Commissioning

Civic Offices

Euclid Street

Swindon, SN1 2JH

Tel: 01793 463068

Please ask for: Sarah Higgins

Email:

Our Ref: Licenses

Date: 7th February 2013

Dear Headteacher

Blanket School Licences 2013/14 to 2015/16

As you may be aware the LA currently operates a number of blanket licenses on behalf of Swindon Schools and Academies and the purpose of this letter is to advise you of changes arising from the DfE School Funding Reform programme and toseek your agreement for all licenses to be renewed for a three year period.

As reported to the 15th January 2013 Schools Forum meeting, as part of the School Funding Reform programme, DfE announced in December that from April 2013 they will administer a blanket Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) license on behalf of all state-maintained schools in England. This arrangement will run for an initial 3 year period and will simplify and streamline bureaucracy and deliver savings to all settings. This license provides blanket coverage for schools to use extracts of text and pictures from books, journals, magazines and web sites. Each school is required to nominate a License Co-ordinator who will act as a point of contact for CLA with regard to disseminating information about the license terms and conditions and, every three years, help to arrange a data collection exercise.

In addition the DFE will also from 1st April 2013 centrally administer a new Schools Printed Music License (SPML) blanket license for the copying of printed music which will release schools from seeking permissions directly from music publishers. You are required to make your staff aware ofthe terms and conditions of the SPML and information and guidance (as well as the full license document) is available on the schools.cla.co.uk web site.

Any queries about the CLA and SPML licenses should be raised directly with the CLA – see schools.cla.co.uk or you can email or phone 020 7400 3124.

For both the above licences the LA will pay DFE on behalf of all Swindon settings and a provision of £60,000 has been set aside in the retained DSG budget as reported to the Schools Forum. No charges will therefore be made to Schools or Academies for these licences for at least the next 3 years.

Under current arrangements the LA pays annual CLA license fees and recovers this from cost from Schools and Academies. The LA is not currently involved in SPML issues. In addition to the CLA, the LA also manages the following blanket licences;

License / Purpose / Scope
Capita
  • SBC contract allowing schools to use Capita SIMS software at a discounted rate
/
  • Maintained settings only as Academies must acquire new financial systems.
  • After conversion Academies will receive a proportionate refund if they purchase new Capita software

Centre for Education and Financial Management Ltd
  • Phonographic Performance License (PPL) allowing schools to use music
/
  • Covers all settings but cover is optional (11 Swindon settings do not currently have this but perhaps should)

Centre for Education and Financial Management Ltd
  • Performing Rights Society (PRS) license allowing schools to perform music
/
  • All settings but cover is optional – all settings currently have this

Education Recording Agency (ERA)
  • to allow schools to record and use TV recordings at a 30% discounted rate
/
  • All settings but cover is optional – all settings currently have this

The 2013/14 annual charge for each setting are attached and, in order to minimise bureaucracy and tie in with the CLA contract timescales I would like all settings to confirm coverage for the next three years subject to existing terms and conditions remaining unchanged. I will of course issue annual schedules of charges but do not anticipate any significant changes.

For all licenses other than Capita Sims coverage and charges are exactly the same for Schools and Academies and is unaffected by conversion. Where a school converts they will cease to be part of the Capita license as explained in the table above.

Charges are all pupil based and given the relatively low cost involved I hope that you will all be in agreement with the proposals and I will assume that this is the case unless I hear to the contrary by the end of February 2013. We have provisionally assumed that the 11 settings who are not currently covered by the PPL license should be (the cost per school is only £64 to £117) but this can be changed if requested. 2013-14 charges will be levied to maintained schools by direct debit in May 2013,whilst Academies will be invoiced at the same time.

If you have any queries regarding the renewal of the blanket license please do not hesitate to contact Sarah Higgins (465752) or Maria Sutton (465738).

Yours sincerely

Steve Haley

Head of Finance (Education Innovation)

John Gilbert

Board Director Commissioning (DCS/DASS)