Paper 2 – Framework for Business Plan

Paper 2 – Framework for Becta’s Business Plan

Introduction

  1. This paper sets out the framework for Becta’s business planning for the next three years; building on the discussions from the Board’s residential in October.It sets out the work that needs to be done and provides a top level financial model around our key priorities and an initial set of targets to provide structure and challenge.
  2. The progress to date means that following the Board meeting we will be in a good position to plan our work in detail for an April 1st start –in advance of previous years. We need good challenge from the Board to support us in making this a rigorous process.

The Board is asked to:

  • Discuss, amend and agree thisframework
  • Discuss the future financial picture and discuss how we can improve it.
  • Discuss andagree the role the Board should play in developing ourremit
  • Agree the approach taken with key partners and their activities
  • Agree the next steps

Introduction

  1. Following on from the Board residential in October the Executive has continued a series of workshops to develop our future plans for both:
  • our core strategy leadership and system support role
  • strategic interventions that accelerate progress of the strategy
  1. In particular we have developed plans and thinking for each of the strategic interventions and then judged their priority, their practicality and their potential system impact.
  2. This has led to a reduction of the original 14 ideas to 8 worked out plans with initial measures and targets. A summary of these are shown in Table2. The Executive has also looked at core activity and services and these are shown in Table 1. We have allocated initial budgets and this work is shown in Table 3.
  3. This work formed the basis of the proposition to DCSF, circulated as draft to the Board, redrafted in the light of comments and since submitted to DCSF – see Appendix A. We have had a subsequent positive and constructive meeting with the Department to discuss this proposition.
  4. We have also started a dialogue with DIUS officials on priorities for 2009-10 in the light of progress made this year on the FE and Skills implementation plan , our proposed strategic interventions and other developments such as the on line vision statement commissioned from us by the Secretary of State, John Denham. The background paper we prepared for DIUS is attached at Appendix B. We have also been contributing further advice forthe Minister Sion Simon, on future vision and delivery arising from our board discussions and the emerging framework . We now expect some feedback from the minister shortly which will be followed by further discussions with DIUS and jointly with DCSF colleagues to refine the headlines for next year which will then be incorporated into the draft letter for the Board to consider.
  5. We suggest that this forms the basis of the Departmental remit/priorities letter to underpin the necessary further work we now need to do on our business planning for next year. In essence the following summary tables provide the framework of Becta’s work priorities for the coming three years.

Framework for Becta’s Work

  1. Becta’s role is to develop and lead the implementation of the Government endorsed system-wide strategy “Harnessing technology – Next Generation Learning” that is designed to underpin and support Departmental Strategic Objectives.
  2. We will focus on:
  • our core leadership and support functions
  • and a number of system interventions

as set out below.

Table 1 – Becta’s core leadership and system support roles

  1. Each Business Area has a specific set of core roles that work together to provide Becta’s overall system leadership and system support roles

