North East Hants Governors' Forum
Date Tuesday, 27 January 2004
Time 7.30 - 9.30 pm
Location Cranbourne School, Basingstoke
Present |
All Saints Junior Anstey Junior Beech Down Primary Bentley Primary Charles Kingsley Chineham Park Primary Crondall Primary Crookham Junior Fernhill Primary Four Lanes Junior Froxfield Infant Guillemont Junior Hatch Warren Infant Heatherside Infant Liphook Junior Liss Infant Marlborough Infant Marnel Junior Mayhill Junior North Waltham Primary Oakley Infant Park Primary Park View Infant Pinewood Infant Rowledge Primary Rucstall Primary St Mark's Farnborough St Michael's Junior St Peter's Junior Yateley South Farnborough Infant South Farnborough Jun Tadley Primary Tavistock Infant Tower Hill Primary West End Infant Westfields Infant Secondary Schools Bohunt Calthorpe Park Costello Technology College Cove Fernhill John Hunt of Everest Oak Farm School Robert May's Yateley School Also Present: Louise Brierley Hazel Round Janice Fenner |
Mildred Stocks Robert Saunders Glenda Norris Ann Wilson, Andrew Thomson Leonie Brown Andrew McCormick William Hobson, Michael Sisk Tony Carter Neil Watkin Julie Richards Nancy Barker Wander ter kuile Carole-Ann Galbraith Peter Neail Nick Hancock Valerie Bush Sue Brettell Anne Hood John Fuller Beverley Agass Paula Shephard, Anthony Casaletto David Wimpenny B Harrington Mildred Stocks, M Silvester Jacqueline Keen Terry Tillman Felicity Milne Peter Martin Wendy Thompson Helen Holmes Patrick Humphrys Keith Buckingham, Steve Davidson John Stocks Terry Genis Jane Pratt Trevor Prentice Jim Duckham David Wimpenny, Rikki Willis Richard Sheldrake Karen Legge Neil Watkin Charles Cassell Robin Gray Jane Pratt Mike Baker , Roger Combes Strategic Schools Improvement Manager Governor Services Co-ordinator Admin Officer, Governor Services |
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Apologies |
Belle Vue Infant Chawton Primary Cove School Four Lanes Infant Hook Junior Kings Furlong Junior Rowledge Primary Silchester Primary Wootey Infant |
Stephen Curtis Rosie Blogg David Quante Eileen Stonock Geraldine Hutchinson Frank Welton Dame Elizabeth Keith Chapman Don Mackeggie |
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Action
1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND WELCOME
Apologies as listed above.
Robin Gray, the chairman, welcomed everyone to the forum. He introduced Russell Wheeler, Business Manager, Hampshire Education ICT Support and Development Services.
2 EdICT
Russell explained that the EdICT Service Level Agreement took a much longer time to produce than anticipated. They have tried to provide choices so that each school can pick from a range of items tailored to the school. Schools can opt in and out of various services. They only pay for what they need. There is also greater transparency. Schools can see what the service has cost.
Edict have withdrawn from some services where they felt they could not compete with the private sector such as hardware maintenance provision. If it is a component failure they will send someone else out.
The next SLA should be with schools by the autumn term ready for a Spring 05 start. Consultation with schools user groups has just begun. Feedback is welcomed.
Value for Money. The average school charge is £2,700. In return EdICT provide 5 main services:
Core software supply. This is mainly SIMS. Out of 540 schools 6 do not use SIMS. A couple are trialling competing systems from other vendors. The cost is £1650 for secondary schools and £850 for primary schools. One school has written its own software but EdICT estimate it has cost £15 - 20 thousand to write and maintain. SIMS is still the best system available to schools out of all the available alternatives. Others are being looked at but the cost to shift to another system would be millions. SIMS is provided by Capita. Schools can approach Capita direct and get support from them but if Capita send someone out it costs £950 a day plus VAT.
Anti-virus software - teachers and governors can use the software at home under the terms of the licence agreement. Please speak with the school's ICT co-ordinator or admin officer for details of how to install and maintain the software, which is quite straightforward.
80% of the software supplied under the SLA comes under the SIMS umbrella. The software cost will increase by 37% this year because the development of the SQL programme has been added. Overall Russell expects there will be a 10% or 11% increase this coming year once this 37% is absorbed into the SLA. There will be desk and on-line support for core software. Curriculum software support - it is impossible for EdICT to provide support for all these at the moment as there are thousands.
Telephone and on-site help for technological problems.
Development and advice for new technologies.
