Local Authorities now in the loop

Our new Minister, Diana Johnson, has written to all Children’s Services Directors giving them an update on the national rollout of the Home Access programme and offering them the opportunity to aggregate Home Access grants on behalf of families.

She confirms that the programme will be initially targetted at Years 3 to 9 and that the offer will be limited to one computer per family. A revised approach will be adopted for Looked After Children.

Where a Local Authority is fully engaged with the home access/digital divide agenda, and has a number of schools already experienced in addressing it through programmes such as the e-learning foundation approach, there are some real opportunities for the Authority to help families get the computer and Internet access they need, and also get better value for money.

However there is no extra funding to support the work that this will involve.

The advice that the e-Learning Foundation will be giving therefore is as follows:

• Don’t offer to aggregate unless you are absolutely committed to providing the local resources needed to run it. And you will need to get a move on otherwise families will have applied directly for their grant and the opportunity will have been lost. 
• Be aware of schools in your authority wh0 are already running home access programmes as they may be much better placed to aggregate for parents in way that does not disrupt or compromise their existing programmes
• Consider an approach that involves the Local Authority providing support for those schools who do want to aggregate, and leaves families at all the other schools to get their Home Access grant through the standard retail channel

Authorities have until 14 September to apply to Becta to aggregate.  If schools want to aggregate we believe that they will be able to agree this with the Managed Service Provider (to be confirmed in a few weeks time) who will run the central fulfilment process.

Lots to think about, and we will be talking about progress on Home Access at our next conference to be held in central London on Friday 20th November. Details will be up on our website next week if you want to book early to secure your place.

What will the new Schools Minister do?

Jim Knight becomes the new Employment Minister under Gordon Brown’s recent reshuffle. As Schools Minister Jim has been a tremendous supporter of the work of the e-Learning Foundation, and played a key role in getting £300m committed by the Treasury for the Home Access programme.  We wish him well in his new role and look forward to meeting his successor.  Let’s hope the new Minister shares Jim’s passion for overcoming the digital divide. At present there is a spooky empty space on the DCSF website where Jim’s face used to smile out at us.

Our Leeds conference went off really well. The major complaint was that those at the back of the lunch queue got a raw deal. As someone in the last 10 of the queue, I can confirm there was very limited choice. Trouble was the grub looked so good delegates piled their plates high, leaving the tail end charlies hoovering up the scraps.  There must be a message there somewhere.

Lots of questions about how schools fit into the Home Access programme and we were besieged with queries about this. The answer is “it depends how involved you want to be” and our School Liaison Managers can help you work up the best approach for your specific circumstances.

The national Home Access programme moves steadily towards an autumn launch. Lots of supplier activity as Becta adds more companies to the approved supplier list and a firm is selected to run the central grant processing operation.

Schools with a low Free School Meal figure don’t need to wait and should be thinking about getting on with launching their programme for a cohort or bigger group either now or immediately everyone returns to school. This way they can get ahead of the rush!

Welcome back from your Easter break

Let’s hope that you haven’t eaten too much  chocolate, or broken a leg on the pistes, because the summer term is going to be a busy one for schools concerned with the digital divide.  The Home Access pilots in Oldham and Suffolk seem to be making good progress and the latest we have heard is that national rollout is due for December.

This could be awkward for schools with a high number of families who might be eligible for a Home Access grant, and who are planning to launch a new programme for all in September, at the start of term. So do talk to us as we are constantly receiving updates on the situation and can help you put in place the best possible plan for your school.

We cannot confirm whether we will have a large grants fund yet for this year but if you have affiliated with us you will be automatically informed the minute we get this confirmed.  We were able to offer £1.8m to schools last year which led to projects worth four times that amount, the bulk of the difference coming from parents contributing a few pounds a month.

With the credit crunch hitting low income families, our equity model allows parents to provide their children with the home ICT resources they need for a small regular donation to the school programme without having to resort to loan sharks and exorbitant interest rates .

To share your experiences, and learn from others, do come and join us at our Planning for Home Access conference on May 21st in Leeds (you can book through our website) where we will be talking in detail about the steps you can take now in order to be ready to help your families make the most of the Home Access programme as soon as it goes live. Bookings are ahead of target and we have limited places so don’t leave it to the last minute.

With so much uncertainty around in terms of the timing of the next election and what the next Comprehensive Spending Review will hold for the Education budgets, it’s as well to be in the know.  See you in Leeds!

