Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Record of Executive Decision:

1) Summary:

The following decision was made:

1.1. We are proposing that Hampshire Children's Services purchases software in order for it to extract data from schools' management information systems and transfer it back to the core (Winchester).

1.2. The costs of this purchase, and associated project, will be met from within existing budgets.

1.3. Executive Member approval is being sought in the event that spending on this software exceeds £100,000 over 4 years.

2) Reasons for the decision:

These are the reasons for this decision being made, including any links to the corporate strategy:

2.1. This software will form a significant part of the project that will allow us to build a solution to regularly bring schools' data back to core, in order for our central data to be up to date.

2.2. Up to date central data will allow us to improve the tracking of vulnerable children (in particular those missing education).

2.3. Up to date central data will also support a number of Children's Services teams (Special Educational Needs, Admissions etc.) in delivering their services.

3) Other options considered and rejected:

3.1. Option 1: Continue With the Status Quo

We can only ever be up to date on schools' data once a term (from the termly census) and this does not allow us to assist with tracking vulnerable children or moving towards an accurate picture of the current school population

3.2. Option 2: Design Bespoke In House Tools

In line with current corporate thinking, this option would be significantly more expensive and much harder to support in the long term.

3.3. Option 3: Invest in an Alternate Core System (We currently use a system called IMPULSE which will not "link" automatically to our schools systems. We could change this system to one that did link with the majority - 98% - of schools)

The cost of a new system and changing it has been estimated at between £3m and £5m. It would also incur significant business and service disruption.

4) Financial Implications

4.1. The cost of this software will be met from within existing budgets.

4.2. Approval is being sought in the event that spending exceeds £100,000 over 4 years which, should the software be successful, is likely.

4.3. We are confident that spending will not exceed £144,459 over 4 years and, on that basis, have approval from Legal Services to procure the software via a "mini competition".

5) Conflicts of Interest:

5.1. Conflicts of interest declared by the Decision-Maker:

a) None

5.2. Conflicts of interest declared by other Executive members consulted:

a) None

6) Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee:

None

7) Any reasons for the matter being dealt with urgently:

Not applicable.

8) Statement from the Decision Maker:

The purchase of this software will give Children's Services an opportunity to attempt to bring data back from schools on a regular basis in order to support service delivery within the department.

It should be clear that this software is just one part of the process and other work is also required to "glue" this software into a full end to end process. However, should the project be successful, we have a real opportunity to get a picture on a (hopefully weekly at least) regular basis of the attendance and achievements of children in our schools.