2010 Winner: Hertfordshire County Council/Connect Digitally - Online School Admissions
Initiated in April 2009, Online School Admissions (OSA) is a collaborative project between the Department for Education, lead authority Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) and 152 local authorities and suppliers.  OSA is a key project in a national business change programme, Connect Digitally, which builds on the eAdmissions National Project.

HCC led the eAdmissions National Project which supported all LAs to meet the deadline, September 2006, for OSA provision. National take-up in the first year was 18%. In the two years between eAdmissions and Connect Digitally, OSA take-up was 25% and 30% showing that while eAdmissions left a sustainable and popular service, the rate of acceleration of take-up was reducing. Benefits studies indicate that cost savings are unlikely to be realised until a tipping point of 50% take-up.  The OSA national target for March 2011 is therefore 50% and 42 LAs have already exceeded the target.

OSA works with partners to determine and verify solutions. One partner authority with a poor social demographic was struggling with 2.5% online take-up.  Extensive use of the OSA toolkit and team expertise resulted in a massive increase in one year to 74%, showing that access to the internet was not the barrier.  Other projects have successfully demonstrated the use of different technologies such as text messaging to improve delivery.

National online take-up in March 2010 was 44%, a clear indication of the added value of OSA Project as without the intervention, take-up was predicted at 33%, delaying benefits realisation and efficiencies.

With full utilisation by the 152 partners, predicted additional savings of around £21m are possible. Partnership working and transference of solutions have been critical to its success.

Judges comments: "...A clear demonstration of how partnership is key to the success of this important national project led by Herts CC..."

Commended:
Kent Connects - Kent Public Service Network
Connecting Bristol - GreenAddict.Eu Green ICT information