Planning for Home Access

This is the time of the year when you suddenly realise that despite the fact there are still forecasts of snow, you’ve only just got enough time to plan the changes that need to be ready for September and the new school year!

Here at the e-Learning Foundation we are aware that this year is going to be a particularly tricky year.  We don’t know for certain exactly when the national rollout of the Home Access grants for families on Free School Meals will start. And we also don’t know whether there will any phasing in of the programme. This makes it very difficult for schools with relatively high FSM figures to plan a September launch to parents.

The worst case scenario would be that parents would agree to donate to an equity scheme and three months later find they can have a computer for nothing under the Home Access programme, cancel their donations and give back the school computer.

So planning this year is more important than ever before. To help this process we are running a conference at the Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds on May 21st. Schools and Local Authorities are urged to come along so that we can have a proper debate about how best to support our pupils and make the most of the new funding streams that are about to kick off. 

Niel McLean, the Director from Becta with the major responsibility for Home Access, will be speaking at the conference alongside schools who have already had significant success, all mixed up with a dash of futurology!  Please do book a place because our events have always won excellent feedback from delegates – we aim to make them stimulating, interactive, supportive and enjoyable

Any companies out there who like to sponsor the event, and take a stand, would also be warmly welcomed.  Our website has all the booking forms, although you can always just call our new Marketing Manager, Jim Cooper on 01932 796134.

Snowy weather highlights home access benefits

This recent spate of snow and ice has resulted in many children, and their teachers, being unable to get to school. And while the first day spent in the snow is great fun, even semi-pro snowman makers get fed up with it fairly quickly.
What has been different about this situation, compared to say ten years ago, is that while many children and their teachers may not have been able to get to school, it hasn’t meant they can’t get on with their schoolwork.

Some schools have been able to continue the teaching and learning because, with support from parents,  they have ensured that all their children have access to a computer and the Internet at home, and have set up a learning portal with communications and learning resources that can be accessed from home.

The weather gurus say we can expect more very cold winters in the next few years, so yet another good reason to make sure that every child can go on-line at home!

See you at BETT?

This year’s BETT is almost upon us. The e-Learning Foundation is at its usual spot, close to the main entrance doors on stand M40. We love to have lots of visitors so please come and see us. I am usually tearing around, soaking up the atmosphere and networking ferociously (or is it ferociously networking?). Do text me if you want to meet up – it’s what BETT is all about!

Happy New Year

Back to work – how come the effect of an 11 day break can disappear so quickly?

Pretty busy at the e-Learning Foundation with last minute preparations for BETT. We are at our usual spot, stand M40, next to Promethean and Toshiba, and right next to the main road entrance.  Let’s hope it warms up a bit, those blasts of fresh air when a wave of new visitors arrive can be interesting on a cold day!  Please do come and pay us a visit.

The big issues that will be buzzing around the show will be to do with the Home Access programme; who are the approved suppliers; what’s the allowance going to be worth; how will families be persuaded to take it up given their known reluctance to accept other forms of help; what will be the educational benefits; will the computers end up on e-Bay if there is no link to the school; how can schools play a more direct role if they are keen to do so; what does this do to the e-Learning Foundation approach? 

We have also kicked off our annual school survey today.  All the contacts we have on our database have been invited to take part in a short survey on issues to do with their home access plans. If you have received an invitation please do take the time to fill it in – it really does only take 5 minutes and a prize of £1,000 awaits one lucky person!

It’s Christmas!

The e-Learning Foundation is closing over Christmas so this is my last opportunity to wish all our supporters the very best wishes of the season.  2008 has been easily one of the best years for my charity and we have made huge progress. 2009 shows signs of being even more eventful so I am looking forward to catching up on lost sleep and preparing myself for a very busy New Year.  For those of you coming to BETT, please do not forget to visit us on our stand, M40, National Hall, usual spot right next to the main steps to the main road entrance.

Happy Christmas!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog. I thought that I would start a regular blog on the work of my charity fighting the digital divide, how the recently announced Home Access programme is progressing, and how schools can make the most of the £300m that Government is to spend on the poorest families.

