Contacts
Standards & School Effectiveness Hertfordshire County Council Robertson House Six Hills Way Stevenage SG1 2FQ Tel: 01438 845111
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School Improvement Services

Hertfordshire Internet and Connectivity Services (HICS)

Designed and run in partnership with schools, HICS provides a safe, secure network which has been designed to enable schools to access the internet and school services in a supported environment. Changes to funding arrangements for ICT resulted in a period of rapid change and innovation for ICT services in Hertfordshire.The new service builds on the long standing co-operative agreement of schools to work together and benefits from the economies of scale offered by a large county.

The internet and connectivity service provides schools with:

• The ability to choose their own connection speed, which is not shared (i.e. 10 mbps is uncontended, and absolute - so the speed does not decrease in relation to other service users’ network activities)
• A full service desk and managed system – you just relay issues to one place once
• Provision of both off the shelf filtering services and the ability to individually manage a filtering policy which will meet safeguarding requirements
• Antivirus and firewall services and policies
• Secure internet email transport
• Management of DNS arrangements and domain changes
• A supported VPN solution
• A network designed to meet national agency standards, enabling interagency work and light touch audits for national systems such as eCAF
• Proactive service management – our systems can display and highlight issues for resolution before you are aware of them
• Support from the HCC IT corporate team to ensure non-school services integrate appropriately with the schools’ network.

A range of supported services are also delivered through HICS, including Solero, SeAM, video conferencing services and online HCC and SITSS ICT support. Further details of these, and other services, can be found at:

• www.intra.thegrid.org.uk/eservices/management/connectivity/

Hertfordshire Schools Nominated for National IT Award

Hertfordshire schools have been nominated for the “Public Sector Project of the Year” Award at the UK IT Industry Awards 2011 for their partnership working with Standards and School Effectiveness (SSE) on the development and implementation of Hertfordshire Internet Connectivity Services (HICS).

In September 2010 changes to funding arrangements resulted in a period of rapid change and innovation for ICT services in Hertfordshire.  Working in partnership with schools, the SSE Schools ICT Services team developed a secure network designed to enable schools to access the internet and school services in a safe and supported environment.

The new service, HICS, builds on the long standing co-operative agreement between schools in Hertfordshire to work together and benefit from the economies of scale offered by a large countywide service.  All savings and efficiencies are paid back into the co-operative, reducing future costs or offsetting costs in-year.

Carole Bennett, Senior Adviser for School ICT Services, said

“HICS provides a dynamic and responsive wraparound connectivity service to schools in Hertfordshire.  We are delighted with the take up of HICS with 522 schools, including academies and independents, in Hertfordshire currently signed up to the service.”

“Feedback from schools has been very positive as they have seen a huge improvement in their broadband services and access to the internet.  The network integrates and manages access to and from wider HCC services at no extra cost, ensuring that schools have a cohesive, value for money solution which meets their full connectivity requirements.”

“The development of HICS has been an excellent example of schools working co-operatively in order to improve and enhance their ICT services and I am delighted that this has been recognised through the nomination for such a prestigious national IT award.”

The UK IT Industry Awards 2011 take place in London on 10 November 2011.

If you would like to find out more about the Hertfordshire Internet and Connectivity Service (HICS) please contact Carole Bennett at carole.bennett@hertscc.gov.uk or telephone 01438 844777.