BSF Contracts

[edublogger]

Hi all,

 

Can anyone provide some advice on this?

 

A collegue has just taken over management of a school network which is managed by an external company through the BSF program. The school is extremely unhappy with the service they are being provided and want to get out of the contract and support the network internally.

 

Does anyone have any experience of this? Can they get out of the contract?

 

They are seriously looking at setting up a separate parallel network just so they don't have to deal with the company.

 

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

 

Karl

[broc]

BSF ICT contracts were normally for a fixed period (5 or 10 years). To leave early may trigger penalty payments to the managed service provider (depends on small print).

 

I don't believe too many BSF managed services are very profitable so it may be the service provider would be happy to see the school go..... The current Govt pulled the plug on BSF leaving many managed services below their critical mass to pay their way.

 

You need to check who owns the hardware & software licences & any other maintenance agreements. Who do the staff work for? Are they employed by the school or the managed service? If the latter then TUPE may apply.

Edited April 1, 2014 by broc

[edublogger]

Thanks.

 

The staff are employed by the school directly. The main concern they have is who owns the hardware, which they are trying to clear up at the moment.

 

Thanks again.

[BKGarry]

Our LEA pulled the contract with the Managed Service Provider, as they economies of scale had gone with BSF being canned.

 

Interestingly enough, only 2 schools went the solution provided by the LEA on pull out, 2 went it on their own, and the rest of us (about 5 or 6 schools) stuck with the managed service provider but had our own contract with a lot of the red tape taken out, made things a lot easier for the schools. Saying that I have been employed by the school all the way through the process and was never TUPE'd over. So I have gone from ICT Technical, to being in charge of SIMS and writing the school timetable (deputy head still made the decisions on the staffing and hours for each subject) then when the contract with the LEA went I was made "Technical Logistics Leader" meaning I do planning and all the documentation part and make sure the Contract provider is doing as we ask, as well ask keeping the SIMS overview and Timetabling.

 

TL;DR see if other schools can put pressure on the LEA to pull the contract, sometimes they want to get out too.