Connectivity procurement
Review school broadband as infrastructure, not a headline speed
The right connection supports teaching, cloud services, safeguarding and resilience throughout the contract. Price and advertised speed are only two parts of the decision.
01
Specify the complete service
The DfE broadband standard addresses connection type, capacity, backup, network configuration, power resilience, security and safeguarding. Quote comparisons should normalise the complete service.
- Primary capacity.
- Backup and automatic failover.
- Router, firewall and management.
- Filtering and monitoring integration.
- Support and escalation.
- Installation, migration and exit.
02
Start before notice becomes urgent
Record the contract end, notice deadline and required service-ready date separately. Enough lead time is needed to test alternatives and coordinate a safe migration.
03
Test resilience
A second circuit is not automatically resilient. Diversity, routing, failover, power and operating procedures must work together, and safeguarding must remain effective during failure.
Accountability
Sources and evidence
- Broadband internet: core standardDepartment for Education. Expectations for connection type, capacity, resilience, security and safeguarding.
- Filtering and monitoring: core standardDepartment for Education. Governance, review and technical expectations for filtering and monitoring.
- Cyber security: core standardDepartment for Education. Cyber-governance and resilience expectations for schools and colleges.