Studybugs

Studybugs Cohorts (G-Cloud Edition)

Studybugs Cohorts (G-Cloud Edition) enables local authority children’s teams – school attendance, virtual school, social care and more – to work together with schools, parents, and other responsible parties to keep children happy, healthy and in school.

Features

• Part of nationwide platform for children’s welfare, safeguarding, school attendance
• Secure online portal for all LA teams working with children
• Coordinate with schools, academy trusts, parents, NHS, UKHSA, …
• Plan, record and share interventions with other relevant users
• Live connections with all schools in and out of area
• Unique wellbeing information including physical and mental health concerns
• Captures reasons for absence, suspensions and exclusions
• Instant alerts, live information and visualisations
• Works for all cohorts (CIN, CP, LAC, EHCP, SEN, …)
• Automated export into other LA systems

Benefits

• Enables all parties responsible for children’s welfare to work together
• Empowers everyone to improve safeguarding, raise school attendance
• Gets right information to right people at right time
• Enables early intervention to tackle underlying reasons for school absence
• Frees up LA staff to make a positive difference
• Makes sure you know where all the children are
• Helps prevent exclusions
• Identifies or locates children possibly missing in education (CMEs)
• Ensures you meet statutory responsibilities and government guidelines
• Saves money by avoiding fines (eg Section 19)

£22,500 a licence a year

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at info@studybugs.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

215939272514596

Contact

James Catt
07856 868999
info@studybugs.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: No constraints.
• System requirements: A modern web browser, eg Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Our excellent support team usually reply to queries within an hour from 8am to 5pm, Monday-Friday.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: We provide a consistent, prompt online support service for all customers and users via the Studybugs web app and by email, at no additional charge.; ; We are happy to refer you to customers who will vouch for the quality and timeliness of this service.; ; You will be assigned an account manager who will work closely with you throughout the contract to ensure you’re receiving the service you need.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: When you first log in you’ll see our simple getting started guide along with an introductory video. From there you can start using Studybugs immediately. You can access further documentation and training videos at any time. Online training sessions with our dedicated training team are also included at no extra charge.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • ODF
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Throughout the contract you’re able to extract all your data whenever you need it, on demand. You can also do this when the contract ends. You can extract in various formats including: Excel, ODF, CSV, Common Transfer File (CTF) (XML).
• End-of-contract process: At the end of the contract we’ll delete or return all data to you at no charge. We’ll then close your account.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: We provide the same consistent service across mobile and desktop.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: Users access Studybugs via their web browser using a simple, secure and easy-to-use interface. ; ; Using Studybugs Assistant, tailored reports and visualisations can be called up instantly – no training required – simply by asking in plain English. For example, “Show me a breakdown of absences today for CIN pupils across all our primary schools”. Drill down to discover the underlying issues with just a couple of clicks. Live dashboards enable you to keep a bird’s eye view of everything. Simply pin your favourite answers for ready access.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: Studybugs Cohorts has been designed with accessibility in mind. Our users include those with a range of special needs and disabilities and we gather their feedback as they use Studybugs and make appropriate changes if necessary.; ; During development we use a suite of automated accessibility testing tools and non-compliances are addressed before updates are released.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Studybugs provides a secure API for you to access pupil and school data on demand. Typically we see this used for automating data transfers to other LA systems.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: Other
• API sandbox or test environment: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Users can refine and customise reports and visualisations by asking in plain English via Studybugs Assistant. They can then build a live dashboard by pinning their favourite answers, and move and place these as they please.; ; Users can also customise a wide range of live alerts, specifying who should be alerted and when. For example, a social worker could arrange to be alerted when a child in their caseload is marked absent from school; the CME team could be notified when a pupil’s enrolment status changes; or when a school’s attendance starts trending downwards, this could be automatically flagged to the Head of Attendance.; ; Alerts, information and visualisations can all be customised to work for any cohort you like. Studybugs’s unique cohort analysis engine performs the necessary calculations taking into account not just how the cohort is now, but how it’s changed over time.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: We have over 10 years experience operating our cloud-native service and employ several strategies to ensure our service remains reliable for all users at all times: ; ; Scalability, Load Balancing and Fault Tolerance: Our infrastructure is highly scalable handling fluctuations in demand without compromising performance. Incoming traffic is distributed across multiple servers to ensure a failure or overload of a single server doesn’t affect others.; ; Performance Monitoring and Capacity Planning: We continuously monitor the service to ensure performance targets are being met. We also plan ahead to anticipate future demand and scale-up as needed.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: You can pull up usage information on demand within Studybugs Cohorts. You can also request specific metrics from our support team and we’ll be happy to provide where we’re able.
• Reporting types:
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: European Economic Area (EEA)
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: You’re able to extract all data whenever you need it, on demand. You can extract your data in various formats including: Excel, ODF, CSV, CTF (XML). If a you need data in a particular format then you can contact our support team.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • CTF (XML)
  • PDF
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • ODF
  • Other
• Other data import formats: Excel (XLSX)

