Agenda item

11.1

11.2

11.3

11.3.1

11.3.2

11.4

11.4.1

11.4.2

11.4.3

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Service – ICT and DI – which set out the Education System and how it was provided. The report described the importance of the Education System and sought approval to commission an Education System. It set out the estimated upfront costs of implementation of the new system and the expected recoupment of these costs over the lifetime of the service.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Education, Children and Families Policy Committee: -

-       approves the commission of an Education System from an external provider for a period of 10 years and estimated value of £4.3 million.

Reasons for Decision

This commissioning decision enables the Council to commence active market engagement and begin planning for its requirements in 2025 and beyond.

This commission will also ensure:

• The continuance of the Council’s key Line of Business System for Education;

• the Council meets its statutory duties;

• back-office functions can continue.

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

Do nothing. The Council requires an education system to deliver statutory services. Do nothing is not a viable option – the council must have an education system in place to execute its duties.

Develop our own system. This would be a significant undertaking, requiring skills and resources that the Council does not have access to. Those resources would have to be retained for future updates and functional changes as statutory requirements and business needs changed. The Council would also have to consider storage and retention of data. Security and role-based access would need to be managed.

Repurpose an existing system (eg for Case Management). While we have a Social Care Case Management System, this does not meet the requirements for an Education System. It does not hold schools’ data or modules for the many Services that use an Education System. This would require significant development and manual “workarounds” to deliver a suboptimal solution, if that were possible. For this reason, the supplier of our Social Care System has a separate Education System in its portfolio.

11.1

11.2

11.3

11.3.1

11.3.2

11.4

11.4.1

11.4.2

11.4.3

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Service – ICT and DI – which set out the Education System and how it was provided. The report described the importance of the Education System and sought approval to commission an Education System. It set out the estimated upfront costs of implementation of the new system and the expected recoupment of these costs over the lifetime of the service.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Education, Children and Families Policy Committee: -

-       approves the commission of an Education System from an external provider for a period of 10 years and estimated value of £4.3 million.

Reasons for Decision

This commissioning decision enables the Council to commence active market engagement and begin planning for its requirements in 2025 and beyond.

This commission will also ensure:

• The continuance of the Council’s key Line of Business System for Education;

• the Council meets its statutory duties;

• back-office functions can continue.

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

Do nothing. The Council requires an education system to deliver statutory services. Do nothing is not a viable option – the council must have an education system in place to execute its duties.

Develop our own system. This would be a significant undertaking, requiring skills and resources that the Council does not have access to. Those resources would have to be retained for future updates and functional changes as statutory requirements and business needs changed. The Council would also have to consider storage and retention of data. Security and role-based access would need to be managed.

Repurpose an existing system (eg for Case Management). While we have a Social Care Case Management System, this does not meet the requirements for an Education System. It does not hold schools’ data or modules for the many Services that use an Education System. This would require significant development and manual “workarounds” to deliver a suboptimal solution, if that were possible. For this reason, the supplier of our Social Care System has a separate Education System in its portfolio.