School Information
Government’s Home Access programme
Overview
As a result of the School’s Minister’s Home Access Task Force that made its final recommendations in July 2008, a £300m programme was announced in September 2008 to address the digital divide affecting many families and to ensure that families can go online and their children benefit from regular access to the ICT they need as 21st century learners. A pilot was run in Oldham and Suffolk in 2009 and a national rollout across England began in January 2010.
DCSF has asked Becta to manage the programme, and the first group of approved suppliers are Bli Education, Centreprise, Comet, Misco, Positive Solutions and XMA. Capita plc will publicise the programme and process grant applications.
The programme will target 270,000 families with children at Key Stage 2 and 3 (Years 3-9 inclusive) who are eligible for Free School Meals. The phone number for families to ring for an application form is 0333 200 1004.
Aggregation
Only Durham, Hull and Shropshire will aggregate the grants at a Local Authority level. The deadline for individual schools to apply has now passed. Schools who have been approved to aggregate will be able to help their families apply for the grant, make the right choices for their circumstances and place orders for the Home Access bundles on behalf of their parents, with their consent. Many of these schools will also offer their other families the opportunity to take part in either an equity programme or take advantage of an individual support grant from the e-Learning Foundation.
Home Access grant
The Home Access Grant will cover the cost of a computer and/or one years Internet plus a reinstatement service in case of theft (one claim), one years warranty, 3 years virus checking and parental controls, information on Internet safety and a suite of assistive technology software that will be pre-programmed into every machine for children with special learning needs. There will be additional provision available for learners with more complex needs later in the year and a separate process will ensure that looked after children are included in the programme.
Other grants
Schools who wish to extend the provision of personal access to more of their families should contact the e-Learning Foundation for information on the options available and what financial support is available. It should be possible to dovetail the Home Access programme with a school run equity programme to achieve universal access – contact the e-Learning Foundation to talk through your circumstances.
Families who fall outside the initial Home Access eligibility criteria, and where there is no equity programme running at the school, but believe that their children’s educational prospects are suffering because of difficulties buying them a suitable computer and the Internet are encouraged to contact their school who may be willing to apply to the e-Learning Foundation for an Individual Support grant to help towards the costs.
For more information from Becta on developments with the programme: www.becta.org.uk/homeaccess