Agenda item

Context:

To provide a progress update on the investment programme for ICT in schools. This programme involved the upgrade and renewal of the ICT infrastructure in schools, providing a common platform and standard in line with Welsh Government and 21^st Century Schools’ aspirations.

Key Issues:

The investment programme is predicted to finish on time, within budget and to the required standard and specification. It is expected that all work will be fully completed over the summer period, with a post project review in September 2017 to address any residual issues. Schools are already reporting an overall increase in performance of the infrastructure upgrade and the level of technician support within the Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Member Scrutiny:

·         With regard to moving schools to the Shared Resource Service (SRS) Infrastructure, this is a dedicated education infrastructure so it is not shared with the corporate infrastructure.

·         All of the machines within the schools are connected to this programme providing access to internet sources, printing windows devices and I pads, for example. If a school requests something new, then this is looked at with a view to providing it to all schools, i.e., doing it once for all schools.

·         Schools have the option to use the Cloud and some are doing this via the Hwb platform and google apps. Schools are being urged to use the Hwb, as it is a platform for Wales.

·         A centralised network is being provided in which schools can connect their devices to. Machines are virus protected and are up to date.

·         Capacity is regularly monitored and increased when required. More capacity is now available. This is funded and provided separately from the corporate network.

·         Under the SLA arrangement there are 4 levels, namely, Comprehensive and the Group A, B & C primary schools.

·         It is paramount that each school maintains the level of equipment to ensure that the service being provided by the SRS can be sustainable. Schools will be required to update their equipment on a routine basis. An audit will be undertaken every year and SRS will rate equipment accordingly.  This will help schools to manage their ICT budgets.

·         The £885,000 had been costed out.  A large part of the budget went on employing the four technicians to undertake the work required and upgrading the broadband lines to 100mb.  Welsh Government has looked at what has been done with regard to increasing broadband lines to 100mb and is looking to fund 100mb provision across all schools in Wales.

·         In response to a question raised regarding bandwidth and whether the system was adequate to support the present and future infrastructure, service provider constraints and whether capacity could be sold back to the open market, it was noted that officers would investigate the matter regarding selling back capacity. Bandwidth will be monitored with a view to ensuring that adequate capacity was available. The infrastructure itself is fully resilient and will create minimal disruption to schools should a server fail. New storage has been purchased and opportunities to store via the Cloud were also being looked at. Other authorities are keen to examine what Monmouthshire County Council has been undertaking.

·         A rolling audit process will commence in April every year as part of the SLA delivery.

·         The Team meets with schools in order to understand what they are trying to achieve with a view to checking off any infrastructure complexities that might occur.  From a primary school perspective, many of the applications that schools are using are web based and the Team are available to ensure resilience of the systems used. In a secondary school capacity, it differs, as schools tend to operate ‘higher end’ machines.  Therefore, the Team works with the schools to ensure the right equipment is required before purchasing it.

·         The Education Achievement Service (EAS) goes into schools to coach how to teach in a digital world.

·         A question was asked whether communities could benefit from using the 100MB lines that have been installed.  It was noted that this matter would be investigated.

·         Capacity has to be regularly reviewed and monitored.

·         Schools have IT coordinators.  However, a web based call logging system is in place within schools allowing individuals to log calls rather than this being undertaken by an IT coordinator. There is also a technician in post per cluster to respond to issues quickly.

·         The 100MB upgrade to Mounton House School will go live during the schools’ summer holidays.

·         Joint scrutiny between the Economy and Development Select Committee and the Children and Young People Select Committee could be undertaken in respect of the pipeline of development from primary school to secondary school.

·         A user working group will be established whereby selected head teachers, with representatives of the authority, will review progress.

·         Lines are monitored to see how well they are performing.  Capacity maps can be provided to schools on a quarterly basis so that they might ascertain capacity levels. This will allow schools to plan, going forward.

·          As part of the equipment refresh within schools, the aim was to remove all of the XP machines and the removal of any devices that could not support Windows 7. Replacement programmes for older versions of I Pads are also being brought forward so that they can support the latest versions of IOS.

·         A post evaluation review will be undertaken with all schools within Monmouthshire which will run from September 2017.