Ditto

I'm not a DPO, but it has been suggested a Data Protection Manager (DPM) that has an out-sourced DPO to call upon. The one thing I have learnt, is that whilst there are some black and white matters, a lot is grey and risk based. In our roles we may call upon many single opinions and then make a decision having reviewed the whole. I entirely agree about the point comparing internal run systems versus cloud based and as you'll see, I've spun off another thread for that aspect.

An interesting point about software on your own kit versus alternatives, but not to let this aspect drift the thread, I've spun off a separate one at http://www.edugeek.net/forums/data-protection-information-handling/225150-dpa-2018-gdpr-processors-local-vs-hosted-vs-cloud.html Re section 70(1), What I see the wording say is: Section 70(1): Position of data protection officer The controller must ensure that the data protection officer is involved, properly and in a timely manner, in all issues which relate to the protection of personal data. I know the our DPO is working on the basis that this is a 'material' change of your contract, agreeing with James Weatherilll statement in his Arbor blog and that triggers the ned for an DPIA. Yet, I acknowledge that is one (or two) opinions and there are others. Our DPO has highlighted that the 'timely manner' isn't achieved in this instance and that's the main thrust of the objection. They have plenty more though. I do fully understand the point though about being a 'compliant processor'. I would be fascinating to listen in to a discussion on the whole ESS 3 year contract saga with a number of DPO's. I shall pass on your details. It's likely your paths have entwined given the common ground, but I suspect the IRMS opportunity has been missed.

A spin off thread from a discussion in the 3 year ESS contract thread. A interesting consideration about compliance as a processor. What are your thoughts about the storage of data in different scenarios. For example, lets look at MIS. You could have SIMS locally on your own servers, hosted SIMS or you might be fully cloud with Arbor or Bromcom or other. Do you feel the DPA considerations differ for across those?

See http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/209977-green-abbey.html

In your other post, you said you would speak to your SIMS support provider. Could they not help?

I have to also ask, when YKW says "Technicians... please begin the manual upgrade" - what salary do you think those technicians were on? Comparable with modern times or not?

I'm sure I've seen this before - I think I laughed even louder this time - the shaking hand removing glasses is worthy of an Oscar alone!!!

I've come to the same conclusion. Misread on my part, but I thought postal was the only option, but on a re-read that's all to do with travel day 2 testers. For +ve test son, Mrs Ditto took him to drive through to try to get the earliest possible confirmation to set the 10 day clock running. So we might have to bin that one. We are right up against it for the Tim Peake event in 11 days time! We have a family interest. For those that have read his latest book, and it is a great read, but SiL is the person he wrote about falling off the icewall climb in Alaska as part of Operation Raleigh so would have loved to have a chat and maybe get a personally signed copy of the book. This *&^£"!£ virus has **%%^£%$£ed up so much, but in truth we are all vaccinated and many others have suffered so much more so we count a few blessings. As an aside, I will also be getting a anti-bodies test and have been invited on to a feedback panel. I hope I can give some useful input as part of the process today, both my wife and I followed the logic and got a 'You don't qualify for a PCR test'. The key wording is they refer to a 'Follow up PCR test'. They don't mean a follow up test to a PCR test, they mean a follow up test following a +ve LFT - it wasn't really clear. It's one of those classic UX's where with prior knowledge, it impacts the work flow logic. I'm hoping with some of my IT design experience, I can advise subtle wording changes and emphasis changes from a position of relative naivety, a.k.a. general public going through this process first time! None of which will appease, Mrs Ditto who had to cancel a James concert hours before heading off to the Midlands to meet up with some long-time friends! Going to need some careful consoling this weekend!

Entered! I have to ask, what happened to Tim - did the fame of a previous competition result in him heading for the hills of Hollywood?!

