Skip to main content

Help us improve the Digital Marketplace - send your feedback

ASSET for Virtual Schools

ePEP - Electronic Personal Education Plan (PEP for Success - P4S) ASSET for Electronic PEP

PEP for Success is a cloud-based electronic PEP solution. It's extremely easy to use for many different types of users with minimal training. It is intuitive, robust and very secure. Virtual Schools, Social Workers & Designated Teachers reports make life much easier with pre-populated fields & no requirement for repetition.

Features

  • Secure Cloud-Based Software accessible 24/7
  • Integration with 3rd Parties
  • Suspensions alerts
  • Trends in Attendance Patterns

Benefits

  • Easy to read comprehensive reports

Pricing

£37.50 a unit a year

  • Free trial available

Service documents

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 virtualschools@assetforschools.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

6 8 6 6 6 7 8 3 6 1 5 0 6 6 9

Contact

ASSET for Virtual Schools James Beasley
Telephone: 02071838357
Email: virtualschools@assetforschools.co.uk

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
Service constraints
Not Applicable
System requirements
  • Internet Access
  • Login Credentials
  • Email Access
  • Supported Internet Browser

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
Emails will be responded to within the hour during the working hours of 08:00-17:00. Emails are also checked out operating times and depending on the severity of support needed we will respond at the earliest opportunity. Clients will be provided a telephone number to call 24/7 for any critical issues and support that need to be resolved immediately.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AAA
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
Web chat
Web chat support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), 7 days a week
Web chat support accessibility standard
WCAG 2.1 AAA
Web chat accessibility testing
Chat tests are conducted each morning to ensure it is working efficiently.
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
ASSET for Virtual Schools have support available from 08:00-17:00 through email, telephone and live chat services. All technical issues are reported as a ticket and are issued with a number which will be sent to the person who raised the issue. Frequent updates will be provided to the user through their preference, whether this will be an email or a phone call. Clients will be provided with a telephone number to call 24/7 for any critical issues and support to be resolved immediately. We have a dedicated team of specialists for technical support. 1st line of support will respond to queries regarding password queries, navigation and functionality and minor issues. 2nd line of support is for more complex issues, and resolving the issue may take longer than a phone call. 3rd line of support is for highly specific issues. All support that is within the scope of the agreement will be free of charge. There is a charge for help outside of the contract: 1st Line Support £200; 2nd Line Support £350; 3rd Line Support £650.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
We provide onsite training, online training and also guidance notes are available to download when logged in to the website.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Upon the end of the contract, we will provide data as an SQL .Bak file and send via a secure FTP site.
End-of-contract process
The end of the contract will be discussed and tailored to meet the specification of the Local Authority. We will generally offer the Local Authority a global export in .sql format, which includes their entire data for the duration of the contract.

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
Our products are compatible with any mobile and tablet devices. The difference between the mobile and desktop is the menu style and the view is configured based on the device but the functionality remains the same between mobile and desktop service.
Service interface
No
User support accessibility
WCAG 2.1 AAA
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
API can be issued to the buyer with reading privileges for the following fields:

Pupil Characteristics
Contacts
Attendance
Suspensions
School Information
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
PDF
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
Tailored homepage to match the brand of Local Authority. Bespoke reports to meet the requirements of the Local Authority and any additional reporting.

Scaling

Independence of resources
We monitor the performance and usage of our servers that are used to host resources. We can quickly increase the performance of the service depending on the user demand. We scale up the servers we use when necessary to ensure end-user satisfaction.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
We monitor the resources hosting the data through Microsoft Azure, these reports can be sent on request.
Reporting types
Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
Up to 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
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK 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
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
Data is exportable through the user interface of ASSET for Virtual Schools. A number of filters can be applied to the report which can be exported in .xlsx, .csv, .xlm, .pdf, .docx formats.
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • PDF
  • XML
  • Xlsx
  • Docx
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
  • PDF
  • XML
  • Xlsx
  • Docx

