Deskspace Community College Solutions

Recent developments in central government's approach to education result in state primary and secondary schools having full responsibility for the management development and maintenance of their entire site.

Deskspace have developed Integrated Information Systems for schools to meet this need. The first system was trialled in West Sussex at Oathall Community College from November 2001. This unique management tool offers great value for money and will save hard pressed staff a great deal of time in the future.

Benefits include:

condition, sufficiency and health & safety audit results integrated with main information system
separate health & safety and maintenance records for every individual space on site
financial records for every space on site
job tracking and automatic reminders of outstanding items
easy creation of correspondence

Deskspace enables LEA Condition and H&S Audit data along with the school or colleges’ own Sufficiency / Impact on Teaching & Learning data to be integrated within a single system which is then used as the basis of the property maintenance management system.

Staff can notify site staff of defects and are automatically both advised of receipt of the notification and when the defect has been remedied. Costs and time spent can all be recorded quickly and easily.

Auditing work, planning the future maintenance program and dealing with site staff and contractors are all integrated and simplified whilst reports required for preparation of grant bids are prepared within a minute or so.

Based on the premises records used for the initial premises maintenance system the College then requested a Resources Booking system under which rooms pitches and other resources can be booked out both internally and to external hirers.

This system can then be expanded if desired to cover many other aspects of the school or colleges’ administration.

Deskspace for Schools & Colleges: An overview

Deskspace provides a range of functions which are very well suited to the requirements of school / college staff dealing with a wide variety of management responsibilities beyond basic pupil administration. These include :

A: Better Communications with Colleagues: automatic recording of activity on a project by project basis facilitating improved intra group communications. Many staff work isolated from one another around the sites. Deskspace enables them to work co-operatively with far less time wasted on finding out what colleagues have been doing.
B: Project Reporting: this activity recording then provides the valuable additional benefit that reports on the school’s activity on specifically funded projects can be produced at the click of a button. Using traditional methods gathering, processing and presenting this information can be a major task and the result will impact on potential renewal of the school's status with resultant funding consequences. This model is generally followed where a school bids for and succeeds in obtaining additional funding. Demonstrating that the school is giving “Value for Money” is a key determinant for renewal of funding. These activity reporting functions will also of course benefit senior management in reviewing progress on projects and with regard to staff professional development.
C: Premises Management: Deskspace enables LEA Condition and H&S Audit data along with the colleges’ own Sufficiency and Impact on Teaching & Learning data to be integrated within a single system which is then used as the basis of the property maintenance management system. Staff can notify site staff of defects and are automatically both advised of receipt of the notification and when the defect has been remedied. Costs and time spent can all be recorded quickly and easily. Auditing work, planning the future maintenance program and dealing with site staff and contractors are all integrated and simplified whilst reports required for preparation of grant bids are prepared within a minute or so. This system can then be expanded if desired to cover many other aspects of the school or colleges’ administration.
D: full range of contact management functions including creation and maintenance of mailing lists, merge printing letters, envelopes and labels and sending batches of individually addressed emails;
E: very easy and quick one-off and standard letter/email production and mailings to post and email;
F: searching projects for specific characteristics and instant report production;
G: full range of reminders / appointments / resource booking functions;
H: recording costs incurred, such as Supply Cover and Premises Maintenance costs in order to recharge between differing budgets;
I: full accounts system through to Trial Balance including Bank Reconciliation
J: Custom Form design and production.