Capita wins contract to digitise Swansea’s education services

Capita has been awarded a contract by Swansea Council to help the local authority migrate its on-premises education services to the cloud. The news comes just weeks after Capita won a similar contract from Suffolk County Council.

Anthony Singleton, managing director, Capita One, said of the news, “This new partnership with Swansea is built on our software capabilities and expertise in the education sector. It also demonstrates our strength in supporting local authorities in their digital transformation journeys.”

Capita One is the wing of professional services group which Capita provides software solutions to local government. Its work covers social housing, revenues and benefits, children’s and families, payments and finance, and digital document solutions – and was recently tapped by Suffolk County Council for a five-year contract worth £1.3 million to migrate its on-premise education software, using software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications to support to a new cloud-based system.

Now, Capita has landed another five-year deal worth £700,000 to migrate Swansea Council’s on-premise education software to a new cloud-based system. Similarly, Capita will use SaaS applications to support the council’s statutory education functions such as admissions and additional learning needs – something which the council hopes will help ensure that every child and young person in the area has access to appropriate and relevant educational provision.

Speaking on the contract, Swansea Council Information Officer Mike Jones said, “We have an important responsibility to support the learning needs of every child in the city and county of Swansea which we take very seriously. Moving our education services to the cloud will help us improve the way we support the education needs of our communities.”

The new system will enable the council’s digital services staff to focus on value-added tasks, such as supporting council employees with their IT needs, and operate more efficiently. It will initially be used by staff in the Education department, and will support student assessment and tracking for the new Welsh curriculum by enabling the council to collect and process formative assessment data at pupil level.

However, the system will also end up supporting a number of interlinked departments including Social Services, Benefits and Community Safety. On top of this, it will support the ‘Citizen Portal’, used by thousands of people every year to apply for school places and support relating to additional learning needs.

The implementation of Capita’s SaaS applications, which are built into Microsoft Azure, mean that upgrades and fixes can be done remotely and out of hours, meaning the council can avoid costly IT equipment replacements and maintenance of its data centre. The cloud migration will additionally allow for improved reporting and analysis processes, which will meanwhile enable better data sharing with the council’s key stakeholders. This includes the Welsh Government and other external partners such as further education colleges and Careers Wales.