Graham Burns quoted in Tes and Schools Week

Graham, a Partner in the Education Team, was quoted in the respected publications following ESS SIMS scrapping its usual one-year rolling contracts in favour of three-year contract extensions from April.

ESS Sims runs around 70 per cent of school management information systems with Graham saying: “There has been no consultation with schools and trusts before the announcement was made to move to a three-year contract cycle, and the trusts have not been given a sufficient period of time to run a compliant procurement process and potentially migrate to another provider.

“We are supporting the trusts to negotiate a sensible, amicable and, most importantly, a fair outcome with ESS which allows the trusts to continue to operate their schools without disruption.”

51 of Stone King’s clients, representing over 400 schools, have signed up to take collective action in response to the contract renewal notices.

Stone King is in dialogue with ESS lawyers.

The Schools Week story can be read here; the Tes story can be read here.