Choice and Transparency - EdICT have tried as far as possible to be a one-stop shop. Schools can go to them with any ICT problems. If they do not deal with it they will tell the school who does. They will actually contact the maintenance company if the school has an approved agreement. It is often difficult for schools to know whether it is a hardware or software problem.
£2700 is the average spend. 35% of SLA goes straight into the core software supply budget. That service is provided to 97% of schools is Hampshire. Help Desk and on-site support - 36% of SLA goes into that budget - adoption rate 96%. Software technical support - 24% of SLA goes into the budget - adoption rate 89%. Curriculum software - much lower rate overall because it is a more limited service - 20 - 25%.
HPSN in schools. EdICT can increasingly fix problems remotely rather than sending someone out when schools are within the HPSN network.
Development and advice on new technologies - 3% of SLA revenue. Everyone agrees this is essential but nobody wants to pay for it, consequently this is always underfunded.
Talks with primary heads and specialist user groups have concluded that it is vitally important that more money should be spent but no-one wants to pay more. In Hampshire the vast majority of funds are delegated to schools so that money has to be clawed back.
The Schools SLA raised £1.5 million last year. The remainder comes from core budget from Education Department - 10%. DfES projects also provide some money. The balance is made up of pay as you use services.
Much more will be put on the Intranet which is being rolled out to schools now.
The following questions were asked:
Froxfield Infant asked for explanation of the various systems.
SIMS - School Information Management Systems - a "Microsoft Office" type Suite for schools. In order to comply with DfES requirements for statistics schools need a Management Suite. SIMS delivers that and more. It has 15 modules. Primary schools use 3 or 4, secondary schools use most of them. There are conflicts between the different modules. SQL will improve this. Most schools will need to upgrade their hardware to handle the powerful software.
SAP - Hampshire Enterprises Planning System. The whole accounting system is migrating from FMS. The process is starting to roll out now.
Chineham Park asked for assurance that this upgrade would be a one-off.
At the moment Russell could not see a reason for major upgrades being needed in the near future.
Will the licence charge be included for SQL?
The majority of schools will not have to pay. Large schools may have to get a separate licence. Russell will check this out.
Hook Junior - Upgrade for SQL programme. - How can schools be sure that they will get a better deal from EdICT than from a brand named supplier?
Hardware is weighted heavily in favour of outside providers. The charge EdICT make is exactly what they pay. No commission is made. The systems from Dell are standard systems that use the same components for 12 months. If a system is bought independently from the Dell Website on a Tuesday it will be different from the one bought the following day. If EdICT instal them they will be cheaper to support - £10 to support an EdICT Net Workstation installation as opposed to £40 for a non-EdICT Net workstation.
Bentley - Software £850, hardware £7000. For some schools there is a substantial hardware cost.
Four Lanes Junior - Why do we have a supplier with such an upper hand? Did this go out to tender? [referring to Capita / SIMS not EdICT]
Russell would check whether this was tendered for.
Bohunt - Virus Protection
Schools will have had an update and should be able to let governors have a copy of the anti virus software including the instructions for using it.
Are other counties having the same problem? Is there support from the Government?
SIMS is used in about 50% of schools across the country. The Government are aware of the problems. They are changing their requirements all the time and SIMS is having to address them. There is an update approximately every two weeks. EdICT works with Capita to iron out bugs. There has been some delegation of grant income to support the SQL Upgrade but it is very small. Primary Heads have complained bitterly to Charles Clarke.
Robin Gray thanked Russell for answering so many questions so comprehensively. Russell will come back with more information for the Forum.
3 MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held on 23 September 2003 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the chairman.
4 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
Budget Update - The County Council was currently looking at a Council Tax increase of 6.7% but trying to find ways of reducing that. Each authority has been given a grant intended to keep Council Tax down. Hampshire will passport the whole of the money from the DfES to schools. The Government have guaranteed an increase of 4% for most schools next year. Schools with falling rolls and stable rolls will get 4%. Schools that are growing about 3.4%.
The schools block money goes directly to schools. The LEA block includes things like SEN (especially very expensive out of county provision), home to school transport, EOTAS and capital expenditure from revenue. Hampshire had made a case to DfES for increasing that block particularly for out of county support and for pupils with difficulties, backed by the Schools Forum. At the moment there is discussion between the LEA and DfES in the hope that more money will be made available. There will be a transitional grant next year to reflect the fact that some schools with deficit budgets have them for very good reasons. £6.9 million targeted money to go to schools with long term deficits.