It's not for me, but a friend who's HP 32GB eMMC HP Stream defeats me installing up to date Windows to enable her son to play Minecraft, but how good a deal is this Lenovo? https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/thinkbook/thinkbook-series/ThinkBook-15-Gen-2-AMD/p/20VG0005UK

I live in a friendly cul-d-sac and one of the neighbours is offering a couple of HDMI/DVI 24" monitors in return for a bottle of wine! Another lucky neighbour has PS5 and was hoping to use on of the monitors to extend his display. I'm not sure if he wants to achieve the equivalent of wide screen display, or run two screens for games that support it. I know he is not looking just to replicate the output of one screen. I understand PS5 has a single 2.1 HDMI output. Is what the neighbour is trying to achieve possible and if yes, how?

Just had this statement from our outsourced DPO. They specialise in DPO services in schools. "As a very short summary, you should refuse to sign any contract change unless you consider the procurement requirements of the DfE and conduct an impact assessment with your DPO as dictated by 70(1) of the DPA 2018. $ at this stage does not consider ESS in the claimed form to meet the obligations of a compliant Processor" So now there is a DPA angle too. My outsourced DPO is happy for me to share their name, but to avoid any risk of advertising, I've not mentioned them here, but I can respond to PMs.

Anyone know how to cancel a home PCR test after it's been ordered? NHS website says you cancel PCR test, but I think it means when they are for drive/walk through types. I've searched hard without success. I tried 119 but that experience warrants an annoying thing post!

No response from my trust yet.... perhaps they hadn't noticed... I wonder how many schools will only discover their 3 year commitment over the next 3 years? I guess an unfair contract would be the only get out at that stage.

Did you get the one with the 6 months Netflix included. I bought one of these for my mum about 6 months ago and we stumbled on activating it, so need to look at again soon.

Does the private equity firm behind ESS also have a stake in the main competitors? They've certainly light the touch paper! I've just emailed my governance trust to see what their plans are. I believe we (and the other trust academies in the MAY) get SIMS via their LA. Is it possible to have a 1 year renewal via that contract even if the LA are forced in to a 3 year renewal?

I assume this is in the UK? Either way, it says a lot about attitudes to quality beverages - the £2.49 row has one bottle left, everything else untouched

I see on the same page as the article one of the supermarkets is going to start selling draught beer - presumably not wheat beer then

We are going to ask the IT Service provide to give us some more details. The list of request I have are Network topology Hardware/software versions - are we up to date Historical usage to see ups/down and how it tracked pre and post covid and how it looks now AP usage - are any saturated, dropping connections WiFi heatmap for coverage Is there anything more that you'd suggest as essential?

I hope to get some more details from the school shortly. I have today learnt we pay just under £30 a month for 'Broadband' so it's looking increasingly like a semi-domestic line! Also I learnt the our IT Service provider said if we upgraded our kit, it's 50/50 as to whether the issues improve - not very reassuring. I think they mean if we don't also upgrade to a leased line. A 10 fold increase in monthly bill is going to be uncomfortable for our SLT, but I think they were getting away with things pre-covid with limited demand on wired connections. With a decision to move everyone to laptops, and increased traffic due to a lot more working with colleagues remotely, and a desire to have strong wireless in office, means they are going to have to come to terms with the fact commercial level requirements are going to come with commercial level rates.

I guess we ought to acknowledge the COO's ambition is a noble one. It maybe an interest as a result of legislative demands for some MATs - for those interested see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-financial-management-good-practice-guides/streamlined-energy-and-carbon-reporting. Also, one video that discusses the topic from a one consultancy's perspective - I'm sure there are/will be many others. The idea of taking the devices home to charge would a good topic for a class to debate! Rightly, it's been shredded here and I think a year5 class could shred it further! On the topic of going down the Chromebook route, I hope @rogerdnixon, as noted by @fiza, can share his immense knowledge on this aspect. Overall, I think it's possible. The biggest challenge will be mindset shift and resistance to change, not technological. Perhaps the COO could think about other ways to tackle carbon footprint first, maybe he/she has? - what about LEDs, solar panels, wind-turbine, insulation, etc. The earlier video talks about these and more.

