August 2021

94% of businesses already use a cloud service^[1]. 

Why? Because, as Hosting Tribunal (an independent company which provides impartial technology reviews) states in their review of cloud adoption statistics it’s a no-brainer.

‘The cloud offers enhanced security and stability, helps cut costs, and gives companies greater flexibility… Cloud services are taking the business world by storm and cloud adoption statistics tell the same story’.

So what’s happening in our schools?

74.8% of schools[2] do not utilise the cloud when it comes to hosting their management information system (MIS).

Vanessa Pittard (DfE’s former Head of Technology Policy Unit) wrote a blog[3] in which she estimated the market size in 2012 for MIS at £575m (roughly equivalent to £678m today). She goes on to state that ‘systems and infrastructure costs in other sectors are falling as more efficient Cloud solutions are introduced, suggesting considerable potential to release money for schools to invest in improving teaching and outcomes’.

Included in the white paper is a case study of the Harris Foundation which switched MIS to Bromcom (a cloud based MIS supplier). The enhanced functionality which they now have has not only enabled Harris to access live information across their group of academies, but it has also enabled them to abandon the majority of 3^rd party off-the-shelf products like assessment trackers and reporting tools. 

Harris went to tender in 2016 and was considering awarding their MIS contract to Capita (the incumbent) or Bromcom. At that time, only Ark Schools and Leigh Academy Trust had switched to the cloud and both were using Bromcom.  To their delight Harris reported making £2.8m savings since switching MIS (over a 3 year period), that’s circa £20k per school per year.  Extrapolate from this to the English school system, and we’re looking at making a potential saving of a colossal £460m.

This isn’t new news! Back in 2005 BECTA released a report[4] in which they ‘identified a significant number of suboptimal features of the current arrangements.’

On the commercial environment, they found ‘there are considerable impediments to the exercise of effective choice by schools and LEAs, and that this has an impact on competitive pressures and thus on overall value for money. The impediments include the complexity of the MIS procurement process, the lack of supplier-independent interoperability arrangements, and the lack of appropriate contractual protection for schools and LEAs.’

On Ross Morrison McGill’s blog[5] @TeacherToolkit, he provides a great summary of the history of MIS in schools and the inherent problems schools have faced over the last 30 years. 

This was further reinforced by John Jackson, CEO of London Grid for Learning (LGfL) in 2018 when he argued that it was time for local authorities to give schools what they need. He observed that legacy MIS is expensive to own and support and said that it's time for LAs to embrace Cloud MIS and the art of the possible.

But the overall picture really hasn’t changed that much, as Joshua Perry has shown in this chart from his blog bringmoredata[6]. 

If you go back even further to 2013, Capita’s market share then, stood at 83%. A paltry reduction in Capita’s market share of under 10% in 7 years. From these figures it appears that school leaders believe that SIMS is set in stone. Some of the reasons given include: all MIS are fundamentally the same; the LA only support SIMS; and it’s a distraction we just don’t need at the moment.

In August, I wrote an article[7] for the TES in which I debunked some of these myths around switching MIS and how Oasis Community Learning MAT has successfully switched to cloud with all 52 schools. I also argued that despite the unprecedented events of COVID, school leaders should re-evaluate the way we do things in schools, including how we are using information and the systems we currently have in place.

When public procurement stops working

In 2010, 5 years on from the Becta Report 2005, they published another report titled ‘School management information systems and value for money’[8]. 

The report found that the school MIS marketplace was:

•       Still uncompetitive as a result of a virtual absence of Open Journal of the European Union (OJEU) compliant procurement activity

•       Still dominated by a single supplier

•       Still distorted due to the impact of the statutory returns process which increases costs to schools, increases the burdens on local authorities and mitigates in particular against smaller providers

•       Still characterised by a lack of understanding of the relevant EU and UK procurement regulations at the local authority level, and concerns round the cost of change

•       Still impeded by a lack of a mandated interoperability standard

•       Still supported by specialist teams, almost always operating at the individual local authority level, and consequently unable to take advantage of economies of scale.

They identified that 80 per cent of local authorities were inadvertently procuring MIS systems illegally.

Ten years on, and I believe that there has been limited progress in addressing these findings. 

Schools are still operating in a system dominated by a single supplier; procurement routes are still cumbersome and characterised by a lack of understanding of the relevant requirements; and there is still a lack of transparency of the total cost of ownership of management information in schools.   Resource which should be directed into the classroom is being diverted into maintaining legacy systems which are not fit for purpose.

Despite the clear benefits of switching to the cloud, the majority of school leaders are still not taking the plunge and making the change. The MIS revolution clearly hasn’t started yet. 

Will Capita’s recent announcement of their intention to sell SIMS be the catalyst for change?