Business Area / What Becta will do / Impact
Strategy
and
Commun-ications
Tony Richardson / Lead and Develop Strategy: ensure overall governance and positive partner engagement to develop and deliver the National Strategy and its performance monitoring. Revise the strategy to consider the implications of a wider remit / Improve the delivery of the Harnessing Technology strategy. Revised strategy and new partner commitments
Policy influence: Inform and influence specific policy areas through clear and compelling evidence-based analysis. Expand communications with all policy makers and Departmental sponsor teams. / Better informed policy within specific areas of education and children’s services policy. Better relationship with Departments.
International:Engaging in international activity that informs current and future practice and enhances Becta’s leadership role. / Becta is identified as leader nationally and internationally.
Marketing and Communications: Develop and deliver activities & outputs through range of channels, including the Media, influential with the target audiences.Run awards schemes, targeted sponsorship commitments , events and marketing campaigns to accelerate effective adoption / Becta external and internal communicationsare informed, aligned, clear, targeted and lead to more active and informed engagement
Educational Research: Carry out specific educational research and undertake data gathering and analysis. / Insight and understanding of progress against the aims of the Harnessing Technology Strategy
Emerging Technologies:Provide continuing evidence and analysis in the area of emerging technologies. / Becta is regarded as a key source of insight into emerging technology and its potential in education.
Further Education
and Skills
Jane Williams / Implementation Plan:Support the delivery and development of the FE and Skills implementation plan developing robust evidence to support our strategy and determine progress against targets. / Stronger partnership working within FE and Skills. Delivery of targets in plan.
Campaign: Engaging employers in the Next Generation Learning @ WORK campaign. / Increased awareness and engagement of employers with Next Generation Learning
Impact and economic studySupport the implementation plan by developing robust evidence to support our strategy and determine progress against targets. / Better informed and more evidenced based implementation plan
FE Institutional Self improvement: Framework: Providing the framework by which to assess FE and Skills providers use of ICT, undertake self analysis and develop improvement plans as an integral part of the quality improvement cycle. / Providers using the framework; the framework becoming an integral part of self improvement. E-maturity levels across the FE sector rise as a result of adoption of the framework.
Policy advice Support DIUS by offering briefings, policy development papers, contributions to consultations, strategy vision and development of delivery options on Digital Inclusion, Adult Access to Technology for Learning proof of concept, informal adult learning, / Better informed policy within DIUS. Better relationship with Department.
Children, Schools
and Families
Niel McLean / Safeguarding: Becta’s support for the governance and delivery of Byron. Setting technical standards for safeguarding and accrediting suppliers. Development and promotion of advice and support for parents, practitioners, institutions and intermediaries. Support for Byron Governance and the National Council and feeding this in to policy. / Institutions, industry adopting safe practices. Increase proportion of schools with an AUP, proportion of LSCBs with a safeguarding support plan.
Digital Inclusion and learning: Articulate the case and model for the development of digital media literacy for learners. Provide ‘templates’, exemplification and guidance. Liaise and influence broader agenda including e-assessment, Digital Inclusion, Digital Britain, Ofcom activities. / Better informed policies in government and partner agencies on digital literacy, assessment and inclusion.
School improvement: Articulate the model and provide the framework by which to assess schools' state in the use of ICT (SRF); undertake self analysis (online tool) and build development paths and plans. Schools progression through Next Generation Learning Charter. / More schools engaging with self review and improving their strategic planning, operational management and impact of ICT.
Cross-System Under-pinning Technology
and
Service Architecture
Steve Lucey / Securing procurement efficiencies: Managing our national agreements to ensure quality of provision meets or exceeds our defined service requirements. Supporting users of our agreements through the process and resolving any arising issues. Monitoring supplier performance against defined key performance indicators and assessing market impact and savings achieved. Continue to explore procurement efficiency opportunities on behalf of the education and training system. / Meeting our three year cost saving target of £120M (previously £150M altered through change control and approved by the Chairman).
Specifying and developing the infrastructure architecture:Review and enhance functional and technical specifications across all areas of the infrastructure architecture. Working with supply and demand side partners to drive up adoption of the specifications to improve the reliability and coherence of technology solutions. Articulate the benefits of interoperable solutions and work with partners to drive implementation. Continue work with content publishers to drive up the quality of digital learning resources. / Through providing a more coherent technology landscape, with consequent efficiency savings across the system
Regional Delivery
and Engage-ment
Jane Williams / Strategic and operational support at a local and regional level: Provide effective strategic, technical, curriculum and procurement support to Local Authorities to enable them to embed the effective use of technology into their strategies to support improved outcomes for learners; providing differentiated support for the ICT element of the Building Schools for the Future, Primary Capital and Academies programmes. / Improved engagement with Local Authorities and other regional partners. Technology embedded effectively into Local Authority strategies and capital building programmes.
Finance
and
Operations
Alan Cowie / Operational Planning and Performance. Programme and Project Management.
Change planning and monitoring mechanisms to better recognise the different types of Becta activity (project v non-project, delivery v services v leadership) / Tighter performance management of project targets and financial investment. Programme governance, risk management and assurance to the Board.
Finance, IT/IS, Customer Service
Roll out implementation of (a) CRM system and Customer Contact Centre; (b) C2P system; and (c) SharePoint. Build on Hannigan compliance with broader Information Management project. / Excellent Customer/Partner experience when interacting with Becta: Systems underpin partner engagement strategy. Smoother investment profile information assets understood accessible across Becta.
HR, Organisational Development, Facilities
Deliver Resourcing Strategy project to resolve problems with (a) skill mix; (b) pay rates and recruitment; and (c) deployment of resources across core and SI work.
Design and complete accommodation changes. / Becta’s delivery capability and capacity will be significantly improved. Decisions on staff versus contractor/consultant taken at a strategic rather than tactical level.

