Written question asked by Eric Forth (Conservative) on Monday, 11 July 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 13 July 2005. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Monday, 18 July 2005 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

School Management Information Systems

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 9 June 2005, Official Report, column 698W, on school management information systems, what the average cost was of a core administration software package for (a) secondary, (b) primary and (c) special schools in each of the last five years.

Answer

The Department does not routinely collect information on the amount that individual schools spend from their delegated budgets on core administrative software packages.Becta, the Department's strategic partner for ICT in education, collects some market intelligence, often provided on a commercially confidential basis, as a part of its continuing strategic role in understanding and influencing market activity.From the available information, Becta is able to estimate typical costs, which suppliers derive by taking account of the number of pupils in a school and the range of software being licensed.Becta's understanding of the annual charges applied by suppliers to a typical primary school is:

	£
1999	140
2000/01	Between 200 and 210
2002	Between 220 and 230
2003	275
2004	380
⁽³³⁾ The latest year for which Becta has usable data

Becta's understanding of the annual charges made by suppliers to a typical secondary school is:

	£
1999	570
2000	800
2001	870
2002	1,100
2003	1,375
2004	1,900
⁽³⁴⁾ The latest year for which Becta has usable data

It is not possible to estimate typical costs for special schools because of the different mix of age ranges of pupils and the scope and complexity of the curriculum structures within a particular school. These factors determine whether a school needs to licence administrative software predominantly covering the needs of a primary school or a secondary school.These estimates do not reflect differences in the functionality and service levels offered by individual suppliers. Any comparisons between these estimates and charges made by a particular supplier must therefore take these into account and be made with caution.In addition to the estimated typical costs shown above, some suppliers also levy charges for services on local authority support teams. Depending on the policy of the education authority, these extra charges may be passed on to schools.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 12068; 436 c1419-20W;436 c1419-20W
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: ICT Schools

School Management Information Systems

Secondary information

Librarians' tools