ICT Intent

There is a truism in industry about not outsourcing a mess. The same applies to education.

Commercial reasons for outsourcing are well known: improve efficiencies to increase revenue and market share; bring in external expertise; and allow managers to focus on core competencies. The same reasons apply to schools and colleges. Of particular importance to education is the freeing up of management time to focus on learning instead of managing ICT support services. This usually becomes painfully evident when there is a problem with those ICT support services. In my experience the problem is only acted upon when it hits crisis point—a mess.

Understand what’s going wrong

By the time things become a mess it is usually clear that the ICT has been dysfunctional for some time. Before looking into any solutions, such as outsourcing, understanding the reasons for the dysfunction is key. Furthermore, having a clear notion of what a well run ICT service looks like is also an important first stage regardless of potential methods for resolution.

Take steps to understand your current provision, how you got there and what effect it is having:

1. Audit current provision as an enabler of your wider strategic priorities for learning, teaching, welfare and inclusion.
2. Understand the impact the provision is currently having on learning, teaching, morale and innovation within your school or college. Talk to staff and students, formal lessons and informal learning and scrutinise work (staff and learners).
3. Understand how much your ICT costs: equipment, refresh, staffing and on-costs, licenses, subscriptions, insurances, power, security.

There are lots of sources of advice. A good place to start is Becta’s Self Review Framework.

Fix it by knowing what’s of value to you

Now start to think what you would expect if you were buying this service from a commercial provider. Look to other intuitions, case study examples and frameworks such as FITS to understand what is valued across the sector. Combining this research with the audit will give a more complete understanding of your starting point.

Align your starting point to wider goals

Check your self evaluations, talk to your SIP, LA or LSC and ensure that your priorities are aligned. Find out what strategic priorities are coming down the line from central and local government and hence what constraints (financial or technical) need to be considered.

You should now have a strong starting point that tells you what you value and establishes your ‘business case’. You should be able to articulate your vision for ICT at this stage which can be encapsulated in the form of an Output Specification—see examples from Partnerships for Schools.

Get rid of the mess

Now get rid of the mess. Your Output Specification should be good enough to go to tender. It should also be good enough to sit down with your in-house ICT managers and discuss what the needs of the school or college are over the next few years. And, crucially, what is expected with regard to service levels, metrics and accountabilities over that period.

Whether you outsource or not, you will be in a much stronger position to lead ICT from the front and will have defined ICT in educational rather than technical terms.