Southwark Childrens Services

1
Southwark Childrens Services

• Daniel Finnie Data Manager
• Peter Overnell Workforce Data Officer
• David Freeman Senior HR Advisor

2
The Southwark Experience

• Overview of current collection and HR/Payroll
  arrangements
• Selling the collection to schools
• Transition to new collection arrangements
• Working with suppliers
• Building and maintaining relationships
• Delegation of funding

3
Some background

• Inner London Authority
• Local Authority was outsourced to private company
  in 2001
• No central payroll since 2002
• Human Resources brokered service since 2002
• No central software support
• Schools using a mix of software, payroll systems,
  finance systems

4
Some background

• 10 secondary, 3 academies, 1 CTC, 71 primaries
• 5 software providers 65 on Wauton Samuel, 11 on
  SIMS, others on Integris, Facility, Phoenix
• 15 payroll and HR providers, however majority
  are with a few companies

5
618g issues

• Collected through spreadsheets to schools
• Many issues receiving these
• Timeliness
• Data quality
• Poor record keeping at schools (e.g. sickness
  absence in paper files)
• Secure and reliable transfer methods

6
Previously on this data collection
7
Surely some mistake?

• Overseas Tranied Teachers
• Ass head vs Assistant head
• Employed for 0.9999997 of the week
• Sick for more days than there are in the term
• Teaching since they were 4 years old
• Schools with no headteachers

8
Smarter Collection

• Spreadsheet now has more built in validation
• Spreadsheet produces summary sheets which can be
  used in school census
• Spreadsheet will give an overview of the number
  of issues present
• LA designed database will compile spreadsheets,
  validate them and produce new spreadsheets for
  next term

9
Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines

• 35 schools missed internal LA deadline
• 12 schools still outstanding after final DFES
  deadline
• Many failing to provide complete datasets (e.g.
  missing sickness absence, vacancy data, leaving
  dates).

10
Selling the collection to schools

• No more staffing spreadsheet
• One source for staffing data in school, one
  source for reporting and sending info to the DFES
• Improves data in school when presenting to
  headteacher, managers, governors
• More data, more accurate data, more information
  for schools, LA and DFES to make better decisions
  and offer more support

11
Transition to new arrangements/Delegation of
Funding

• LA will subsidise telephone support for schools
  taking part in the collection
• LA will subsidise software for schools taking
  part in the collection
• LA will subsidise training for schools taking
  part in the collection
• LA will use additional funds for other training
  as identified by Administration Officers

12
Working with suppliers

• Most schools using Wauton Samuel Software
• Met with Wauton Samuel to get overview of system,
  and review content
• General agreement on costs for training,
  telephone support, software
• Wauton Samuel have already demonstrated system to
  schools

13
Relationships with Schools

• LA designed database to keep log of contacts
• LA designed data transfer system to overcome
  issues with central systems
• School administration officer conference
• Headteacher conferences and forums
• Presentations delivered on collection in Sep 06,
  March 07 including software demonstration
• Meetings planned for April/May to give in depth
  overview of processes

14
Next Steps

• Survey will be sent to schools in April to
  confirm what the best source is for data items
• Sessions in April/May to go through data items in
  detail with Headteachers, SAOs and Finance
  Officers
• Looking for early adopters to trial the
  collection in May and September through Wauton
  Samuel software rather than spreadsheet