London Councils works on behalf of its members to represent and facilitate their interests in a range of issues, such as education, training, employment, transport and healthcare.
Consequently, in response to the government’s ‘raising the participation age’ strategy, London Councils introduced the Pan-London Leaver Notification Process, designed to enhance communication between member authorities and relevant education providers. Under the strategy, which will see all young people remaining in education or training until their eighteenth birthday by 2015, providers must notify local authorities of individuals who leave courses prematurely, to ensure the correct support is in place to encourage them back into education, training or work.
“We did not want to be reliant on a system that required complex logins and authentication processes that actually prevented users from securing the information they need to send to the local authority. Egress Secure Web Form meets this need.”
Yolande Burgess, Strategy Director for Young People's Education and Skills, London Councils
The challenge
“Education and training providers are now required to notify their local authority if a student leaves their course early, which in many cases involves exchanging personal information about very vulnerable young people,” explains Yolande Burgess, Strategy Director for London Councils Young People’s Education and Skills. “Consequently, London Councils has implemented an electronic system designed to secure and manage this flow of large amounts of data.”
The solution
Egress Secure Web Form provides a secure and fully auditable mechanism for exchanging sensitive information and large files between organisations and external users. Fully customisable to meet all policy and branding guidelines, the site can either be hosted on an organisation’s website or by a chosen third party. Moreover, all information and files are encrypted and can be tracked to ensure they reach the desired recipient, with automated confirmation receipts issued to inform users that their submission has been delivered securely, consequently protecting the flow of sensitive information into an organisation’s network.
“The chosen solution needed to be simple to use and available to a wide and varied group of third parties,” continues Burgess. “We did not want to be reliant on a system that required complex logins and authentication processes that actually prevented users from securing the information they need to send to the local authority. Secure Web Form meets this need. Education providers can submit all necessary information with one form, including the number of students on their roll, the number of leavers and any other changes during term time that the relevant local authority should be aware of. We have also had functionality built in so they can make local authorities aware about ‘wobblers’ – those young people at risk of leaving education or training early, and who would benefit from early intervention.
“All submissions can be tracked and audited, and confirmation receipts can be generated so that the user supplying the information can be confident that it has been received by their borough,” Burgess states. “As such, the process has been incredibly simple to implement and manage, freeing up staff so they can support the city’s young people.”
Commenting on the announcement, Egress UK Sales Manager Kelly McCann stated: “We are delighted that London Councils has selected Secure Web Form to facilitate the exchange of highly confidential information between education providers and local authorities. The web form was designed in response to a need identified by a number of our customers: namely, enabling a wide and varied set of third parties to share information with an organisation in a secure manner, without the need for a complex login and authentication process. As the web form is part of the Egress encryption platform, shared information can be secured, tracked and audited in real time so that users know that the data has reached the desired recipient. As a result, London boroughs and their education bodies have the reassurance that sensitive information is secured at all times whilst in transit.”