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
ASSET for Virtual Schools guarantees 99% availability of the service. Our data centre of choice (Microsoft Azure) confirms 99.9% of the service. The Fabric Controller checks the hardware and software status of the host and guest machine instances. It detects a failure and enforces SLAs (service-level agreements) by automatically relocating the VM (virtual machine) instances to a different fault domain with zero downtime. The Fabric Controller replicates every request made against data in a storage account three times for local storage redundancy. These three replicas each reside in separate fault domains.
Approach to resilience
The data centre used for this service is Microsoft Azure and is based in UK South which is based in London. ASSET is a cloud-based SSL protected software meaning it is secure, and there is no requirement to install or update, so there is no downtime. We have two backup London-based hosting servers and a backup domain to ensure continued service. We have various accreditations and checks performed to ensure we meet all legislation within our company and across our systems and software.

All Azure data centres meet or exceed Tier 4 requirements with redundant power feeds, backup generators, uninterruptable power supplies, redundant cooling, extensive physical security, etc. Inside the data centre, compute and storage resources are organised into fault domains; a fault domain is a group of nodes representing a physical unit of failure and can be considered nodes belonging to the same physical rack. The Azure Fabric Controller is responsible for provisioning and monitoring the condition of Azure compute instances. The Fabric Controller replicates every request made against data in a storage account three times. These three replicas each reside in separate fault domains.
Outage reporting
We use Microsoft Azure data centres which are up to tier 4 standards. Azure has adopted ITIL standards and can provide availability reports, including traffic, hits, and requests. We will send Local Authorities Azure availability reports on a monthly basis. We will provide an explanation of any downtime that occurs, explaining our strategy to minimise any disruption for the Local Authority.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
ASSET for Virtual Schools restricts access by the defined user types within the software.

Accounts with administrative rights will have read and write access to all aspects of the site; they can also define access rights for other accounts. Restrictions can be defined by reports, read/write rights, and export rights.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users receive audit information on a regular basis
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users receive audit information on a regular basis
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
British Assessment Bureau
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
02/02/2024
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
Not Applicable
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
Yes
Security governance standards
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security policies and processes
Processes aligned with our ISO 27001 accreditation, we review our information security policies and processes bi-annually to ensure they are kept up to date with any changes in legislation and how we operate. Our policies are available upon request.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Configuration and change management approach
Aligned with Information Technology Infrastructure Library guidelines, all changes are logged to record actions and decisions. All code changes are timestamped and are maintained associated with the developer. A senior developer reviews all code before submissions, any appropriate changes are also made. Developments are carried out in a local environment with test data before deploying to the live site.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
ASSET for Schools has an annual IT Health Check on our
systems, including a penetration test on our external IP
addresses. The IT Health test is Tiger Scheme approved which also tests our workstations. We are Cyber Essential Plus certified to ensure the security of your data.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
All workstations are projected by Norton Enterprise Business edition and are scanned on a daily basis. Smart firewall has bet set up and prohibits unauthorised connections. Any alerts or risks picked up by our antivirus software are quarantined and removed immediately.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Users can report incidents via email, phone calls, web and ticketing systems. Incidents are prioritised in by their importance.

Critical: PEP for Success website is entirely inaccessible - Response within two to four hours.

Major: PEP for Success website accessible but functionality severely impacted - Response within four hours.

Medium: Non-essential functionality of PEP for Success is impaired while most features and functionality remain working. - Response within 12 hours.

Minor: New implementation requests or issues that are frontend (cosmetic) and have little or no impact on the regular operation of the Services. - Response within 24 hours.

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 v3.0)

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

Fighting climate change

Fighting climate change

ASSET promotes low/no paper usage. This is why all documents are available online for secure viewing, annotation, storing and sharing. However, we understand that sometimes, printing, note taking etc is inevitable. As a result, we promise for every equivalent to a tree we use in paper, we will replant.

We will suggest that any meetings unless completely necessary will be conducted virtually, this will help keep our carbon footprint to a minimum.

Pricing

Price
£37.50 a unit a year
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
A free trial is available with test data. You will be able to see all functionality of the service with a demo login. This is limited to 1 month; an extension can be negotiated.

Service documents

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 virtualschools@assetforschools.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.