Becta’s strategic interventions

  1. Becta will develop a small number of system-wide strategic interventions to
  • Raise expectations of parents through a demand side campaign
  • Ensure capital investmentsembrace a world class vision of technology
  • Schools are supported to meet targets for Parental Engagement
  • Ensure all Children have Home Access
  • Enable all 14-19 partnerships make effective use of technology
  • Workforce equipped to use technology for teaching, learning, management
  • Better ICT Solutions for Primary Schools through Managed Services
  1. These are set out below with indicators and targets. This is still very much work in progress. Specific targets will clearly depend on ongoing discussions with the Departments and partners as well as final decisions on resource allocation following the Board discussion. We are also looking to differentiate between those measures (in green) which identify progress to our goal and those that measure the final outcomes (blue). Here are our initial thoughts:

Intervention / What Becta will do / One year Measures and Targets.
By end of March 2010 / Three year Measures and Targets
By end of March 2012
Demand side campaign
Tony Richardson / Devise and implement a demand side campaign to
•make parents/carers (of our target segments of school-age learners) aware that technology supports learning to
•equip them with the knowledge and understanding so
•they demand more from the provider / •20% prompted awareness of technology’s value among families/ carers with school age children / •30% prompted awareness of technology’s value among families/ carers with school age children
•Where schools offer online access to parents, 50% are aware and 25% intend to use / •Where schools offer online access to parents, 80% are aware and 50%intend to use (2012).
Capital investment
Jane Williams
Steve Lucey / •Develop high quality vision on improving ICT through capital investment
•Review and revise standards
•Promote and disseminate vision; embed in capital processes
•Monitor and review implementation / •world class vision for what good looks like in capital investment programmes developed & articulated
•All Outline and Final Business Cases and Strategy for Change are consistent with vision and standards by 2010 / •Increase practitioner and learner satisfaction with technology in capital build by 50% by 2015 from a 2011 baseline
Children’s Home Access
Niel Mclean / •To implement the Government’s Home Access scheme by developing:
•the scheme for supplying Home Access Grants
•a supplier accreditation system
•A marketing campaign and by
•working with partners to ensure effective use and exploitation / •70,000 learners from low income families will benefit from the use of home access supplied equipment and connectivity / •323,000 more low income families accessing learning through technology in the home by March 2011 (Subject to new funding in CSR 11/14 a target for 2012 will be established.)
Increased parental engagement
Niel Mclean / •Commission review of schools’ experiences of use and benefits
•Challenge industry partners to respond to deeper parental engagement
•Produce toolkit for increasing parental engagement
•Build effective system of advocates and networks / •All secondary schools provide parents with access to secure on-line reporting / •All primary schools provide parents with access to secure on-line reporting September 2012
•30% of secondary age pupils’ parents using online reporting / •50% of school age pupils’ parents using online reporting
Effective use of technology to support 14-19
Jane Williams / •Produce clear vision of use and benefits of ICT to 14-19 consortia and partnerships
•Produce 14-19 technology framework for consortia to ensure better tracking of learners progress and more flexible access to learning
•Produce 14-19 toolkit and best practice guides – including a series of exemplars on use of technology in 14-19
•Expand the technology improvement leadership tool to include 14-19
•Produce guidance documents on agreed topics (e.g. safeguarding 14-19 learners; 14-19 and rurality). / •Develop a national vision and 14-19 technology framework by March 2010 which will be approved by the 14-19 technology sub-programme board
• Develop criteria to measure performance of consortia in their use of technology by March 2010
• Gateway 3 consortia will have access to the 14-19 technology improvement leadership tool as part of a planned rollout by March 2010 / •All 14-19 consortia produce annual technology plans by 2011 consistent with vision and benefits
•All partnerships apply Code of Practice for MIS by 2012
•Year on year increases in learner satisfaction with use of ICT to give flexible access to learning
Increase workforce capability – Schools
Niel Mclean / •Produce clear vision of use and benefits
•Develop and support networks/partnerships
•Develop toolkit for leaders to drive workforce change
•Set a higher bar for standards in technology for teachers
•Focus on high influence mechanisms for CPD – e.g. ASTs and other networks
•Focus on floor target and coasting schools / •Vision and offer established
•Draft toolkit completed
•PD partners and networks negotiated and signed up.
•Those standards that have been reviewed have improved ICT requirement.
•Baselines of ICT in School Plans and CPD provision established. / •75% (approx 160k) of secondary and 50% (100k) primary teachers using learning technology confidently and effectively by 2012
•Increase in number of heads giving technology high priority in SDPs
•Increase the number of CPD providers and courses with ICT embedded.
Increase workforce capability - FE
Jane Williams / •Produce national on-line CPD prospectus on technology for learning
•Revise occupational standards and set a higher bar in technology for ITT
•Develop national technology network for leaders, and associated tools / •Pilot national CPD prospectus in alignment with National Improvement Strategy and LLUK Workforce Strategy by March 2010 / •All providers have technology improvement plans by 2011
•Update ITT and CPD programmes to reflect revised professional standards by March 2011
•80% of workforce undertaking CPD through prospectus by March 2012; all FE teachers updating ICT skills as part of 30 hours CPD
•Top quarter in international workforce ICT benchmark by 2012
•Year on year improvement in learner surveys on use of ICT
Increase reliability and sustain-ability of ICT use
Steve Lucey / •Develop in partnership with institutional leaders, ICT service solutions that will help implement and maintain ICT systems, focusing initially on primary schools
•Pilot, evaluate, refine and upscale / •Increase the number of primary schools using managed services for part or all of their ICT provision by 1500 / •Increase the number of primary schools using managed services for part or all of their ICT provision by 5000