The Schools Forum had agreed £1 million should come out of the budget to give to schools in areas with high levels of deprivation in line with DfES current policy. In answer to a question as to why £2m had not been allocated as per the DfES guidelines, it was explained that the Schools Forum had to juggle priorities and was only an Advisory Body. The Executive Member for Education and the Cabinet of the County Council made the decision. Many funding issues were still very much up in the air and the final amounts available would not be known for some time.
Letter from Hampshire Constabulary
Governors were generally not happy with the response. They felt it avoided the issue. Schools could not get any written undertaking as to when and if the police would respond to calls for assistance. There was a view that the police were not supporting schools particularly if there were external users on site. It was suggested that the police should look at schools in a different light. The chairman agreed to take this back to the County Forum.
Falling Rolls
Louise Brierley said that colleagues would go out to schools to talk about the issues if a request was made. There was no published advice on this.
Workforce Remodelling
The LEA was very sympathetic but there was no more money. It has to be funded out of school budget. Approaches were being made to DfES about extra funding but no response so far. Education Personnel are launching training and using case studies to help schools to act within the severe budgetary restraints.
5 HGRG and County Forum
a) A summary of the main points from County Governor Forum on 18 November 2003 had been circulated with the agenda.
Ofsted now speak to all governors and ask searching questions about their role. All aspects are covered including maintenance of the building. The importance of forms S3 and S4 was emphasized. It is an on-going self evaluation process. The LEA is holding discussions with groups of headteachers.
b) Items to be taken to the next HGRG
Police response times to incidents at schools
Catchment areas. Is the Education Authority redrawing schools boundaries? Are parents being consulted?
6 Fleet Local Office Issues
Hazel Round asked governors who had experienced a recent Ofsted to let Governor Services know the kind of questions they had been asked. (e-mail Janice.fenner@hants.gov.uk).
Hazel explained that Hampshire is very grateful for the very significant contribution that governors make to our schools and education. A certificate system that automatically rewards governors for 4, 8 and 12 years service is now in operation. Governing bodies have nominated a number of governors for outstanding service within their governing body. Hampshire Governor Services has nominated governors who have contributed towards governance across the county and Hazel said it gave her great pleasure to be able to recognise the contribution of three people at the forum that evening. Hazel gave a brief resume of each governor's outstanding contribution. Louise Brierly then presented, Jane Pratt, Mildred Stocks and Terry Tillman with a certificate and a badge. Louise thanked and congratulated everyone for their contributions.
Louise Brierley told the forum that there had been some changes to the team of School Improvement Managers: John Tyler was joined by David Hardcastle (previously County Inspector for Science), Peter Denny had temporarily replaced Rebecca Matthews who had taken up the post of Principal Inspector for Kensington and Chelsea. Each School Improvement Manager had 60 schools in the North East under their wing. Louise explained that the most common time when governors had contact was when there was a headship. She asked governors to contact her or one of her team at the Fleet Office when this was about to happen.
7 Practical Solutions to Combat Dog Fouling
Following discussion suggestions were made:
Contact Local Authority to get them to pass a bye law against dog fouling. Have a bin installed outside the school.
The introduction of bins and a dog warden had improved the situation in several schools.
8 Any Other Business
National Governors' Council - Jim Duckham explained that he is the County Representative. The NGC had produced a new handbook. It cost £3. He said it was an excellent publication.
9 Future Agenda Items
Someone from County Treasurer's to talk about the Education Budget - preparation of budget, where the money comes from and the implications so that governors have a better understanding about what is involved.
To share ideas about the way schools use computer technology for the benefit of pupils
To share ideas about managing litter on school grounds (including Sharps Bins)
Alex Munro to talk about Appeals in 18 months' time
Minimising paperwork and bureaucracy
10 Date of Next Meeting
Tuesday 18 May 2004 at Wootey Infant School
Tuesday 21 September 2004 at Robert May's (Odiham). The Fleet Office is being used for SAPS training.
The meeting closed at 9.20 pm.
Addendum to Minutes - Russell Wheeler's Reply to Questions
I am advised that the cost of a SQL server licence for those schools that need it is £95.23 plus a Client Access Licence for each workstation using SQL which costs £4.45 each. Contrary to my suggestion that only larger secondaries will need this, it now seems that only smaller primaries will not need it - those without networked SIMS machines basically. The goalposts are constantly moving.
I have asked my colleagues and I don't have a quick and easy answer to why the SIMS licence is not put out to tender. I suspect that the fact it is an off-the-shelf system that is unique and that schools are under no obligation to repurchase from the LEA is part of the story - after all we don't seek tenders for Microsoft products which represent a much larger purchase for the authority. If I am able to shed any more light on this I will do so.