Opting out of local authority internet provision

[torgo_uk]

Hi,

 

We been asked to look at opting out of our local authority internet provision, mainly as a cost saving exercise. Initial pricing from alternate providers have been encouraging and there are certainly savings to be made. Has anyone gone through the process of 'opting out' and if so what were your experiences? The head teacher feels it would be useful to have a conversation with another school that has already been through the process

[Primus]

Primary or secondary?

 

We did and have never looked back, it's cheaper, 10x faster, far far far more reliable and we have full control of our filtering. Zero downsides.

[MagicMalc]

We have recently moved from the the local authority. It does have a lot of positives but be aware of any services that you need access to possibly using the intranet which becomes more complicated when your not on a local authority provision. In terms of speed and everything else it’s a massive improvement.

[Chrisbf1]

Leaving the LA broadband is a little bit like Brexit. The leave process suddenly becomes very complicated when you realise what else they tie you into, and what you will need to source yourself. Their is a lot of doom and gloom of project fear from LA. But the speed and cost savings could be big.

[torgo_uk]

Primary or secondary?

 

Secondary

[FN-GM]

I have done it a number of times with different schools. Not many recently as our LA abandoned the provision when the schools left in vast numbers!

 

Im always happy to speak to you and/or your head about it. We are not a million miles away from Bradford.

[mavhc]

Full fiber I guess. Just 1 site? Will you filter on site (UTM box with subscription), or via ISP (Exa or SchoolsBroadband).

 

You'll still need some kind of firewall too.

 

Plan for 6 months after you order, if fiber has to be installed, if it's already in then maybe OpenReach just change the label and reconnect it at their end. Of course if you're using it now that's trickier.

[MatthewL]

Look at exactly what you are getting from them at the moment and check that your new package will do that or weather you need to buy in any other bits.

 

Without doubt it will be the best move but if you access any of their services i.e. intranet, HR etc that might cause you issues.

[sparkeh]

Yep opted out years ago and was a great decision.

 

If your LA is anything like ours you will be fed horror stories about life outside the LA provision: the LA portal won’t work, secure transfer will stop, you need to sign this scary document that transfers liability for all the horrible things that are going to happen the minute you leave.... and it’s mostly all fluff.

 

Draw up a list of everything you get from the LA and compare to other options. Get some straight answers about LA services that might be affected (in our case, despite the dire warnings, the sky didn’t fall in)

[FN-GM]

Could you argue that missing out on features such as the Intranet because you're not connected to the LA internet connection is anti competition?

[JJonas]

We switched to RM years ago. Much faster and cheaper than the LA option. Never had any problems it just works.

[sparkeh]

Could you argue that missing out on features such as the Intranet because you're not connected to the LA internet connection is anti competition?

Yes. We went through some similar nonsense but it didn't hold up for very long.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Fundamentally don't be scared to do it. Yes plan what applications you may need to keep and how they are going to work if you leave the Local Authority if they are hosted on their WAN. The vast majority of secondary schools in the UK have already left the Local Authority provision.

 

To my knowledge though in Bradford there are no such applications. We've over 30 schools already using our services already for the past 5-6 years with dozens more now signed up. I'd actually be surprised if Bradford LA doesn't capitulate and stop providing the service if enough schools don't sign up. I know Childrens services unfortunately has to take a massive cut in Bradford. Personally I'd rather the budget for this be spent on looking after children rather than having their own internal broadband team. FYI our business is Leeds / Bradford based.

 

I spoke with Jo Dean (head of BLN) some months ago about the possibility of putting forward different providers (not jut us) rather than just sticking with their Virgin / YHGFL offering but unfortunately for the schools she took the easy route just to carry on with what they currently did. Shame as ourselves and the competition would save schools hundreds of thousands and year and reduce the Childrens Services budget considerably.

 

If you want to speak to any schools that have already left the LA then do let me know as I'd be happy to put you in touch with some.