I can't be certain on the 'portacabins' construction, but they aren't new! I worked in SIBCAS units that were full on modular classrooms. It was a freeschool awaiting it's real site, but these are a similar size. Seeing a fully fitted computer lab and chemistry lab craned in was fun, but I digress. On the topic of the current line, I've yet to find exactly what we have, but I fear it could be a basic DSL line or two! The quote is stating we currently get 40gb download and 19 up. I doubt it's enough, but what actually sparked the proposal was complaints about dropped connections on WiFi. They were advised to plug in a cable, but the same issue was being reported - it has even occurred to me the issue could be individual laptops. I'm going to try to get more details and data from the IT Service company, but based on other work, I'm not too confident I'll get them. I would be very interested to see a full topology, hardware and software inventory, WiFi heatmap and traffic profiles. What is a bit galling in some ways, our provider has basically said your kit and software is old and kranky, spend money with us to fix it. What the charity really needs is a universal service where they continuously maintain and advice us, not keep finding ways of us spending cash in fits and starts. I don't know the full details of the contract, so maybe I'm expecting too much, but as the charity doesn't really have the internal experience to self-serve or know if it's getting the right deal at the right price, I'm going somewhat out of my area of responsibility, but will do what I can - besides, I find it quite fun to learn along the way.

Thanks for responses so far. Now to the topic of a leased line. Firstly, I will be speaking to the school whose site we are based on about the current cabling, but I have already highlighted the possibility of Excess Construction Charges. For the monthly payments post installation, we have two quotes for 100/1000Mbps, the second over a 1GB bearer at £20/month extra. For a three year contract, what sort of price ranges should we be looking at as a monthly figure. I'm happy to take a PM and use the same to share the figure we have.

I can answer some those immediately - I just felt the post was already getting long! Clients would be 30-40 maximum, probably averaging 15-20 on a normal day, maybe less. We have moved to a lot more remote working as a result of covid and need the office space for the young people we provide support to. The building is 2 portacabins, separated by 10-15 foot of wooden decking. I believe there is also a metal container that's sometimes used. I guess the portacabins don't block wifi signals much, the metal container a very different scenario! It's probably around a dozen rooms, a key one being a large boardroom that would have the highest need. We may look at a proper conference room setup there in the future. I believe our internet traffic has increased post covid due to a lot more online teams video meetings, but also installing calling for MS Teams. They've removed all desktops, of which there were probably about 20, so everyone is on a laptop now, except maybe the receptionist. I think they only other thing I can add at this point, I don't expect anyone locally will be responsible for it's maintenance, that would come from our IT supplier as it does now.

We have had a quote from our IT service provider to upgrade our small network. Interestingly they have provided a quote for a Meraki upgrade and a Ubiquiti based one. It covers both wired and wireless connectivity, but the plan is to continue to use much of the Cat 5e cabling that we have. The costs are significantly different, but from what I've learnt on this forum, with Meraki license fees, it's not entirely a surprise. I suspect the Meraki one is over-quoted, for example I suspect the prices for MR Enterprise license and MR36 AP devices don't include non-profit discounts (we are a registered charity). Ultimately I'm not overly bothered, but the Ubiquiti pricing is a single total and not broken down and it's looks like they have written the quote to steer us in a particular direction. Ubiquiti is likely a decent option for us from what I've read here. We have very limited IT expertise within our organisation and even less networking knowledge. I have basis level of understanding, enough to ask many of the right questions. One area of the quote includes some comments about what expectations we should have for wired, wireless connections. It discuss the impact if we also move to a leased line. One quote they make is All WiFi access will always be slower than wired, up to 50% slower. Is that a reasonable statement? Our charity is sited on one of the schools sites we provide services too. I know some of our cabling goes in to the school building. I have the good fortune of knowing the school trust network manager from a previous job I had, so I'm going to be angling for some pro-bono support, but I know I will get some good pointers here!