MINUTES OF THE C2K PROJECT BOARD MEETING HELD AT C2K HEADQUARTERS TUESDAY 12 TH JANUARY 2010 Present: Mr B Mulholland Mr J Stewart Mr G Byrne Mr R Hanna Ms S Lawler Mr J Wilkinson Mr F Devenny Mr P Mackey Mr P Monaghan In Attendance: Mr J Ringland Ms M Kane Mrs G Hall Apologies: Dr S Lucey Mr E McArdle Mrs A Lennon Mr R Harper WELB (Chair) C2k ESA ICT CCEA DE Dromore High School CCMS WELB St Oliver Plunkett Primary School C2k Contracts & Finance Manager, C2k Implementation and Communications Manager, C2k C2k (Secretary) BECTA GTCNI SEELB NEELB 793 MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 11 th NOVEMBER 2009 The Chair welcomed members and wished everyone a Happy New Year. The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and Mr Hanna asked for the following amendment to be made under item 786 on page 3: remove CCEA from the sentence, C2k had agreed commercial terms and had entered into a licensing agreement with CEM in July 2007 on behalf of DE. Numbering on last two items to be updated. 794 MATTERS ARISING Minute 785 Broadband enhancement The Chair requested feedback on the Interim Broadband proposal from DE and ESAIT. Mrs Lawlor reported that the Minister is looking at budgets right across the Department at present and as yet, no decision has been made on funding. Mr Byrne reported that this was also the ESAIT Programme Board position. Minute 785 Declaration of Interests It was noted that some members still have to complete a Declaration of Interest form. 1
Action 1: The Director to write to those members, who have not yet done so, to complete the Declaration of Interest form, as recommended in the recent C2k audit report. Minute 786 InCAS Mr Hanna reported that CCEA wrote to DE before Christmas, setting out four options for moving forward with InCAS and is presently awaiting advice on whether to extend the contract. Minute 787 Finance Report Mr Ringland reported that Mr Fitzsimons has confirmed, in writing, the retention of the eschools revenue funding surplus within its consolidated revenue budget for 2009/10. Minute 788 Project Board ToR The Chair wrote to DE on 17 th November 2009 in relation to governance arrangements of C2k in the context of ESA being established on 1 st January 2010. He advised that the assumption now is that accountability will remain within the remit of the WELB. The Chair stated that an interim Board of 7 members will oversee arrangements to the end of February, when it is expected that a new Board will be constituted and operational. The Chair hoped to have further information for members at the next Project Board meeting. Minute 789 Advisers Procurement The Director wrote to DE on 22 nd December 2009. Minute 790 Lot 7 Procurement The Director stated that an approach to involving schools in the SoR drafting has been developed. 795 HIGHLIGHT REPORT A copy of the service Highlight Report was circulated, for information, in advance of the meeting. Following advice from members at the last meeting, the report has been cut down somewhat though the Director noted that it is still quite detailed. He stated that he would continue to work with teams to try to distil it further. The Director summarised, for members, some of the key activities detailed in the report. ESA Domain work The work with ESA is ongoing in terms of integrating the C2k corporate systems into the ESA NI domain. Computer based exams With regard to the high stakes computer based exams being undertaken by schools, the Director noted that they ran smoothly. DENI Statutory Returns 2010 The DENI Statutory Returns are collected in October/November each year and the Director noted that the 2009 returns had run smoothly. 2
The Director stated that C2k is working with DE and with Capita on the development of software to deliver the return for 2010. He noted that the long term plan is that eschools will be the vehicle to deliver that information to DE. The Director was of the view, however, that we should seriously consider commissioning software development from Capita for a 2011 return as a fall-back position. He advised that he would enter into discussions with Capita to facilitate this development in due course. Support for Transfer Mr Devenny stated that over subscribed schools will have to apply admission criteria in respect of Free School Meals. The Director stated that the delivery teams are producing advice to schools on using the Admissions functionality within SIMS. The Director continued that the software facilitates the use of entitlement to Free School Meals within the sifting process. The Director added that the advice given by C2k will be consistent with DE advice. Rollout of pc replacement The Director reported that the rollout of Post primary and Special school pc replacement is ongoing as part of the contract extension with Northgate and the project is on target to complete by the end of January. He stated that there has been relatively little disruption to schools in terms of delivering these services. InCAS The Director reported that the InCAS round of activity is nearly complete for this year. He referred to the documented number of C2k helpdesk calls, with a total of 520 this year compared with 574 calls last year even though there were twice as many users of the service this year, concluding that the InCAS process had worked smoothly. Mr Hanna did not have figures to hand but reported that the CCEA helpdesk calls were significantly higher than those to C2k which he attributed, in part to, the media attention. The Director noted that the calls to C2k were mainly technical calls whereas CCEA would have received calls with regard to the InCAS process. User Management Service The Director reported that one of the ETI recommendations