As you may be aware, the contract between Suffolk County Council (SCC) and ESS SIMS is due to cease on the 31March 2025. SCC have been working on a project to procure a new solution on behalf of LA maintained schools.
 
After many months of requirements gathering, demonstrations and evaluations, we can announce that our chosen new supplier for both MIS and Finance is Arbor Education.

We already have 17 schools who have come forward to volunteer to be early adopters for the move from SIMS to Arbor. We will however be in touch with all LA maintained schools to arrange the migration. The migration of each school will be carefully planned, with training and support provided by a combination of SCC IT resources and the supplier.

The new solution will be cloud based and we expect will offer a significantly improved user experience, such as:

• Cloud based solution eliminates the need to manage on-premise infrastructure.
• Experience from other schools is improved resource efficiencies enabling staff to focus on core activities.
• Facilitates replacement of multiple third party applications providing licence cost savings and an integrated solution to schools’ needs.

We will be hosting an overview of the Arbor software on Tuesday 16 July from 1-3pm via Teams, please could School Leaders confirm the email address of who they would like to be invited to the overview by emailing [email protected]. This webinar will be recorded and a link to the recording will be shared after the event with attendees, so please book on and listen back later if you are not able to attend the session live.

As soon as we can, we will be in touch with schools to inform them of the new charges. These new charges will not take effect until 1 April 2025, thus facilitating a phased migration to the new supplier before the end of the current ESS contract. Schools are free to choose their own supplier if they do not wish to be part of the LA umbrella contract. The contract we have secured does benefit from a significant licence cost discount, which would not be available to schools on an individual basis.

Please look out for communications from The Schools Team via the Schools IT monthly newsletter and Suffolk Headlines.

If a school has decided to choose an alternative solution for their MIS and Finance systems, please could School Leaders let us know in writing, by emailing [email protected] no later than Friday 13 September 2024. Please note that we will not be able to support schools who choose a different supplier, but you will still be required to fulfil your statutory duties.