Annex A

Education Case Management System Procurement

Introduction / Background:

The council currently has a “modular” case management system which provides a variety of internal and external functions across the entire education and early-years portfolio, covering aspects such as, but not limited to; Admissions, Free School Meals, Early years, 2 year old funding, school census, NCMP, School Transport, Behaviour and Attendance, Yr6/7 transfers etc.

This system is described as modular as all the modules connect via central spine, the child’s record. This system has been in place within the Council for the last nineteen years, and has long-standing and complex integrated data links to a large number of other corporate systems such as Children’s Social Care, External websites, SingleView and Finance.

The usage of the system has grown significantly in the last nineteen years as more services have moved to electronic records, alongside the need to have a variety of customer facing portals, and therefore the current agreement with the company is made up of approximately 25 small agreements surrounding the main licensing agreement for the system on the child’s record.

The main licensing agreement is coming to an end of its term and is now available to be purchased through a government framework which was not previously available. Due to future changes in business practice, three additional modules are required to support activities in SEN, as part of the work required within the Council’s statement of action, in SEN transport, and in admissions. Internal discussion and agreement on approach and need has taken place with the following which considered all current usage;

· Individual Heads of service and budget holders

· Assistant Director for Education – Maxine Squire

· Directorate management team

· SEND improvement board

· Internal ICT board

· Interim Director of people services

· CYC Procurement (to agree DAS framework)

Bringing the various contracts together in to a single agreement enables the Council to; have a sizable reduction in capital costs over the course of the five year agreement (approx. £45k), provides access to 3 new modules (which avoids cost of approximately £30k start-up costs and £5-10k per annum), and provides greater oversight and understanding of financial and contractual relationships with the provider. A single contract helps de-risk key elements of a fundamental system for the council which is being used across a wide range of customer facing systems and would have significant detrimental impacts to residents, vulnerability and business continuity if unavailable. A single contract will allow the council to continue to develop a single technical and data approach around Education data which will continue to reduce and avoid costs in the future.

The council currently pays approximately £98k per annum for the various licences, all of which have slightly different time periods to run, and on current %RPI increases will rise to £118k per annum within five years. The discounted price, to recommence at approximately year-end, is between £97-100k for 5 years paid from ICT and Education budgets at a total cost of £493,502.

There is a framework in place for procuring the contract in this way and if approved the award will be made to Servelec Ltd.