SCHOOL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

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SEEMIS

1. Reason for Report

To provide Members with further information in relation to the new School

Management Information System (SEEMIS) following their consideration of a report on this matter in August 2008.

2. Report Summary

The report provides further clarification on the following

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Risk assessment in relation to data security;

Potential benefits and savings arising from the introduction of the new system.

3. Glossary of Terms

CPD Continuous Professional Development

DSM Devolved School Management

EMA Education Maintenance Allowance

GLOW Formerly Scottish Schools Digital Network (SSDN)

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portal provides

an access point to resources for those working in education in Scotland

A messaging system which allows SMS text messages and

telephone voice messages to be made from school to parent semi automatically.

Multi Agency Store

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Scottish Government MAS created to allow an inter agency interface for the e-care and e-health agenda.

Management Information System developed under a partnership agreement involving 26 from a possible 32 Scottish local authorities Groupcall

MAS

MIS Management Information System

SEEMIS

TS Technology Solutions

SMS Short Messaging System

NAMS Nursery Application Management System

ASL Additional Support for Learning

UPS Uninterruptable Power Supply

VPN Virtual Private Network

Trent The new Corporate HR and Payroll system

4. Recommendations

Members are asked to:

4.1

opportunities for savings, once fully implemented;

4.2

stored; and

4.3

Management Information System, as a result of the SEEMIS partnership. agree that the SEEMIS system represents ‘best value’ and offers agree that the SEEMIS system will ensure all personal data is securely

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Report Education Committee 28 October 2008

5. Plan Links and Contribution

5.1 This project will support the following Corporate Plan Values

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0 Customer First

Continuous Improvement

0 Equality and Diversity

0 Openness and Communication

0 Team Work and Partnership

5.2

It also contributes to the following Corporate Plan Themes and Objectives

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Smarter-

Wealthier and Fairer

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Improve physical and technological infrastructure

P Secure a higher skilled workforce

P Provide all children with access to positive learning environments

6. ResourcesNalue for Money Assessment

6.1 The August 2008 report advised Members that the costs of the new system

could be met from existing resources, with the addition of

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15K in 2009/10 and 2010/11 for extra CPD. It also advised that current central staff would be trained and that these staff would then be responsible for the training of staff in schools. In the secondary sector, there would be some initial training provided by the provider. This overall approach is not only cost effective but it also increases the knowledge and experience of these staff in working with the new software.

6.2 In response to the request for ‘value for money’ assurances from Members at the August Committee, there are a number of significant service benefits, in addition to some relatively small potential budget savings, arising from the introduction of this new system.

6.3 Service benefits include

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The system is ‘future-proofed’ as the provider has a proven track record, which spans over 20 years, and is responsible for the provision of MIS to 26 of the 32 local authorities in Scotland;

The close working relationship between SEEMIS and the Scottish

Government will ensure that this authority can establish effective links to the MAS and thereby be in a position to share appropriate information between agencies and local authorities. This will enhance the authority’s child protection arrangements;

There will be a reduction in duplicate data input, thereby releasing school- based and central staff time for other tasks and reducing the risk of typing errors;

0 There is potential for SEEMIS to link to other systems and, in particular,

links between SEEMIS and Trent are currently being developed. This has the potential to further streamline data input;

0 The current system is hosted locally on individual servers in each school,

which means that the central collation of data covering all schools is a time consuming exercise. As a result, this is only carried out once a week for

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the Secondary sector and once a month for the Primary sector. Up to date data, covering all schools, will be available within SEEMIS at all times to central staff, where appropriate;

The reporting mechanism within SEEMIS, known as VISION, will enhance the performance information available, both at school and authority level;

0 SEEMIS also provides opportunities to link with other partners such as

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Social Work Services

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either through giving staff appropriate access

or developing a link to the new Social Work Services System, Corelogic, via the MAS;

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Community Learning and Development, as SEEMIS contains a

separate CLD module;

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Pre-school partner providers, via a NAMS web interface;

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Pupil Support to notify free school meal entitlement.

SEEMIS will allow both Psychological Services and ASL staff to access current information on pupils and record decisions made;

In the future, with further commissioned developments, SEEMIS may replace the in -house Supply Teacher database currently supported by TS staff;

0 Current processes, such an the submission of Census information to the

Scottish Government each September, will be automated;

The adoption of SEEMIS as a hosted service allows a seamless software upgrade process without any user intervention from school or central staff.

