Capita has secured a five-year contract worth £700,000 to migrate Swansea Council’s on-premise education software to a new cloud-based system.
Capita will use software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications to support the council’s statutory education functions such as admissions and additional learning needs. This will help support the council in ensuring that every child and young person in the area has access to appropriate and relevant educational provision.
The new system will be used by staff in the Education department as well as other supporting departments including Social Services, Benefits and Community Safety. It will also support the ‘Citizen Portal’, used by thousands of people every year to apply for school places and support relating to additional learning needs.
It will support student assessment and tracking for the new Welsh curriculum by enabling the council to collect and process formative assessment data at pupil level. It will also help provide cross-analysis against a variety of contextual factors such as additional learning needs and measures of deprivation.
Capita’s SaaS applications are built into Microsoft Azure, a public cloud service, where upgrades and fixes can be done remotely and out of hours. The cloud migration will also increase system performance and reliability and will benefit the council as well as improve the online experience for schools.
Improved reporting and analysis processes will help support services delivered to schools and will also enable better data sharing with the council’s key stakeholders. This includes the Welsh Government and other external partners such as further education colleges and Careers Wales.
The new system will enable the council’s digital services staff to focus on value-added tasks, such as supporting council employees with their IT needs, and operate more efficiently.
Additionally, moving to the cloud means that the council will be able to avoid costly IT equipment replacements as well as maintenance of its data centre.
Anthony Singleton, managing director, Capita One, said: “This new partnership with Swansea is built on our software capabilities and expertise in the education sector. It also demonstrates our strength in supporting local authorities in their digital transformation journeys.”
