Family practitioners doing large public care cases and the like need to be aware of some issues with the scheme (though I'm sure you are already)

First, the horrendous (see recent Gazette letters) delays in payment are being addressed ... by the processing team refusing to answer the phone at all!

see here for more details:
www.legalservices.gov.uk/civil/cls_news_13522.asp?page=1

Secondly, the Case Plan template has changed:

"In making these changes we have aimed to ensure key pieces of information are displayed prominently within the Case Plan. This will hopefully avoid the need for protracted exchanges of correspondence to reach agreement of the Plan, therefore benefitting both providers and the Legal Services Commission. In addition, we anticipate that the changes should make the Case Plan quicker to complete. The revisions do not ask for information which would require additional work to provide."

See here for more details:
www.legalservices.gov.uk/civil/cls_news_13567.asp?page=1