMS) from 1 February 2016.
Applications for all remaining civil case types will be mandatory from 1 April 2016.
Whilst not mandatory, we expect firms to continue increasing use of the system across all case types. 65% of all new civil applications are successfully being submitted via CCMS.
Special Children Act
73% of Special Children Act cases are already submitted through CCMS.
By making CCMS use mandatory for Special Children Act applications from 1 February 2016, we expect more than 75% of all civil submissions will be made electronically from this date.
Full mandatory use from 1 April 2016
Adopting this approach to mandatory use of CCMS will allow us to provide more time to CCMS users, who process cases other than SCA cases, to become familiar with planned enhancements before the 1 April 2016.
A number of key enhancements are due to be released in the next month. We want all CCMS users to have the chance to get used to the changes for all civil work.
We have developed this approach after considering feedback from both CCMS users and your representative bodies. There will be no change to this revised date.
Start using CCMS now
If you have yet to start using CCMS then it is important to start doing so now.
Feedback from providers who have fully integrated CCMS into their working processes suggests that familiarity and practical use of the system are critical to using it successfully.
They have also mentioned the benefits of CCMS:
- quicker processing of applications and bill payments
- simpler to monitor and track status of applications
- e-working saves money on administration costs
Benefits of planning ahead
CCMS will be mandatory for all providers very soon. Evidence from users suggests that if you prepare and train users now, you will find it simpler to overcome problems in advance of our 2016 dates set out above.
Further information
CCMS website – information and support on CCMS CCMS.team@legalaid.gsi.gov.uk – to email us CCMS questions