London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council - Case Study
Our Synergy software has helped the school admissions team at London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council make the application process easier for parents.
We could see the interaction and the immediacy, and we loved it” – Synergy software has helped London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council streamline the workloads of its school admissions team.
Synergy software has enabled more immediate and closer communication between schools, parents and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council.
Introduction
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council appointed us in June 2018 to replace its existing admissions management system. London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council was looking for a system which could reduce the administrative burden that was negatively impacting its school admissions teams. It also needed a system which could be set up and running in a matter of weeks.
How we helped
Synergy, our education management system, has helped local authorities support families more effectively by spanning the full education and child services spectrum. Synergy’s flexibility has made information sharing simple – across systems, providers, departments and even other authorities.
As it is modular-based, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council was able to select the functionality to suit its needs – from admissions to pupil support. Whichever modules London Borough of barking to be entered once and could be used across systems, improving accuracy and reducing risk, something that was not possible on the previous system.
Schools can now log in and see all the allocations that we have worked on in a particular week. For us that was a big success factor, we could see the interaction and the immediacy and we loved it.
The result
- The Synergy system was authorised in June 2018 and went live in July 2018. Our experienced consultants were able to offer continued reassurance throughout a very short implementation period.
- Synergy has enabled closer interaction between schools and London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council through the Schools Access Model (SAM) – schools can now simply log in and see the latest applications for themselves.
- Although admissions sit independently at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council, the council is also using Synergy within the EHC team and Family Information Services, so multiple information can be brought together, creating a single view of the child.
Inspiring others
From the start, we understood the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council’s urgency to get a new application up and running in a short space of time. Having great communication, offering continued reassurance and putting a team of experienced consultants in place meant that a smooth implementation was successfully achieved.
Synergy is a vast improvement on the existing system, based on the 87% increase in applications received between July 2017-Jan 2018 vs July 2018-Jan 2019. London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council has come forward in leaps and bounds.
Around 70% of London authorities are now using Synergy’s admissions system.