Or, will we see history repeat itself with the biggest losers continuing to be our schools; paying over the odds for an outdated product which does not meet the needs of teachers and leaders and does not add value.

One of the biggest barriers is still the lack of understanding of the procurement process and adherence to the procurement regulations. 

The Academies’ Financial Handbook states that you have two options here: find and use a framework or run your own procurement. Cloud-based frameworks can be accessed via the government's own G-Cloud, which consists of a series of framework agreements with suppliers (from which public sector organisations can buy services without needing to run a full tender or competition procurement process) and an online store that allows public sector bodies to search for services that are covered by the G-Cloud frameworks. Other framework services exist to support schools too. 

However, what has become evident is that school leaders are wary of using G-Cloud, believing that a better deal can be struck through running their own full procurement exercise. This seems completely counterintuitive to what a government procurement framework should accomplish, especially when you factor in the effort of running a complicated procurement exercise. 

Surely, the best deal should be available through the government’s framework? 

With some of the larger Multi Academy Trusts choosing to run their own procurement processes, they clearly believe this is not the case. The minefield involved in this approach is highlighted by Edugeek[9] in a number of their discussion forums on MIS systems. A concerning feature of these discussion is the lack of understanding of procurement regulation. More alarming, is the message that any challenge to the process from suppliers is frowned upon and attaches stigma to those suppliers. This is exactly the culture which fueled the problems Becta identified in 2010.  When procuring, we must embrace a culture of transparency and integrity. When there are genuine concerns challenge to the process should be encouraged rather than pilloried, and lessons are learned.

Call to action

As a profession, we need to stand together and work together to get the best deals for our schools. To this end, I am working with a number of school leaders to share practice, strategies and look at ways in which we can collaborate more effectively, including looking at joint procurement opportunities. 

If you would like to be part of this, please complete a simple survey using the link below:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/MISresearch

If after reading this article you still want to go it alone and run your own procurement exercise, I’d highly recommend you read Phil Sander’s blog[10] on ‘5 things to ask suppliers before making a change’ and Yusuf Errol’s article[11] on ‘A guide to choosing contractors’.

To note: the Government has announced the new e-notification service which will replace OJEU, called ‘Find A Tender[12].’ It will be used to post and view public sector procurement notices as of 1 January 2021.

Some other thoughts

Any system is only as good as the strategy it underpins. Without a clearly defined and fit for purpose Information Strategy, you run the risk of falling into the trap Andrew Lang identified of ‘using statistics as a drunk uses a lamppost — for support rather than illumination’.

In defining your strategy, consider the unintended consequences of collecting certain aspects of data and take into account the DfE’s teacher workload advisory group’s findings[13] on making data work and the government’s response.

And finally, how ready is the profession? In a report funded by Intel, Fujitsu and Birmingham University[14], they found:

·      53% of surveyed UK teachers and administrators wanted to invest in technology, but didn’t know how.

·      32% believe they lack the in-house experience to cope with IT complexity, and

·      27% feel that they need more training and support. 

Involving staff and upskilling them is critical to the success of any strategy, so don’t ignore them!

In Conclusion

•     Procurement of MIS is still not working. The MIS market is costing schools hundreds of millions of pounds annually. Smarter procurement could create annual savings of £460m. Money which would be better spent in the classroom.

•     The DfE and ESFA should take immediate action to: 1) clarify and refine procurement advice and requirements to MAT accounting officers, chief financial officers and Chairs of Trustees; 2) review the value for money and transparency G-Cloud provides; and 3) initiate a formal review of the progress against the recommendation of the 2010 Becta report.

•     When procuring, we must embrace a culture of transparency and integrity. When there are genuine concerns about the use of public money, challenge to the process should be encouraged rather than pilloried, and lessons should be learned. 

[1] https://hostingtribunal.com/blog/cloud-adoption-statistics/

[2] http://bringmoredata.blogspot.com/

[3] https://www.vanessapittard.co.uk/single-post/2017/11/01/MIS-matters

[4] https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1656/7/becta_2005_schoolMIS_report_Redacted.pdf

[5] https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2016/01/17/time-to-move-over/

[6] http://bringmoredata.blogspot.com/

[7] Why switching to a new MIS isn’t mission impossible – TES 7^th August 2020

[8] https://dera.ioe.ac.uk//15716/

[9] http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/

[10] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/uk-schools-mis-software-5-things-ask-suppliers-before-phil-sanders/

[11] https://main-abbolt-acca.content.pugpig.com/2020/09/04/14sept_pub_tendering_uk/content.html  

[12] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-sector-procurement-after-a-no-deal-brexit

[13] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-workload-advisory-group-report-and-government-response

[14] https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/HEFI/FUJ-Education-Report-UK.pdf