Agenda item

RESOLVED:

That a contract for the provision of online lesson packages to Surrey Online School be awarded to Tute Education Ltd. starting from 1 January 2018 for a period of two years with an option to extend on an annual basis for two more years.

Reasons for Decision:

i.      Surrey Online School currently spot purchases places on online courses, in advance from an existing supplier, and then recoups the money directly from the schools or services. In order to continue current levels of provision and cope with increasing demand we are seeking a longer term solution to procurement of courses and places for students.

ii.     This new provision provides a more cost effective means of commissioning these services.

iii.    Due to the rapid growth of demand for the services offered by Surrey Online School we are now seeking to formalise a contract with a supplier to maintain continuity for the schools and services that purchase online education for students in alternative provision.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children and Education Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Education introduced the report which explained how the Surrey Online School (SOS) had been providing live online lessons to a range of pupils who required alternative education provision across the county since 2015. The service provided an alternative to more expensive face to face tutoring and was enabling the local authority to cope with increasing demands without incurring additional cost.

The Surrey Online School replaced a previous system that Surrey had used (Lift Off) as it was more cost effective and more secure. This was a unique system that no other local authority had in place, thus there was no ‘off the shelf’ provision that could be purchased.

Many schools bought into the service for pupils from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 (10-16 year olds). It was generally used as provision for fixed term and permanently excluded pupils, pupils who could not attend school due to medical conditions, school refusers and catch up. It was also used for children not on roll or awaiting placement.

The curriculum was based on three core subjects (Mathematics, English and Science) plus spiritual, moral, social and cultural development lessons. Each pupil could participate in up to 14 lessons a week and, on average there were 60-70 pupils participating per half term.  All lessons were monitored for quality assurance and attendance alerts for pupil involvement were created for the schools and other agencies. User feedback was collated from schools, pupils and parents/carers and this was significantly positive towards the provision. If there were any negative responses, these were further investigated.

Schools found it more cost effective to buy back from Surrey Online School and due to number of places purchased a slight profit was made.  To date the services had been contracted via ‘ad hoc’ spot purchases but the continued growth in demand meant it now made sense to implement a longer term contract that would ensure continuity of service and legal compliance, as well as delivering additional savings and supporting the opportunity to generate income.

In response to a query the Cabinet Member explained that virtual schools were set up by each authority whereas the online school was unique to Surrey.  Online lessons were differentiated and could be offered to small groups of up to 12 pupils in a range of buildings.

RESOLVED:

That a contract for the provision of online lesson packages to Surrey Online School be awarded to Tute Education Ltd. starting from 1 January 2018 for a period of two years with an option to extend on an annual basis for two more years.

Reasons for Decision:

i.      Surrey Online School currently spot purchases places on online courses, in advance from an existing supplier, and then recoups the money directly from the schools or services. In order to continue current levels of provision and cope with increasing demand we are seeking a longer term solution to procurement of courses and places for students.

ii.     This new provision provides a more cost effective means of commissioning these services.

iii.    Due to the rapid growth of demand for the services offered by Surrey Online School we are now seeking to formalise a contract with a supplier to maintain continuity for the schools and services that purchase online education for students in alternative provision.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children and Education Select Committee]