in respect of LNI was that teachers who were not in full time employment should have access to the system and that this would involve provisioning them within the C2k service. He noted that the key source of the necessary information would be the GTCNI Register and C2k has been in discussion with the Registrar on data sharing between the Register and C2k. The Director advised of the current position which is that GTCNI can share the information but they can only do so in the context of teachers having actively signed up to allow that sharing process to take place. The Director was of the view that it would, therefore, be impossible to meet the ETI requirement without active support from DE. This would involve DE confirming that access to the LNI system is a necessary requirement of every teacher s conditions of service. Under these circumstances GTCNI would be free to share the information with C2k. Action 2: The Director to write to Ms Sharon Lawler to progress this request within DE. Customer Satisfaction Survey The Director reported that, through C2k Exchange, C2k has conducted another customer satisfaction survey with Primary and Post primary schools. The Implementation and Communications team has been working on the analysis of the survey, which is now almost complete and the Director would hope to provide feedback on the findings at the next Project Board meeting. 3
Communications with partners The Director noted that C2k is continuing to work with partners on the review and updating of the Big Training Calendar. The Director reported that work is ongoing with ESA on its website and communications strategy. The Director advised that C2k has provided ongoing support to BT in relation to the BT Young Scientist competition that ran through the latter half of the autumn term. C2k worked with BT on publicity for the competition and also supported a Ministerial launch at Stormont. The Director noted that the culmination of the competition is an exhibition and awards ceremony in Dublin later this week and that C2k will be manning a stand which DE has partly funded. C2k will also be represented at the award ceremony on Friday. Mr Hanna reported, for members information, on a very successful piece of collaborative work that had been carried out between C2k and CCEA on the provision of online support for teachers in respect of the new assessment arrangements. The Director acknowledged the importance of this work in delivering a cost effective approach to professional development. 796 FINANCE REPORT The C2k Resource Budget Report with projected expenditure was circulated to members in advance of the meeting, for information. As already mentioned, Mr Ringland advised that DE has confirmed that the eschools revenue surplus can be retained for use within the overall C2k allocation. With regard to projected spend for the year, and the utilisation of the eschools surplus, he referred to a number of service enhancements mostly around software upgrades to existing software applications such as Sibelius and Solidworks. Other enhancements included extending the network access facility, currently available in Primary schools, to the Post Primary schools system. Mr Ringland noted that C2k is within budget for this year and he would expect this to remain so for the remainder of the year. Mr Byrne asked if there was any progress with regard to the fact that the eschools project will not be fully implemented this financial year. Mr Ringland explained that within the original Business Case and implementation plan it was anticipated that it would be fully operational by May 09 but this had now slipped as the sign-off conditions for service commencement had not yet been met by HP. This had given rise to the revenue surplus as service charges due from May 09 had not been paid. As well as this, a major capital milestone payment could not be signed off and this has been released back to DE. Mrs Lawlor stated that DE is processing a bid for this as an inescapable commitment in 2010/11. The slippage on this capital aspect of the eschools budget had no impact on the C2k budget. In respect of schools who are involved in the Entitlement Framework, Mr Wilkinson asked if there would be development work to bring together the C2k system and the FE college systems, particularly in relation to exploring how a course within the college system could be accessed through C2k. The Director stated that a meeting is scheduled to take place, within the next few weeks, between DEL, DE and C2k to look at ways by which the Unique Learner Number could be used to allow the colleges and schools to keep track of pupil progress through a 4
single agreed identifier. Ms Lawler stated that she has raised this at DE with Dorina Edgar, who is part of the 14-19 team, with responsibility for the Entitlement Framework. Ms Kane stated that students can use LearningNI both within and beyond school across the internet. She highlighted the fact that FE colleges have different Learning Environments and, therefore, interoperability and standards are key issues to take into account. 