 

I'm sure you've already got a quote from us but if not do send me a PM as we're just as competitive as everyone else and should be more so than the LA knowing how the Bradford price modelling per pupil and base line price works, particularly on the high bandwidth options.

 

Thanks and good luck.

 

Dave

[Oaktech]

Didn't even think about, just did it. The figures alone were enough to convince us. In our locality we could get gig symmetrical internet and a PaloAlto UTM on site for only about a grand more than we were paying for a 60mb FTTC with not-fit-for-purpose filtering from the RBC. Then you have the improved reliability, improved SLA, likely the improved speed, the additional control... The list just goes on and on.

[JordanT91]

I looked into this a couple of years ago, and we all liked the idea of saving money and having faster/more reliable broadband but in the end it just wasn't possible. We rely heavily on the council's 'intranet' for things like payrol, procurement, even SIMS. The Business Manager and Office Manager decided it was too much.

[FragglePete]

Our LA pulled the plug on providing the internet feed some 18 months ago - it was SWGfL feed to the LA and they just split it up to the schools in the Borough. As schools left, the price increased for every other school so they essentially abandoned it. SWGfL themselves then provided us with a quote to supply it directly which proved to be quite a bit cheaper than we where already paying. It was easier just to go with them as it nothing really needed changing, but will be reviewing it come renewal at the end of our 3 year contract.

 

Pete

[howartp]

Several schools in North Yorkshire are currently evaluating their position, getting quotes etc.

 

This is a very useful thread which I'lll highlight to the team.

 

I knew Bradford were currently going through it as NYCC, Bradford and (Sheffield?) are all due to renew Smoothwall in March and they've not got enough tin boxes at the moment!

 

Most NYCC secondaries are renewing Smoothwall, but still deliberating broadband.

 

Peter

[Opendium_Steve]

A number of our schools have moved off LA connections and seem pretty happy. The main thing seems to be to make sure you keep all the suppliers in the loop about scheduling, etc. so that everything is ready to go on the right dates. Depending on whether you are going to get filtering from your new ISP or do it on-site, you may be able to move things over on a piecemeal basis, which can be a bit easier than switching everything at once (e.g. get the new filtering system in on your old connection and be happy with its configuration before swapping the connection itself).

[MatthewL]

Another thing to considering depending how much you would rely on the LA connection would be maybe to degrade their speed offerings therefore dropping the costs, still having the link in place to access their services but say no internet and route all internet traffic out via the new connection if you do need their services. It could work out cheaper but offer both worlds. We used to do that with secure government services have to have 2 connections or more.

[Primus]

Which LAs are only prepared to offer services like HR and payroll over their own WAN links? I think it would be a good opportunity to name and shame them - I do think there's an argument here for them abusing their relationship with schools by doing this and it is plainly anti-competitive.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hampshire for one.... They charge £1,800pa for an ADSL link to access them and point blank refuse to offer dial-in VPN access. Day light robbery....

[Primus]

Wow that is appalling, mind Newcastle recently tried to charge circa £9k pa for a "Cloud Services SLA" that amounted to an RDP shared drive that is used for schools and the LA to share data securely. Note that this charge was waved if a school was part of their WAN at circa £9k anyways.

 

When every school outside of their Managed IT Service said "Errr no thanks" they put a halt on the plans at least for now!

[SchoolsBroadband]

or they could just use Schools 2 schools on the DFE website for free

[Primus]

I think they got the message when every school kicked off and raised it with people outside of the Council's IT Department!

 

They also didn't seem too impressed that every school was going to put in place their own solution for secure data sharing - I couldn't believe their audacity when the email arrived though it did provoke something of a giggle in the office that day.

 

The funny thing is they need the data from us every bit as much as we do from them, if not more! Getting data out of academies is also notoriously difficult for LAs so quite why they'd make it harder is beyond me.

[FN-GM]

It isn't always positive. Some broadband companies have been charging £4k to schools for a basic filtered 35meg ADSL line.