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: We aim to provide a reliable service for all users. While we do not offer an uptime guarantee, over the past 12 months there has been no interruption to service whatsoever (100% uptime) during working hours (8am to 5pm).; ; We are able to carry out maintenance and service updates with no downtime and where downtime is required, we schedule this outside working hours where possible.
• Approach to resilience: Studybugs’s physical infrastructure is hosted and managed by Amazon in the Republic of Ireland. Amazon continually manages risk and undergoes recurring assessments to ensure compliance with industry standards. Amazon’s data centre operations have been accredited under: ISO 27000, ISO 22301, ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27701, SOC1/2/3, CSA and many more standards. For additional information see https://aws.amazon.com/security.; ; Data is backed up continually and automatically, on secure, access-controlled, high-durability storage across multiple data centres. Every change is written to write-ahead logs and in the unlikely event of unrecoverable hardware failure, these logs can be automatically 'replayed' to recover the database to within seconds of its last known state. In addition to these backup procedures, our infrastructure is designed to scale and be fault tolerant by automatic replacement of failed instances, reducing the likelihood of needing to restore from backup.; ; In the event of a major outage, for example affecting an entire data centre zone, we are able to restore servers and data automatically, dynamically re-deploying them if necessary in a different zone (still within the EU or UK) within minutes.
• Outage reporting: In the rare case there’s a service outage we will post this on our public status page. This is independently hosted to ensure its availability in the case of major issues with our website. Users can subscribe to this page for live updates.; ; We’ll also proactively report major outages to you by email.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Private data is access-controlled and Studybugs staff members only have access as needed for support purposes or where required by law. Access is restricted using multi-factor authentication or IP-whitelisting.; ; We also conduct regular audits, penetration testing and continuous monitoring and alerting to detect and prevent unauthorised access attempts.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: Our security governance involves the establishment and enforcement of policies, procedures, and controls to protect our service. We start with a thorough risk assessment to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities and use that to develop our policy. Once our policies are established our Technical Director (who is responsible for the security of our service) ensures their implementation across the organisation. This includes a combination of technical controls and employee training. We utilise continuous improvement and monitoring to adapt to evolving threats and security trends.
• Information security policies and processes: We adhere to strict information security policies and processes to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. These include encryption protocols, access controls, and regular security audits. We regularly risk assess our security posture with reporting to our board. ; ; We continually adjust our approach based on feedback, industry regulations, best practices (such as the NCSC’s Cloud Security Principles), which includes penetration testing and external validation against known security standards such as Cyber Essentials.; ; To ensure compliance with our polices we use a combination of technical controls (such as role-based access control and multi-factor authentication) and employee training. We also conduct periodic security assessments and audits to identify and address any potential vulnerabilities or non-compliance issues.; ; Our Technical Director is responsible for the security of our service and our security policy is available at https://studybugs.com/security.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: We follow a strict change management process which has been designed taking into account best industry practice including relevant standards such as ISO27001.; ; All changes are tracked in our source code repository. Changes are reviewed by appropriate senior engineers, including for potential security impact. We then run a comprehensive suite of automated tests, which include tests that verify our security policies are met, on every change before it’s released.; ; Our servers are “immutable” – once deployed with a known good configuration, that configuration can’t be changed.; ; We also maintain an inventory of all system components, including hardware, software and configuration.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: We monitor various threat intelligence sources such as government alerts, industry forums, and security vendors to stay updated on potential threats. We also regularly conduct vulnerability scanning. When an applicable threat is identified, our process is to triage the threat and respond appropriately by, for example, deploying a patch or adjusting configuration. Security patches are deployed as quickly as required after validation and testing, and within 14 days.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: We use a combination of automated tools and manual cross-checks to monitor network activity including monitoring for any signs of security compromise or data loss. Logging data is shipped off server instances instantly to immutable log stores leaving no opportunity for modification. From there we configure automated monitoring and alarms for a variety of system and security events. Security events are categorised and critical events are raised to our Technical Director who then follows our Security Incident Response process to resolve the incident within 48 hours.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: We have processes in place to respond to security and operational incidents (eg our Security Incident Response process). This includes automated monitoring and alerting systems, defining incident categories and severity levels, establishing an incident response team, maintaining documentation and evidence, communicating with stakeholders, and conducting post-incident reviews and process improvements.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  We are committed to reducing our environmental impact. We achieve this in a variety of ways. ; ; When our service is experiencing low usage, we automatically scale down our compute resources, reducing power usage in our data centres. ; ; Studybugs is a remote-working company which comes with many employee benefits, chief among them is that no commuting is required which eliminates the environmental impact of travel.; ; Studybugs Cohorts provides LAs with live data on children’s attendance. This enables LAs to reduce their environmental impact by reducing school travel costs for non-attending children.