797 ADVISERS PROCUREMENT UPDATE Mr Ringland noted that members would be aware from previous meetings that C2k was advised that it could not use the OGC Catalist Frameworks to appoint Advisers but would instead have to use the full EU procurement process. He then updated members on progress. Mr Ringland reported that the Pre-Qualification and shortlisting stages are now complete. Nine submissions were received for the Legal Advisers and, of those, three were shortlisted to invite to tender. Mr Ringland advised that for the Strategic/Financial and Technical Advisers, nine applications had also been received and, again, three were shortlisted and considered by the evaluation panel as achieving a satisfactory level of technical scoring. With regard to the current status, Mr Ringland hoped to issue the invitation to tender documentation by the end of this week. To comply with the timescales that are set out in the EU regulations, Mr Ringland advised that one month must be allowed for tender submissions to be received, followed by the period necessary to evaluate them and identify the preferred bidder. Mr Ringland stated that he hoped to identify the preferred bidder by mid-march. He noted that the Director will present a timeline in his documentation under the next agenda item. There were no questions or comments from members. 798 LOT 7 PROCURMENT UPDATE - Contingency issues The Chair referred to a letter he received from the Permanent Secretary, Mr Will Haire, in relation to contingency arrangements for the delivery of services following the approval now obtained for the C2k Advisers and Lot 7 Business Cases. He noted that contingency arrangements are in place and these were presented to the Project Board at a meeting in September, when it was assumed that the procurements could be progressed with sufficient pace to allow for the projected completion dates to be met. The Chair stated that the contingency arrangements need to be reviewed in light of the Permanent Secretary s letter and, once agreed, should be forwarded to DE and ESAIT for consideration. The Director then gave an update on the outline contingency arrangements tabled at the Project Board meeting in September. He stated that C2k would hope to issue the Advisers tender documentation this week to the shortlisted applicants and to receive their responses by the middle of February, then complete the evaluation of those within a couple of weeks and be in a position to put in an evaluation report and a preferred bidder recommendation to the WELB by 5 th March, with a view to making a contract award by 19 th March. The Director stated that this assumes that there are no further external approvals to be gained, confirmation of which he has sought from DE. This will then move the project forward to the point where it could launch the Lot 7 procurement and the Director identified the pre-procurement activities that need to be completed, as follows: 5
- Conduct a health check on the Lot 7 procurement process by 26 th March 2010 (following the Gate2 review that was completed in September); - Finalise Lot 7 PID and requirements documentation, in preparation for its presentation to the Project Board for approval by 16 th April 2010; and - Publish OJEU w/b 30 April 2010. The Director stated that the implication of this timetable is that award of the Lot 7 contract is unlikely to be achieved before June 2011 and that a robust contingency plan will be required to ensure continuity of service to schools. He then tabled a paper (attached) that outlined his proposed approach to the procurement process and updated the contingency plan that had originally been agreed by the Board on 29 September 2009. With regard to the long-term arrangements, the Director pointed out that a piece-meal approach to securing services for schools would be unlikely to achieve the economies of scale delivered by the Lot 7 procurement. Further, he noted that the contingency arrangements, which are, primarily, presented to address delays arising out of the procurement or approvals processes and that rightly fall within the remit of the C2k Project Board and its officers, will not deal effectively with the possible suspension of services to schools as a result of any termination of, or significant reduction in, the funding stream. It was his view that, in such circumstances, it would fall to the Department to determine how continued, school access to effective ICT services and resources would be achieved. The Director invited comments and feedback. Mr Hanna welcomed the range of contingency options and found them extremely helpful. Mr Wilkinson commended the report and agreed that it would be DE s responsibility should there be any cessation of the centrally funded ICT services to schools. Mr Devenny noted that stakeholders should also be made aware of the contingency arrangements to dispel any uncertainties. The Director reiterated that the request from the Permanent Secretary was to confirm the contingency arrangements in respect of slippage in the procurement timetable and that the budgetary considerations fell outside the remit. Mrs Lawlor indicated that the Department s preferred position was to address affordability issues at the point, in the Lot 7 procurement, where the Appointment Business Case was presented for consideration. Mr Hanna expressed the view that the Project Board was responsible for overseeing the implementation of DE policy and, as such, would need to acknowledge any funding constraints within the procurement process. Members accepted the contingency plan as tabled and the Chair advised that it would be sent to ESA and DE. - Lot 7 Requirements Update Report Ms Kane circulated an update report on the workstream process to develop the Lot 7 Statement of Requirements. She gave an update on work that has taken place over the last three months, beginning with the pre-workstream planning. Each of the four workstreams is headed up by a member of the C2k Management Board and some time 6
