ACCESS UK LTD

Access Synergy Education Management System

Synergy helps authorities to support families more effectively by spanning the full education and child-services spectrum. Used in over 90 authorities as a proven, flexible, modular system encompassing School Admissions, SEND, Pupil Support, Family Information Service, Early Years Funding, Children's Centres, also offering generic case management functionality for wider uses

Features

• A shared Children and Young Person record across all services
• Share data with multiple services and agencies
• Online portals for citizen and professional access to key processes
• Completely customisable and mobile-friendly public website
• Supports customisable SEN processes, with external access via portals
• Built-in statutory returns e.g AP Census, Early Years Census, SEN2
• External integrations with key systems including Mosaic Social Care
• ‘Web first’ approach to support digital by default strategies
• Information at your fingertips for effective decisions and timely interventions
• Integration with Core+ CCIS and Youth Justice

Benefits

• Take the administrative burden away from complex management
• Save time on data entry
• Providers have more time to focus on improving outcomes
• Full visibility of each child, insight to make good decisions
• Self service for parents involved with education processes
• Strong return on investment by saving time and money
• Reduce IT involvement and empower your staff with intelligent tools
• Improve data accuracy
• Improve your service and evolve it easily
• More support for vulnerable children

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 buyer.enablement@theaccessgroup.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 15

Service ID

291696373858414

Contact

Stacey Graham
0845 345 3300
buyer.enablement@theaccessgroup.com

About the service

• Service categories:
  • Applications
    • Production and operations
      • Service industry and public sector operations
        • Education
• Multi cloud support: No

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: Planned maintenance: We will advise customers 5 working days in advance of a 'normal' change.; Software upgrades are carried out at the customer's request following release of new software.
• System requirements:
  • Microsoft Windows 10 or above
  • SQL Server 2016 or above
  • Windows Server 2016 or above

