Headteacher

All Norfolk Schools & Pupil Referral Units

Dear Colleague

Keyholder Information

You will be aware from my letter dated 18^th March 2002 that I have been in discussion with the Norfolk Police and Boing Ltd about the issue of keyholder information for schools. It has been made very clear to me that the police will only access information on keyholders through Boing Ltd. As such I have been negotiating with Boing and have achieved a substantial reduction on their standard annual charge of £21. The charge to schools is £14.50 per year. One condition of this is that the local Education Authority collects the charge directly from schools and pays Boing a single annual payment. Those schools which have an existing agreement with Boing will receive a refund directly from the Company.

I have asked EFS to collect this from schools this month. For most schools this will be done in November by "direct debit" (journal transfer) to subjective code 4808 and included in the November download available on 4 December. In other cases where Capita provide payroll services the charge will be deducted from an advance to your bank account and where Capita do not provide payroll services an account will be sent. It is proposed to alter Norfolk's Scheme for Financing Schools to allow the LEA to recover these costs from schools and if any school has objections to this proposal notification in writing should be sent to Benita Ogg in EFS.

It is in my view very important that details of school keyholders are available to the police and that this information is also available to the Local Education Authority for use in case of emergencies. I am also aware of the number of occasions when burglar alarms in schools cause a serious nuisance to neighbours. It is important that there are arrangements in place such that neighbouring properties to schools know who keyholders are and what to do in case the alarm sounds. The keyholder list is an important backup system in case of difficulties.

You will now need to notify Boing Ltd to update of any changes to the information on keyholders by contacting them on telephone number 0845 0678 999.

I have already made arrangements for the keyholder information, which is held by the Department, to be made available to Boing. I think it is important that this is done quickly since the Christmas holiday period is one of higher than usual risk of break-in or other events.

Yours sincerely

Director of Education