Issue 17 - 15 January 2014

Access to Council ICT systems including Agresso and Trent

Action Required: / Yes
Audience: / All Schools
Date Issued: / 15 January 2014
Contact: / Keith Watson, Tel: Keith Watson, Email:

In order for the Council to be able to access a number of Central Government systems such as Welfare Benefits, it has to be compliant with the Public Services Network (PSN) Code of Connection, managed by the Cabinet Office. This requires local authorities to comply with high standards of security as far as their ICT networks and computers are concerned.

The Cabinet Office is now applying a “zero tolerance” approach to the Code of Connection and local authorities have to meet stringent standards of security. This is non-negotiable and failure to obtain Code of Connection accreditation will have very serious consequences for a number of Council services.

One of the actions we are having to take to meet the increased security levels mandated by the Cabinet Office is to remove all “unmanaged devices” from our network by the end of February 2014. An “unmanaged device” is one where the Council does not have direct responsibility for managing that device and school computers clearly fall within that category. What this means is that in order to continue to provide you with access to a number of the Council’s systems such as Agresso and Trent, we can no longer use the existing Citrix infrastructure and need to migrate you onto a different technology known as Unified Access Gateway (UAG).

Schools that require access to these services will need the computer(s) to be running a minimum of Windows 7. In addition to your normal user name and password you will also be required to use a two factor authentication to validate your access. This unique code can be provided either via a text message to a designated mobile phone number as soon as you log on, or by using a special token for which there is a one-off cost of £50.

Existing Citrix users in your school may already have this facility.

In order to ensure that schools are prepared for this change, please complete and return the attached form no later than 31 January 2014 and email it to: .

You can use this email address as well if you have any questions in relation to the change and a response will be provided as soon as possible.

Schools that are not set up with a Windows 7 computer(s) and two factor authentication will be unable to access Council services from 1st March 2014.

Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

HR goes direct

Action Required: / No
Audience: / All Schools
Date Issued: / 15 January 2014
Contact: / HR Direct, Tel: 01924 305994, Email:

HR Direct- a new single point of access to the HR Service – from Monday 20 January 2014.

HR Direct is an expansion of our existing HR Helpdesk developed from feedback with staff, managers and schools who said they were unsure who to contact and would like a faster response to their enquires.

HR Direct will provide you with one point of access to HR services, offering an improved and more responsive service bringing benefits to you that will add value, support change and increase customer and employee satisfaction with the HR service.

We have invested in new technology to assist us in forecasting customer demand and enabling us to increase the number of lines available for incoming calls. When contacting us in the future you will be presented with menu options which when selected will deliver calls to HR advisors with specialist schools knowledge

Our HR advisors can provide professional support and advice by phone or face-to-face, on a range of topics including policies and procedures, pay and terms and conditions of employment, leave, attendance, PiP support, pensions, organisational change, conduct/capability and first line enquiries.
It will also develop the HR Service by managing recruitment, a pre-employment/DBS ID checking service if required, job evaluation and attendance.

So, if you need some advice, contact HR Direct on 01924 305994 or email HR Direct is available Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm.

HR service charges

Action Required: / No
Audience: / All Schools
Date Issued: / 15 January 2014
Contact: / Craig Wood, Tel: 01924 306478, Email:

Further to the previous update regarding the 2014/15 HR Service charges I can now confirm that these were sent out to Schools/Academies currently signed up to an SLA on Wednesday 8th January to the Headteacher@ email address of the School. Please ensure you see sight of this email as it contains information relating to the charges applicable to your School.

We have also uploaded our new HR Services brochure for Academies & Maintained Schools to the HR page of the ‘its learning’ website so please take some time to look over the services on offer and the improvements we are making to the service.

If you have not received the 2014/15 HR Service charges email or would like a quote for any HR Services please contact the Business & Policy Development Team on 01924 306478 / .

Service Pupil Premium

Action Required: / Yes
Audience: / All Schools
Date Issued: / 15 January 2014
Contact: / Liz McLean. Tel: 01977 721526

Please see the attached information regarding the Service Pupil premium, a fund available to schools with pupils who are the children of service parents.