The teacher has left. So why is the school still paying for their software?

When a member of staff leaves a school, there’s usually a process. Keys are handed back, responsibilities passed on and payroll updated.

But what happens to their email account, their software subscriptions, their access and their laptop?

Those details easily fall between the school’s administration and its IT support. The same gap shows up elsewhere too: in ageing equipment nobody planned to replace, and in renewals nobody saw coming.

The equipment nobody planned to replace

Take a laptop that keeps being repaired. Each fix makes sense at the time. Then one day it can’t be fixed, and the school faces a purchase it hadn’t budgeted for, often alongside several others.

Our Director of Technical Services, James Meer, believes it’s the IT provider’s job to flag this early: “This computer is six years old. It should be replaced. I’ve alerted it to you.”

If the school knows early, it can plan. If nobody tells them, the cost arrives as a surprise, and the money has already been allocated elsewhere.

An equipment register with an expected replacement date for each device turns that surprise into a plan spread across several financial years. It also helps business managers see which contracts and subscriptions are coming up for renewal.

The subscriptions that keep renewing

James sees the same pattern with software. A licence, Adobe for example, is bought for a member of staff. They leave, nobody notices, and the subscription keeps renewing.

It happens with Microsoft accounts too. A teacher leaves, the account isn’t removed, and in theory that person could still sign in, and might still be receiving all-staff emails.

That creates two problems. The school pays for things it no longer needs, and an account that should have been closed becomes a security risk.

Neither usually happens because someone has been careless. Usually, there simply isn’t a joined-up process.

Who owns it?

It’s tempting to assume that anything with a screen belongs to the IT provider. James hears it often: “You’re IT. Don’t you sort it out?”

But the IT provider can’t know when someone joins, changes role or leaves unless the school tells them. Many providers are only on site a day or half a day a week, so they can’t track every iPad that moves to another classroom.

The school holds the staffing information and knows where things are used. The IT provider understands the technical side. Both are needed.

That’s why the DfE’s digital leadership and governance standard asks schools to “assign a senior leadership team (SLT) member to be responsible for digital technology”, and to keep registers of hardware and systems up to date.

“The head can’t be everything,” James says. In many schools, the business manager is the natural partner for this work.

A process instead of a post-it

James remembers new starters arriving by email, or even on a post-it note: a name, a role and a request to create an account.

“You need to rely on process, and the processes don’t exist,” he says.

So we work with schools to use a simple shared record:

1. When someone joins, the school records their name, role and start date, which systems they need and whether they need a device.
2. The IT team adds their username, the device issued with its serial number, and the groups and access they’ve been given.
3. When they leave, the school tells the IT team, who record the account removal and the equipment returned.
4. The completed record goes back to the school, so there’s a clear trail showing the process was closed.

A teacher might stay for fifteen years, but the record is still there when they go.

Some schools go further, linking their MIS, the system that holds pupil and staff records, to their Microsoft or Google accounts. Accounts are then created and removed automatically as staff records change, which keeps the school in control of who has access.

Seeing what you’ve got

Our engineers already provide schools with reports after their visits, recording completed work, outstanding issues and the reasons behind them.

We’re also developing a more structured reporting approach covering equipment condition, infrastructure, backups and potential improvements.

James’s view is that the school should run day-to-day tracking, with an annual check by an engineer, or even by the premises officer walking round with a tablet. None of it requires the business manager to become a technician.

What to ask your IT support

• Do we have a written process for setting up and closing staff accounts?
• Who in school tells you when someone joins, changes role or leaves?
• How do we check we’re only paying for the subscriptions we use?
• Do we have an equipment register with expected replacement dates?
• What technology spending should we plan for over the next two to three years?

Making decisions easier

The person responsible for digital technology doesn’t need to be a network engineer. They need to know what the school relies on, who makes decisions and where reliable information lives.

James sums up our approach: “Our job is to give you enough information, in the right way, that you’re confident you’re making the right decisions.”

A good IT provider shouldn’t just tell you what’s broken. They should help you see what needs attention next, and why.