was spent in October preparing the groundwork in getting the workstreams together. Ms Kane stated that various background documents, including BECTA working documents for the establishment of their own frameworks etc, were provided for members and ground rules, that acknowledged the commercially sensitive nature of the process, were agreed. As well as this, templates were created to ensure, as far as possible, that the workstreams worked in similar ways. Ms Kane noted that the membership of the workstreams was finalised in October when the senior officer in each stakeholder organisation had nominated individuals to bring their professional views to each workstream. Initial workstream engagement commenced in November and each workstream had access to the other workstream areas, with the first SoR drafts completed by the end of December. Ms Kane advised that from each workstream, there is now a comprehensive, but still high level, statement of requirements specific to the remit of the workstream. Ms Kane noted that the four separate documents now need to be amalgamated and the workstreams will meet again in February to ensure that the merged document reflects their stated needs. Ms Kane advised that the workstream leads will also seek the views of the Senior User Forum on the SoR before it is finalised. Ms Kane advised of some key messages coming from the four documents already: - Accessibility, in its broadest sense, is a central requirement (including the provision of significantly enhanced bandwidth and the ability to make the ICT services available inside and outside school, to a wide range of users and stakeholders, including parents); - Need for interoperability across the service with adherence to key standards; - The recognition that strong Identity Management will be critical to the security of the system and its users; - That schools need to have the flexibility to customise the service; and - Recognition of the size of the transition task. Mr Ringland stated that following the consolidation exercise, and sign-off from the workstream membership and Senior User Forum, the Technical Advisers (who will be appointed by that stage) will be required to carry out a QA exercise in terms of its readiness as a procurement document and its alignment with key objectives as set out in the Outline Business case and the emerging DE Education Technology strategy. Mr Hanna confirmed his view that the workstream effort should not end up with an unachievable wish list. He suggested that mapping of the document to DE policy would need to be explicit in its final draft. Mr Ringland agreed, stating that the drafting exercise will ensure that the key objectives as set out and agreed in the OBC and the expected DE ET Strategy Review will be addressed in the SoR. The SoR will aim to identify essential and desirable requirements such that the final scoping of the contracted service can take account of possible funding constraints. The Director then summarised the next steps in the process. The present document will be consolidated, picking up on all the issues raised in the workstreams and contextualising them within a policy framework. 799 GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS This item had already been discussed under Matters Arising. 7
800 ANY OTHER BUSINESS Education Futures Workshop The Director noted, for members information, that Mr Stevenson, the VP for Global Education at Cisco, is coming to Northern Ireland on 25 th January, under the auspices of the Centre for Competitiveness, to meet with a number of Senior Civil Servants from across departments. Mr Stevenson has responsibility for the Cisco global education strategy and he has led and drafted a document called Reinventing Education 3.0. He was the Director of IT within DFES in 2005 and had previously worked within the BBC in a number of senior positions. The Director stated that, during this visit, C2k has been given the opportunity to host a workshop within which Cisco s thinking about the future of education at a global level can be reviewed. The Director noted that the workshop will take place from 10.00am to 12.00pm and representatives from the main stakeholder groups have been invited. The Director also issued a general invitation to members of the Project Board to attend. Mr Wilkinson asked if the Director s Management Board was content with the advice being given to schools with regard to the transfer of information between schools and stakeholder organisations. The Director stated that consideration had been given to this issue in the run up to the establishment of the eschools project. He noted that it was the understanding of the Department that it has the right, on the basis of the existing legislation, to hold the information that it is currently seeking from within eschools and Mrs Lawlor stated that C2k and other organisations have been involved with the Information Commissioner in answering queries on the transfer of information. She advised that DE has taken legal advice and is confident in its position. She noted that some of the queries relating to issues of data protection appear to be mis-informed. Mr Wilkinson was of the view that schools may not be well enough informed of this and asked if there was an opportunity to inform schools again of the position. Mrs Lawlor stated that DE was not aware of any queries from teachers or school leaders but asked to be informed if members felt that a further communication should be sent to schools. The Director stated that the information which has already been published by DE is available through C2k Exchange and could be reviewed by the Department at any time. The Chair noted that this item will be kept under review. 801 DATE OF NEXT MEETING It was decided to cancel the meeting scheduled for 29 th January. The Chair suggested that members add two dates to their calendars Thursday 4 th March at 2.00pm and Thursday 25 th March at 2.00pm, both in Ashfield. Action 3: Secretary to circulate the new meeting dates as well as a note of the cancelled meeting on 29 th January. The meeting concluded at 3.45pm. 8