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes
• Support response times: Access has developed a range of support plans. Our online Knowledge base and Community service plans are available to all our clients. We have made significant investment in our client support tools. The Success portal provides around the clock access to log incidents, browse articles and videos to find solutions. Our Support teams are available M-F 8-6. On these plans P1 cases are responded to in 30 minutes. Please refer to Access for further details
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: Yes
• Web chat support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• AI chatbot: Yes
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Web chat accessibility testing: N/A
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: As a Standard Plan customer you benefit from faster response times and can access our support teams via telephone and live chat, as well as through our Customer Success portal. To help your team be more productive, you are provided with continued access to our e-learning content as well as a programme of Success webinars, designed to keep you up to date with new features and share best-practice advice and guidance. Our Premier Plan enables your team to achieve more and improve productivity through an ongoing relationship with your own designated Customer Success Manager. Your Customer Success Manager will get to understand how you’re using the technology and will advise you on how to get more from it. Our Premier+ Plan provides the highest level of dedicated support to maximise your technology investment. Building on the Premier Plan benefits, you receive more frequent consultations with your designated Customer Success Manager and also benefit from a Lead Technical Support Engineer who prioritises your complex and business-critical issues, ensuring rapid resolution when it matters most. Costs for each plan are contained within the pricing document.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Onsite/remote training will be scheduled as part of the project plan and agreed by both parties. Delivery of the training will be modular and will follow the logical relationships between the system and the data. Following any changes to the solution, all relevant training material will be updated as appropriate and additional training will be made available as required. We will ensure that users learn through doing. Our consultancy and training services cover: - Overall application overview - System administration and setup consultancy - Document management - Application sub-modules, specialist service area modules - Reporting and include: - Full user guides for each attendee, supplied in electronic format - Train-the-trainer approach - Use of on-line Support and Customer Portal - Use of on-going support via the Support Desk.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• Documentation accessibility standard: None or don’t know
• How the documentation is accessible: Access Group's onboarding and offboarding documentation is accessible through the Customer Success Portal (https://access-support.force.com/Support/s/), which provides 24/7 online access to comprehensive resources including a knowledge base with FAQs, product guides, e-learning content, on-demand webinar recordings, feature release updates, and training materials that can answer most day-to-day user questions. All users can register for portal access regardless of their Success Plan level (Essential, Standard, or Premier), with additional support available through online case submission for all customers, telephone support for Standard and Premier customers, and dedicated resources like Customer Success Managers and Lead Technical Support Engineers for Premier customers, ensuring documentation and guidance is readily available throughout the entire customer lifecycle from initial onboarding through ongoing system use and any eventual offboarding scenarios.
• End-of-contract data extraction: All data held in the solution belongs to the customer. Data can be extracted via built-in tools, via reports or via chargeable services to extract the data into .csv files.
• End-of-contract process: Access's approach to decommissioning is to work with the Authority to meet its objectives and ensure any move to a new supplier is smooth and simple. Data is provided to the customer in the agreed format. Any technical involvement in script writing from Access is normally chargeable however advice and support can be provided until the contract end date. The data is deleted securely when the customer has agreed all data has been provided and drives holding the data are securely cleansed. Access can provide an Exit Management Plan to highlight the steps involved in decommissioning the application.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems: Windows
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Web based portal modules of Synergy are designed to work responsively to the device used. Administrative functions and bulk processing facilities are kept in the back office.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: To support external systems in viewing information held about a child/young person, Synergy is provided with a REST API that allows an authorised user to retrieve information for a given child/young person.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: System Administrators via configuration options and parameters.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: All systems are scaled to operate at peak demand. Allocation of resource through a combination of monitoring, auto-scaling and resource isolation are designed to minimise any impact of other customers, or the so-called 'noisy-neighbour' effect. ; ; In the unlikely event of any system reaching pre-defined thresholds or KPI's systems where performance is impacted for a specific platform, resources are re-allocated to ensure that this is rectified.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Service metrics are provided in the form of call lists which users can filter on calls outstanding either by call reference, created date range, call status, name of reporter, assignee and summary. Customers can log in to the online support portal to view this information as and when required at no additional cost.; Service measurements are used internally to monitor performance accordingly.; Reporting of SLA performance and KPIs can also be provided.
• Reporting types: Real-time dashboards
• Resource tagging: No
• FOCUS resource tagging: No

Supplier type

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 4.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CREST-approved service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation / Secure Erase
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Data can be exported from Synergy in a number of ways. Synergy provides built-in Query search features which enables search criteria to be inputted the results of which can be exported in .xls format.; ; Using SQL Server Reporting Services and Synergy’s user friendly Report Model, reports can be exported to any industry standard format e.g. .txt, .csv, .xml, .xls, .doc. pdf etc.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • XML
  • TXT
  • XLS
  • DOC
  • PDF
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • XML
  • JPEG
  • XLS
  • DOC
  • PDF

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: The threshold for application availability in any month is 99.8%, measured on a 24 hours per day, 365 days per year basis, excluding planned or previously agreed downtime for Maintenance.
• Approach to resilience: The solution has been designed to cater for a range of disasters. All customer databases are mirrored on secondary servers. This means if the production database fails, users can be switched onto the mirror system whilst any repair or recovery work is carried out. More detailed information available on request.
• Outage reporting: Access utilises industry standard monitoring solutions which immediately alert our teams to a service outage. Contact with customers is made via telephone or email to agreed contacts. Users can also subscribe to email alerts giving updates on scheduled maintenance and outages.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: We operate role profile based Access Control - based on least privilege access. This applies to all our services.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password