6.4

easy to quantify. The potential for savings does arise in the following areas

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The financial savings arising from the implementation of this system are less

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Staff Costs

These could reduce in the following areas

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Secondary School Support Staff

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The DSM formula was reduced by 7%

in

2007/08

in order to address the vacancy assumption within the corporate budget and contribute to the corporate savings target. The estimated resultant saving was

f

124K

but this has only recently been achieved in full because schools were required to manage down staff, as vacancies arose. The new system will offer opportunities to streamline current practices and School Support Managers, based in each secondary school, will be asked to develop innovative ways to use the new system and share these with their colleagues. However, increased cluster working and the introduction of more flexible approaches to education, through Curriculum for Excellence, and in particular GLOW, may result in additional tasks, which require to be absorbed by existing support staff. (Note

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secondary support staff include clerical / administrative staff, library assistants and school technicians);

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Primary School Support Staff

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Any reduction in the current level of provision would have an impact on teacher workload as in the majority of schools this would increase the time when the school office would not be occupied and visitors to the school or telephone calls would interrupt teaching time. It should be emphasized that a reduction in allocations would result in relatively small reductions to current contracts across a large number of staff in the 106 primary schools;

Centrally based staff

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These staff will play a key role in not only the implementation of SEEMIS but also the introduction of other ‘shared services’ related opportunities

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e.g. the centralisation of means testing, under Customer Services, could include the administration of free school meal, EMA and clothing grant applications, the new HR and Payroll system (Trent);

The August paper highlighted the demands that are being placed on current staff during the 2008/09 academic year, as a result of the

implementation of both SEEMIS and GLOW. If a reduction is considered, this should not take effect until the systems have been fully implemented and the service is seeing the benefits of the resultant increased

functionality. Any early staff reductions are likely to limit the capacity of the Council to achieve the maximum long term benefits of the investment it is making in modern technology. SEEMIS have suggested that full

implementation will take between 2 and 3 years, although the project plan envisages all schools having basic functionality by Easter 2009.

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Other Costs

Groupcall

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55 primary schools and 16 secondary schools currently pay for Groupcall out of their devolved budgets. The total costs incurred in 2007/8 were f62K.There is provision within SEEMIS for automated SMS and e- mail messaging but this does not have the same functionality as Groupcall -the major difference being the loss of voice messaging over the public telephone network. Nonetheless, this may be an area where Head Teachers may consider they can reduce costs; and

7. Risk Assessment

7.1 The August paper provided a degree of assurance that the SEEMIS

organisation is well established and, given its close working relationship with the Scottish Government, fully appreciates the benefits and risks associated with increased data sharing between councils.

7.2 In addition, the new system does significantly reduce the potential risk of personal and business critical data becoming lost, as it provides improved

arrangements for security and back up. Currently, school based staff are responsible for ensuring that the school system is backed up each day and that a copy of this is retained off-site

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often in the member of staffs home. Although the data held in this way could not be accessed by a third party, the present arrangements do result in there being a risk that data could be lost as a result of a major systems failure or an event, such as a fire.

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7.3

Data Access

7.3.1 In the light of media reports about personal data security and the risks of such information becoming available to third parties, SEEMIS provides each authority with its own dedicated server, which is accessed via the Intranet. Access for home

reporting is only allowed via a separate application that can only access non- sensitive information. The move to SEEMIS should ensure that only those with the correct and appropriate levels of access to the application may read or edit

information. There is no instance where data should be available outwith the system eg data stored on CD/DVD disc or pen drive.

7.3.2 The following measures are also taken by SEEMIS

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SEEMIS provide separate sites for both the main and fallback servers. The sites are air conditioned, alarmed, environmentally monitored and supported by UPSs and backup generators;

Data is stored on a Storage Attached Network with a copy stored on a second Storage Attached Network within a different data centre; SEEMIS provide a full backup and recovery service. This includes the provision of all the required media and storage within “fire safes”. Each month a report detailing the success of nightly backups is issued to the Council;

Where a system recovery is required, the system will be restored to the most recent position that is practical from the available backups;

Service availability is checked on a daily basis before the start of the school day. This is carried out by SEEMIS staff dedicated to supporting the hosted service ;

All aspects of the system management, including configuration and updates, are undertaken by SEEMIS;

Network penetration testing is carried out by external specialists each quarter.

8. Authorities and Legal Implications

The Standards in Scotland’s Schools Act 2000 places a duty on Education

Authorities to seek continuous improvement in relation all aspects of the Education service.

9. Consultations

The following have been consulted and concur with the contents of this report:

0 Operations Manager Accountancy

0 Service Director Support Services

Interim Head of Technology Solutions Efficient Procurement Programme Manager Shared Services Project Manager

10. Background

In August 2008, the Members received a report detailing the progress made in the replacement of the School Services Management Information System, as a result of joining the SEEMIS partnership. This report was ‘Noted’ and Members requested a further report on the security implications of migrating to SEEMIS and the potential

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savings in order to achieve ‘best value’. This further report aims to address this request and, in so doing, allow Members to endorse the approach taken to date.

11. Key Issues

The service has recognised both the need to ensure ‘best value’ (see section 6) and the priority that requires to be given to data security (see section 7) as it progressed its plans to move to SEEMIS. The details provided above will hopefully provide Members with this assurance.

Stuart Chambers Education Officer

Date of Report: 20 October 2008

Colin Grant

Service Director Schools Services Education and Social Work Services Woodbank, 30 Edinburgh Road DUMFRIES, DGI I N W