Leeds Learning Network

[sted]

Looking at the track record and the individuals running some of the companies offering services, I know we would not touch them with a barge pole!

 

llns recent track record isnt exactly good multiple outages 7 days to do simple port opening

[morator]

llns recent track record isnt exactly good multiple outages 7 days to do simple port opening

 

All companies have issues in one way or other and I cannot see any company who can claim they have no downtime or issues influenced by external factors such as suppliers . The proof will be in the pudding over the next 12 - 18 months in terms of how well schools services are delivered.

 

On the main, commercial providers put profits before the interest of schools and the kids and I reallly don't see how 'cheap no frills' services are the way forward here. At the end of the day profits and maximising these is the aim of the game here!

 

Let's not forget, the local authority provision is non for profit and fully accountable.

[Marshall_IT]

I've seen no accountability from LLN so far, they've managed to secure payment from capita for service not delivered but have not passed this on to schools who were subscribers at the time... How is that accountability?

[morator]

I've seen no accountability from LLN so far, they've managed to secure payment from capita for service not delivered but have not passed this on to schools who were subscribers at the time... How is that accountability?

 

My Head informs me that the compensation LLN received was due to the fact Capita failed to deliver the Openhive learning platform project. This money was refunded to all schools who subscribed to the Learning platform. There was also some money given to ICT for the resource they put into managing Capita, which should have been a managed service. This money was to cover resource cost and at no point compensation for poor performance. Also, we have checked our schools contract and there are no compensation clauses in there.

 

Having made a few comparisons between providers we have looked at going forward, again nobody seems to be offering any compensation for failure to deliver if the issues is down to a supplier as has been in the case with Capita.

[sted]

All companies have issues in one way or other and I cannot see any company who can claim they have no downtime or issues influenced by external factors such as suppliers . The proof will be in the pudding over the next 12 - 18 months in terms of how well schools services are delivered.

 

On the main, commercial providers put profits before the interest of schools and the kids and I reallly don't see how 'cheap no frills' services are the way forward here. At the end of the day profits and maximising these is the aim of the game here!

 

Let's not forget, the local authority provision is non for profit and fully accountable.

 

but people have been fed up with lln for years they dont listen and i cant see how the cost is justified being thousands more in every case ive seen. there is also the £7 per pupil charge i dont get they dont deal with email users as far as i can see are filtered internally via smoothwall so whats the per user charge for?

 

the insistence up to this point on web based logon which when you have 6 year olds wastes half a lesson nor is it great for tablets.

if a company can provide a service cheaper that does what a school needs why not use it ict4leeds /lln may be not for profit but as a result who do they answer to if a company provides poor service they go bust or have to buck their ideas up. wheres the incentive for lln they have proven time and time again they do what they want witness sharepoint foisted on primarys when in the opinion of nearly every school ive talked to its not fit for purpose when when schools told them as much

blaming capita for past troubles holds no water with me either they chose capita and signed a contract.

again if broadband a is poor its a 1 year contract so worst case its all paid upfront or only 1 year to buy out if its unfit if ict4leeds is unfit (by a schools judgement not theirs) they are on the hook for 4 years and based on past performance i couldnt recommend anyone being tied into that

Edited June 22, 2013 by sted

[timetableman]

Let's not forget, the local authority provision is non for profit and fully accountable.

Can someone come round and pick me up up off the floor! "Fully Accountable", are you using the same LLN as the rest of us?

 

To who? When we were a local authority school LLN threatened us with legal action, - despite being the same legal entity!

LLN hasn't been raised in council or committee in over a year, according to LCC committee minutes, despite all the changes that are being undertaken

 

Profit isn't always a bad thing. LLN hasn't had to make a profit so how did the VLE work out or OpenHive or Active Directory integration? We can keep going but eventually start to drag up old issues. With profit you turn around and refuse to pay until it's fixed or walk away.

[morator]

All schools need to be aware of a recent safeguarding issue at a Leeds school due to the filtering being poor and allowing children to be able to communicate with adults and being sent obscene materials. This has been on the BBC website:

 

BBC News - Primary school pupils sent 'obscene' messages on Movie Star Planet

 

Schools need to be reviewing their web filtering controls and the providers as this is very concerning.