I am writing to request information held by your council on its tech support hubs, which are also known as school local authority support units (SLSUs). These are teams that advise schools on tech matters, like which management information suppliers (MIS) they should switch to. I would like to find out the following:

1. Has the local authority’s SLSU received payments from any school MIS suppliers for referring schools to that MIS supplier?

2. If so, how much did it receive in in referral payments in calendar years 2022, 2023 and 2024 (as of the most recently recorded date)?

3. The names of company(ies) the council received payments from?

4. Were these payments made on a case-by-case basis to the local authority by the firm or as part of an annual recurring referral fee?

5. If the payments were made as part of an annual recurring referral fee, it would be appreciated if you could tell me the year and month in which the council started receiving the payments

6. The number of schools that switched MIS suppliers to the one(s) offering referral payments in calendar years 2022, 2023, and 2024 (as of the most recently recorded date)

Wokingham Local Authority doesn’t have a support unit that advises schools on MIS suppliers. The Local Authority did however receive a one-off referral payment of approx. £9k from Arbor in 2024 as 23 schools had opted to move from another MIS provider to Arbor. The Local Authority did not advise any schools to move to Arbor (or any other MIS provider) and did not actively seek a referral payment. Nevertheless, Arbor informed the Local Authority that it was entitled to a one-off payment.