Management Information Sheet
School to LA Data Transfer: Update March 2022
You will be aware from previous correspondence that the LA has been working on a project regarding extraction of pupil data since 2019; this has been an extensive piece of work which has faced delays due to unforeseen technical issues. We are pleased to inform you that the technical infrastructure is now in place, and we are starting to receive pupil data from a large number of school management information systems. You will find below a reminder about the project outline and the data we will extract.
We understand now more than ever that processes need to be streamlined to support schools with the demands that they are facing; this innovation will reduce the burden on schools and improve our capacity as a whole system to track pupil movement and school attendance, reducing the likelihood of children missing education. It will also support the whole system to be prepared for any changes that might result from the recent DfE consultation regarding school attendance.
What do I need to do?
Key contact information
In order to process this data efficiently, it is important that we ensure we have an up-to-date list of key contacts for this work. The key contact should be someone within your school who has day to day responsibility for the management and quality of pupil data within your management information system. The key contact will be the person that the LA team contacts so that any validation errors can be quickly and easily addressed. Please complete and submit the following form no later than 1st April 2022.
Webinar
We are offering a webinar in order for schools to understand the process of data extraction and the files you may receive back. The aim of these webinars is to provide further detail on how we are processing the data and some useful guidance around data quality and how to respond to any data validation checks we send to you. Within the above-mentioned form, we have included a section where you can register your interest to attend one of these webinars which will be held on Teams on the following dates:
- Thursday 21st April - 10.30am to 12pm
- Tuesday 26th April - 1pm to 2.30pm
- Thursday 28th April - 1pm to 2.30pm
- Tuesday 3rd May - 10.30 am to 12pm
- Thursday 5th May - 1pm to 2.30pm
Next steps:
In the forthcoming weeks we will write to those schools from whom we are receiving data to confirm which processes will now be streamlined and how this will affect reporting requirements.
If you have any questions please contact Kelly Waters, Senior Adviser - Safeguarding - kelly.waters@norfolk.gov.uk or Tanya Allen, ICT Portfolio Lead for Schools - tanya.allen@norfolk.gov.uk.
Summary of the project
What are we proposing?
In 2018, we identified a need to review systems and improve efficiency in line with statutory responsibilities for safeguarding, attendance, children missing education and data protection. The key to system change and efficiency for all partners is improvements to the infrastructure for collection of data from schools in respect of these responsibilities.
Norfolk County Council (NCC) uses the Synergy Management Information System to record education information about children for whom the Council has a statutory duty of care. The data we propose to extract is already currently provided to the LA via the DfE following census returns but reliance on this method means the data can be out of date and does not support us to fulfil our statutory duties for school attendance and children missing education efficiently. It also means that, at present schools are asked to submit data in a variety of ways by different teams at different times and the method of transfer is not always secure.
The project has created a secure system to use data extracts from your Management Information System (MIS) to populate the Synergy system via overnight feeds of pupil data. No staff data will be extracted as part of this process. This process simply supports the LA and schools with the transfer of data in line with statutory responsibilities as outlined in the Education Act 1996. The application extracts 3 files and securely sends to the LA:
- Pupils - Section 437
- Attendance - Section 436a
- Exclusions - Section 19 (3A/B)
How will we use the data?
We will use the data to:
- Track pupil movement onto a school roll;
- Monitor the attendance of children with a social worker;
- Identify children who have been absent for 10 consecutive school days, persistently absent pupils and those who are on a reduced timetable;
- Ensure that the LA analysis of pupil attendance provides a comprehensive and up to date picture that informs targeted support for the most vulnerable children.
What are the benefits?
The proposed data sharing system will:
- Mean that schools will automatically fulfil requirements for providing data about the attendance of children with a social worker, children who are placed on roll at a school and details of children who have been absent for 10 consecutive days or more.
- Create a single, secure, robust method of information sharing about pupil attendance and exclusion that is compliant with GDPR.
- Lead to increased efficiency and a reduction in requests for data submissions and pupil-level queries from the LA e.g. fixed term exclusions, pupil absence.
- Improve capacity to track pupil movement and school attendance reducing the likelihood of children missing education.
- Ensure the LA has access to up-to-date data leading to more comprehensive analysis to inform targeted support in response to need.
What is the data that will be extracted?
The data being extracted will be the fields that are currently contained within a standard CTF file.
What will happen if the data extract fails to upload to the Synergy system?
In the event that the data extract fails to upload into the Synergy system due to validation errors (i.e. incorrect DOB, no postcode, additional spaces in name) then our Children Services' Team will contact you directly to ask if you can amend your MIS so this is corrected in the next extract.
This will also benefit yourselves as will reduce the number of validation errors on your census returns as we are validating the data on a regular basis.
How long is the data stored?
The data is destroyed automatically in line with the retention schedule compliant with GDPR.
Where is the data stored?
The data we are collecting is stored on our Synergy database hosted on secure servers at County Hall and is mirrored in another data centre off-site.
How does NCC ensure the safety of the data?
It is mandatory for all staff members to have to complete a GDPR training course before they can access any systems. This is repeated at regular intervals afterwards to refresh their knowledge.
- Access to the Synergy database is restricted to only those staff members who need access.
- Some of the safeguards we use are firewalls, data encryption, physical access controls and information access authorisation controls.
- Our network provider (Updata) also pro-actively monitors the network for cyber-attacks etc.
Children's Services Privacy Notice can be found on the Norfolk County Council website.