The Board is asked to discuss, amend and agree this framework.

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Paper 2 – Framework for Business Plan

Table 3 – Financial Summary

Total / Commissions / Core Activities / KRA Projects / SI's / Admin / Staff Costs
Strategy & Communications
Strategy:
Policy / 865,000 / 0 / 852,500 / 0 / 12,500
Strategy and Research / 5,355,000 / 1,500,000 / 3,855,000 / 0
7,490,900 / 1,500,000 / 4,707,500 / 0 / 0 / 12,500 / 1,270,900
Communications:
Campaign / 2,500,000 / 0 / 0 / 2,500,000
Corporate Communications, Awards & Events / 4,085,275 / 0 / 2,621,000 / 1,175,000 / 289,275
7,795,075 / 0 / 2,621,000 / 1,175,000 / 2,500,000 / 289,275 / 1,209,800
FE & Skills
Policy Influence and Campaign / 2,550,000 / 0 / 1,550,000 / 1,000,000
Evidence and Strategy Leadership / 2,962,500 / 0 / 890,000 / 2,060,000 / 12,500
Workforce Capability / 1,000,000 / 1,000,000
14-19 / 1,600,000 / 1,600,000
9,066,600 / 0 / 2,440,000 / 3,060,000 / 2,600,000 / 12,500 / 954,100
Children, Schools & Families
Institutional Development / 2,884,500 / 400,000 / 1,987,000 / 485,000 / 12,500
Learning, Teaching and Inclusion / 1,445,000 / 0 / 525,000 / 920,000
Universal Home Access / 4,500,000 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 4,500,000
Workforce Capability / 1,000,000 / 1,000,000
Parental Engagement / 1,000,000 / 1,000,000
12,463,300 / 400,000 / 2,512,000 / 1,405,000 / 6,500,000 / 12,500 / 1,633,800
Underpimmimg Technology and
Service Architecture
Procurement Strategy / 1,598,000 / 0 / 598,000 / 1,000,000
Technical Strategy / 3,382,500 / 1,350,000 / 1,170,000 / 850,000 / 12,500
Reliability & Sustainability / 1,300,000
8,162,900 / 1,350,000 / 1,768,000 / 1,850,000 / 1,300,000 / 12,500 / 1,882,400
Regional Delivery
Regional Delivery / 1,827,050 / 1,827,050
405,000 / 405,000
3,590,950 / 0 / 1,827,050 / 0 / 405,000 / 0 / 1,358,900
Finance & Operations
Executive and Operational Leadership / 2,535,500 / 50,000 / 2,485,500
IT / 1,280,400 / 840,000 / 440,400
Finance / 319,000 / 100,000 / 219,000
New Developments (incl Customer Relations Module) / 556,202 / 450,902 / 105,300
Facilities / 1,367,600 / 1,200,000 / 167,600
HR & Development / 1,048,900 / 750,000 / 298,900
Performance and Planning / 466,800 / 235,000 / 231,800
Directorate Support and Pensions / 104,100 / 62,500 / 41,600
2009/10 Salary Uplift / 200,000 / 200,000
7,878,502 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 3,688,402 / 4,190,100
Total Requirement / 56,448,227 / 3,250,000 / 15,875,550 / 7,490,000 / 13,305,000 / 4,027,677 / 12,500,000
Potential Savings (World Forum & BETT) / -1,375,000 / -1,375,000
Targeted % Reduction / -1,821,733 / 0 / -1,343,555 / -450,500 / 0 / -27,678 / 0
53,251,495 / 3,250,000 / 14,531,995 / 5,664,500 / 13,305,000 / 4,000,000 / 12,500,000
Estimated Funding
DSCF Programme Funding / 30,100,000 / includes £1.6m one-off funding for 14-19 SI
DIUS Programme Funding / 4,250,000
Pay & Admin / 16,500,000
50,850,000
Funding Shortfall / 2,401,495

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