IT Procurement uncovered by Panorama

[Wellington]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19681437

 

Panorama tonight investigates issues that should be of interest to all schools involved in procurement.

 

A copier for £174,000, is this a record?

 

What is the most paid for a single copier?

[zag]

I love the way they try to make out it was somehow better when LEA's bought in bulk and were in charge. I remember many examples of LEA's paying too much for something that they usually didn't understand. A great example of this was when our LEA were looking at buying "exchange mailboxes" for something ridiculous like £10 per user per year for all the primary schools. I asked why they were not using live@edu for free and they replied they didn't trust it because it wasn't "secure".

 

Its just silly people paying too much for things. Why would anyone not check how much the total cost of ownership will be?

 

There is no excuse for being "Mis-Sold" something. Do your research and everything will be fine.

[Domino]

hmmm, because Paranoia have a great track record with factual reporting don't they..? Beeb coughs to Panorama WiFi-scare travesty ? The Register

[Geoff]

OTOH they do do some good investigative journalism.

 

Panorama (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Gibbo]

Watching it now. Not impressed by the excuses the head has come up with for being conned with those laptops in the first story.

 

If she felt out of her depth, why didn't she seek further advice?

[Gibbo]

Oh dear, I think this is backfiring. Its just showing incompetence in the heads of the schools featured.

 

Don't get me wrong, I've no time for these kind of companies shown in the programme.

 

But if the heads are having the wool pulled over their eyes by a simple salesman, what other failings are present at the school? Do heads not have to have any business or finance sense? What about the "three quotes" rule for purchases over a few thousand pounds?

Edited September 24, 2012 by Gibbo

[bossman]

Please tell me that not all HT's are this thick!!!

 

 

These are supposedly well educated people?

 

No common sense if you ask me and should not be employed in education whatsoever, 40 years in education the HT who signed for the laptops what a fool!!!

[bossman]

Headteachers are really looking bad in this report, it beggars belief that such well educated people could make such rudementary mistakes which a normal person would have sussed straight away!!

 

Poor performance by them, go to the bottom of the class!!!

[Gibbo]

Did you see the laptop trolley and the machine with the sticker "not connecting to the internet".

 

So the supplier is to blame for that now?

 

We have some Lenovos that also won't connect to the internet. I must complain to Insight about it.

 

Or should I just make sure that the device has drivers and has the wireless enabled? And if that doesn't work perhaps contacting Lenovo for warranty issues.

 

Why has the BBC gone for this dumbed down level of tabloid style scandal-outrage raising reporting?

[plexer]

No Head should certainly have been co-erced into signing something if they were not happy please leave or I'll ring the police.

 

Banks having morals purleaseeeee.

 

The Heads I am sure we just trying to get IT for their pupils.

 

Ben

[plexer]

Wow clydesdale bank. Well done.

 

Ben

[Gibbo]

Why should Clydesdale Bank bail out incompetent head teachers?

[plexer]

I'm not saying they should and the HT's in those establishments have allready been dealt with but that fibancial burden would only have a negative impact on the students.

 

Ben

[Ephelyon]

Do heads not have to have any business or finance sense?

 

In fairness, that's what we have Business Managers (not to mention Network Managers!) for. Please excuse my ignorance as I won't get time to watch the programme this evening, but... maybe the issue here would be why more appropriate people weren't as involved in the procurement process as they could've been. If the Head decides they want to purchase laptops for the school, they're the boss so it'll have to happen but their involvement in the process really ought to end there. From then on it should be handled by the Business Manager / Network Manager / ICT Co-Ordinator or similar.

 

I wouldn't blame Heads for having the wool pulled over their eyes here (I've been fleeced by many a mechanic before I wised up as I know very little about cars!), but maybe questions could be asked as to their procedures in not delegating these tasks.

 

Unless the programme deals with this issue already and I'm talking nonsense of course...

 

Maybe we could move this to BtRD so it's not searchable? Can see some already-defensive Heads getting shirty here...

[plexer]

Most of the programme was primarys though so they don't have those positions still those decisions should have gone to governors.

 

Ben

[Mr.Ben]

Could this be fixed by us engaging Primaries in our own procurement processes?

[GREED]

Another example of BBC sensationalising...

 

I'm not being funny, but would anyone have done the same deal, put up with the same pushy sales if they were buying a computer at home? Same door to door sales techniques employed for years. I'm not saying these guys shouldn't be strung up by their tiny p...... well, you know... but surely common sense would have come in at some point before signing over such huge figures?

[Ephelyon]

Ah, true. Depends if anyone on the Governors has the necessary experience as well of course. Here a couple of ours do, but I can imagine not every school would be in the same position.

 

And yes, this lends further credence to the "schools cluster" paradigm, with secondary schools assisting primary schools in matters such as this. Again, to be fair to the government here, Gove has also said he'd like these clusters to become more common as well. Maybe he thought that would mitigate this problem before it started, only not enough schools have done it so far...

[synaesthesia]

Missed it. So was there anything about Danwood?

[plexer]

Nope nothing about danwood.

 

Ben

[Mcom]

Just waiting for this to appear on iplayer...

[GREED]

Just going back a few, I too laughed at the 'not connecting to Internet' laptop... Made me LOL good and proper... Tithe untrained eye the BBC have blamed this too on the suppliers... I am sure every technician on edugeek threw something at their TVs at that moment!

 

Although I think i did blame the supplier back in the day!

[eddyc]

Just watched this on iPlayer as I missed the beginning...

 

The primarys in my last LEA used to use our school support package (we are a secondary) - one had an offer of free laptops and we told them to steer clear!

[GREED]

Advice from BESA posted in response:

 

BESA statement: Leasing advice for schools - British Educational Suppliers Association

[SimpleSi]

Perhaps this will be a wake up call fro some primaries with no tech support to start to utilise the expertise within their local secondaries.

 

Its not the lack of tech support - its the lack of accountability of head teachers who are basically judge, jury and executioner (or in financial terms customer, buyer and CFO!)

 

It they had support from the local secondary - would they use it - would they heck - they don't need ANYONE telling them what to do in THEIR school

 

Heads can spend £50,000/annum on ICT or a new roof or 3 extra teachers or 5 extra TAs - basically whatever they believe will give the best learning improvement/$.

 

No real accountability as they have no real boss.

 

More primaries on panorama as there are more primaries

 

Simon