Seems to be that the programme could go pear shaped if we do not make sure we monitor it carefully; for me we need to:

• monitor the people who do not take the offer up as well as those who do
• monitor the educational use of the ICT at home
• monitor the changes in teaching and learning that should result from universal home access in a community
• monitor the increases on parental engagement with their child’s education and the school
• encourage schools to get directly involved so that we can build some sustainability into the programme

The e-Learning Foundation also have a large grants fund remaining for this year – you wouldn’t believe how hard it can be to give money away sometimes!

So if you are interested in kicking off a debate about how we get the most from the Home Access programme then please respond to my blog – otherwise it’s going to be very lonely!

Home Access pilots in Suffolk and Oldham

Had a good drive up to the North to meet Steve Goodman in Oldham, one of the two Local Authorities selected for the Home Access programme pilot. It’s interesting that none of the Oldham schools have expressed interest in running an equity programme, despite there being some very high areas of deprivation.

Oldham is an interesting area with some very wealthy areas to the East and inner city deprivation to the West. We will write out to all the schools very soon explaining how the e-Learning Foundation model works and how they could leverage the value of the Technology Allowance that eligible families will receive into a school run programme. 

Hope we get some interest as we are very keen to work out the logistics of “aggregation” for all the other schools in the UK, and particularly those who have already got a Home Access programme running.

e-Learning Foundation kicks off Christmas season

We had a fabulous “festive reception” last night at the Merchant Taylor’s Hall on Threadneedle Street in the City.  We are claiming the first Christmas party of the year! The idea was a big thank you to all those who have been instrumental in getting us to where we are after seven years of hard work and persistence. It felt like a big family party with everyone who has contributed, not just organisations and people who have provided funds but our laywers, recruiters and designers. The room looked amazing, with Christmas trees and glitter. Our City Livery halls really are a national asset.

We also invited a number of people who we are in the process of encouraging to “join the club” and contribute what they can.  Let’s hope that having seen the kind of support we have won in the past, this is something they want to be associated with going forwards.

Lord Mitchell, our Chairman, and Baroness Morris, our former Chair and now Patron, gave short but to the point speeches. As well as some well deserved “thank yous” they pointed out how very few charities get to the point where the problem they have been set up to resolve is in sight of being overcome. That’s certainly the case with the digital divide – but the next 3-5 years will need a really concerted effort, not just to make sure every child has the IT access they need, but that we can go on ensuring they have generation after generation.

We also set out our new focus on the “working poor” in the light of £300m Government funding for what will probably end up only going to unemployed families. Everyone accepts that the benefits system has to have a cut-off – but providing vital resources for their children is often a major challenge for families who prefer to work even though their income remains only just above the level of State benefits.

Friday!

What a week!  Dinner on Monday with my Chair, Lord Mitchell and my Patron, Baroness Morris (Estelle). A celebration really because of the huge progress we have made in getting the digital divide on the national agenda through the Home Access programme. It is just conceivable that we could do ourselves out of a job in 4-5 years!

Great Board meeting on Tuesday, with my Trustees bursting with ideas and assistance. Charities stand or fall by the quality of their Trustees and ours really are the best. 

On Wednesday the e-Learning Foundation team met up, busy planning for BETT, looking for ways of making our meagre marketing budget go as far as possible.  We are open to ideas! Do make a note to come and see us on our stand, M40. Better still, contact us and make an appointment as things get quite busy at peak times.

We have also make good progress on the Home Access programme and will be visiting a school in Suffolk next week with Becta to go through the nuts and bolts of how a school could get involved in Home Access in a fully inclusive way. More on this in due course.

SS&AT national conference – busy busy!

Just got back from a day at the SS&AT national conference.  It kicked off with a cold and windy photocall with Jim Knight, Schools Minister, and a team of people from Virgin Media, photographing a lovely young lady and her Mum from Birmingham who were one of the families to benefit from the free Broadband offer that Virgin Media had made in the summer. Will try and put some of the pics on the Foundation’s website.

Then trotted through the Bullring (so much nicer now) and spent the day at the SS&AT conference. We had booked a small stand (real shame that charities like ours have to pay to attend things like this) which had a steady stream of visitors throughout the day.

Lots of interest from schools across the country but a surprising lack of awareness of the Home Access programe, including schools from the two pilot areas (Suffolk and Oldham)!  We were helped by regular referrals from the other stands where suppliers, having hopefully sold the benefits of their particular product,  were sending the schools to us to work out how they were going to pay for them!

Great to see so much interest. That’s filled the diary up until Christmas!