Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services

The Cabinet considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services setting out the background to the current ICT connectivity provision provided to approximately 40 schools within the authority and proposing the associated procurement route required to renew the service.

The report indicated that the ICT connectivity provision referred to internet access, firewall protection and web/content filtering services provided to the schools concerned.

Decisions Made:

That

(1)      the Executive Director of Corporate Resources & Customer Services be authorised to conduct a direct award procurement exercise for the continuation of direct internet access, firewall and web-filtering provisions to schools within the authority who wish to continue or take up the use of this service, for a new 3-year period. This approach is compliant with the contract procedure rules and the Public Contract Regulations as the framework that is being used allows for a direct award; and

(2)      the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member - Regulatory, Compliance and CorporateServices, be granted delegated authority to award the Contract resulting from theprocurement exercise.

Reasons for the Decisions:

To continue offering an appropriate internet provision to schools who opted into this service from the Council which contributed towards the educational provision for children within the Borough.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

There were two options considered and rejected.

(1)      To run a full procurement exercise and open competition to other providers on relevant frameworks.

This option identified that in switching to another provider and/or solution would require new hardware in each school as the current equipment was leased under contract and not owned by the Council or school. There would therefore be an additional cost to each school to provide a new solution and the current equipment in each school was also far from end-of-life.

Indicative costs of new equipment, included in the previous tender, added between £850 and £1,900 to each school’s cost over a 3-year period. There would also be additional costs to the Council from its ICT Service Provider to make configuration changes to continue allowing schools to link to the Council’s network. This cost of change was estimated at circa 50k (estimate based on previous project costs).

Other periphery costs or disruptions would be associated with potentially training school staff to use a new solution and support for other third-party providers used by schools.

(2)      To stop offering this service to schools.

This option would result in each school needing to procure their own internet provisions and associated services from 1 April 2024. As detailed further in the report, a high proportion of schools who used this service currently had expressed intent to continue using it should it be available. Should the offer be removed, this could put schools at risk who were inexperienced or lacked sufficient ICT knowledge to procure a similar solution from elsewhere themselves.