  Covid-19 recovery

  Studybugs is a unique, live online platform that enables all responsible parties – local authorities, schools, academy trusts, NHS, parents and more – to work together closely to keep children happy, healthy and in school. Our offering for local authorities, Studybugs Cohorts (G-Cloud Edition), enables LA staff to find and share knowledge, plan interventions and log actions – to ensure children’s safeguarding, monitor and improve physical and mental health, raise school attendance, and achieve the best possible educational outcomes. This directly supports schools and children to recover from the effects of Covid-19.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Studybugs is an innovative and disruptive technology which delivers lower cost and higher quality service than the alternatives. This increases supply chain resilience and capacity.; ; Studybugs also helps you to make the best use of resources and increase productivity. The staff workforce is often classed as the most important factor to drive change and improvement – and the most expensive. Studybugs provides LAs with a system designed to meet their statutory duties and beyond, in the most efficient and effective way possible. This means LAs can do more with current resources already invested in, and LAs have estimated Studybugs frees up 50% of staff’s time spent on routine data collection and reporting tasks. We expect improvements to be realised immediately when Studybugs is introduced in the LA; admin tasks and manual processes are immediately eliminated, for both LA teams and schools, and staff are freed up to put their time into making a difference.

  Equal opportunity

  As Studybugs is a remote-working company, we are able to meet the needs of staff with disabilities and long-term illnesses through supporting them in the environment they’re most comfortable. Our staff come from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and include those with disabilities.; ; We strive to be a diverse and supportive company, with an inclusive approach where we share ideas and learn from each other.

  Wellbeing

  Studybugs helps its customers to improve children’s health and wellbeing. Proactive intervention, which Studybugs facilitates, means fewer children should fall into traditional patterns of absence and underachievement, and breaks the cycles associated with disadvantaged and vulnerable families. Our work with public health agencies and involvement in health research, together with delivery of real-time health data to users, helps tackle children’s physical and mental health challenges. Moving forwards, Studybugs will continue expanding this functionality, working with all parties and agencies involved in children’s care.

Pricing

• Price: £22,500 a licence a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at info@studybugs.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.