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: At least 12 months

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Software Security Code of Practice: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: All controls included within Annex A of the ISO27001:2013 standard. Statement Of Applicability (SOA) available on request.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: All change management is undertaken in line with ISO27001:2013 using JIRA for audit purposes.
• Vulnerability management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Access uses multiple defense layers including Layer7 Firewalls, IDS/IPS, behavioral analytics, and phishing protection. Palo Alto Firewalls inspect traffic using App-ID technology with WildFire threat detection. Weekly automated vulnerability scans via Tenable IO and Nessus supplement 24/7/365 monitoring through a Hybrid CSOC with managed detection providers. Critical security patches deploy within 72 hours based on CVE scores and mitigations. Non-critical OS patches apply within one month, first to non-production then production environments. Anti-virus signatures update hourly. Threat intelligence sources include vendor repositories, internet-based feeds, WildFire cloud sandboxing, Cortex XDR behavioral monitoring, Palo Alto threat feeds, and managed security service providers.
• Protective monitoring type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: We have traffic monitoring and content based alerting on changes to the site and/or traffic flows implemented at infrastructure level. We keep daily historical reports from servers which provide the facility to identify when changes occurred. We proactively monitor third party suppliers vulnerability reporting and security fix availability. We patch any vulnerabilities found in a timescale appropriate for their level of severity. Our infrastructure response is within 1 hour in the SLA period 8am-6pm Monday – Friday.
• Incident management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v4.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Post-quantum cryptography secure: No
• Incident management approach: We operate a robust incident management process in line with ISO27001:2013 Staff are encouraged to report all incidents using a pre-defined process using a form available on our Company Collaborate site Incident reports will be provided following forensics and closure.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v4.0)

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Pricing

• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

Discount percentage by annual call-off contract value (excluding VAT)

• Less than £250,000: 5%
• Between £250,000 and £500,000: 6%
• Between £500,001 and £1,000,000: 12%
• Between £1,000,001 and £2,500,000: 15%
• Between £2,500,001 and £5,000,000: 18%
• Over £5,000,001: 25%

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• ISO/IEC 27001 accredited by: Alcumus ISOQAR
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: Saturday 4 January 2014
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Nothing is excluded from the standard certification.
• ISO 28000:2022 certification: No
• ISO 9001 certification: Yes
• ISO 9001 certification accredited by: BSI
• ISO 9001 accreditation date: Friday 1 September 2023
• What the ISO 9001 doesn’t cover: The scope covers the design, integration, maintenance and hosting of managed information systems and software applications, consultancy, user training and support for the Health, Education, Social Care and Local authorities. Excluding all other products that fall outside of this scope.
• Quality management systems (QMS): Yes
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber Essentials Certificate Number: 88f162a5-ea3c-4f9a-83d5-42769c7d8459
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Cyber Essentials Alternative: You do not have a current and valid Cyber Essentials Plus certificate, or will not have in place within 12 months of the date of award but have an IASME certified equivalent.
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • ISO 42001
  • ISO 27701

Social value

• Mission: Kick start economic growth:

  To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

  Policy Outcome 1: Fair work: That offers fair wages and good working conditions. Help people get a job, stay in work, and progress in their careers, with good employment opportunities across the country. Notes: Where there is a large proportion of labour costs in the contract, commercial teams should consider MAC in Outcome 1 as a priority

  • Monitoring of employee engagement rates (by protected characteristic) and, where necessary, the development of actions to ensure all voices are heard across the diversity of the workforce
  • Employment contracts that reflect actual hours worked; steps taken to ensure employees understand their contracts and have the ability to review and adjust them if actual hours regularly exceed contracted hours
  • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about, and feel empowered to, address their physical wellbeing
  • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about and feel empowered to report and address bullying and harassment
  • Offer a pay and leave entitlement to all eligible staff who become kinship carers, ideally equivalent to statutory adoption pay and leave
  • Payment of more than the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (as appropriate) to the contract workforce
  • Monitoring and reporting of gender and ethnicity pay gaps and plans to address them where necessary
  • Entitlement to sick pay for the contract workforce, with provision in place for any staff who do not meet the earnings threshold for statutory sick pay, payment of sick pay from day one of absence and payment of staff on the contract workforce who are off sick a replacement income of 100% of their usual earnings for as long as possible
  • Understanding of the modern slavery risks and issues affecting the market, industry, sector or country (of origin or of source) relevant to the contract, and the workforce in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key subcontractors

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 buyer.enablement@theaccessgroup.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.