Pilot to assess DfE-MIS data exchange for sector insight and policy decisions.

Purpose:

The Department for Education is keen to work with multiple MIS suppliers in England and explore how we can harness the potential of data to provide new and valuable insights to share with schools, academy trusts, and local authorities in England to improve outcomes for children and young people, parents and carers.

During this pilot phase, we aim to test the value of increasing data flows from school MIS systems to DfE across selected data domains, to improve the breadth and timeliness of information available for system‑level analysis.

The individual pilots will run in phases, with each pilot designed to test the increase in data flows from school MIS systems to the DfE and is expected to run for approximately 6-12 weeks.

Benefits:

• MIS suppliers- This pilot will contribute to strengthening relationship between MIS providers and the Department, supporting collaboration on standardising data held across different MIS systems so that insights are consistent. It also helps improve MIS tools to ensure they are useful to the school sector as possible.
• Schools/ MATs - Schools and trusts will be able to feed into Department's policies much quicker, which will have a directly support improved outcomes for pupils. They will also gain ability to benchmark themselves against other similar establishments nationally.
• The Department - Access to near real-time data from schools enables policy decisions to be informed more regularly and more effectively by data. The Department can explore opportunities to provide actionable benchmarking products back to the sector across multiple data domains.

Scope:

We would like to invite school MIS suppliers who are currently working in state-funded schools in England to take part in a pilot to explore this in more detail.

As part of this pilot, we would like to:

• Have an initial discussion around the coverage, data domains and data standards that currently exists within supplier systems.
• Establish a secure, public API-based system-to-system connection to DfE enabling continuous and consistent data exchanges during a defined period, for a small number of schools/trusts across data domains. The timeframe for the pilot and data domains will be agreed collaboratively following an initial engagement meeting, allowing for adjustments as the pilot evolves.
• Ensure that any sharing of data occurs only where data sharing is already agreed, or where it may warrant further exploration with the appropriate agreements in place.

This will allow us to:

• assess the structure and quality of data within the system.
• inform where data and interoperability standards may be needed to enable consistent and privacy-respecting data exchanges
• explore opportunities to generate actionable insights on an agreed data domain, initially to a small group of schools/trusts with a strong focus on providing timely benchmarking to the sector across different data domains and playing this back following the pilot phase.

How to participate:

We are interested in engaging with MIS suppliers who are currently working in the schools' sector in England, who can, with the data controller's agreement, provide access via a secure connection to data for either a small group of local authority schools and/or a Multi-Academy Trust (20+ schools).

If you are interested in participating, please complete this form:

forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx ↗

The following information will be required:

• Name of supplier
• Contact details for the initial meeting (name, email, phone if applicable)
• Indication of dates available for an introductory discussion
• Link to any published public API information
• A MAT/trust or group of schools you wish to include as part of the pilot

Please note: Each MIS supplier may submit one application.

While suggested trusts or schools may be provided, partnership decisions will be confirmed in consultation with the applicant.

Selection process:

We are happy to work with current school MIS suppliers who meet the criteria outlined above. We will engage with each MIS supplier in a phased approach.