London Borough Brent - Files Processing Success Story

London Borough Brent - Files Processing Success Story

The Student Support Team in Brent facilitates educational opportunities for full-time students from the Brent area aged between 16 and 74 - approximately 22,000 at any one time. The team manages access to educational and cost-of-living funding. It runs a dedicated helpline and a drop-in or appointment service at an Education Information Shop. It also acts as the face-to-face contact between prospective students and the Student Loans Company.

The system generates large volumes of paperwork. Original multi-page application forms are accompanied by supporting documents that might include accounting information such as bank statements and proof of income, proof of identity and address, references and proof of educational attainment. Add to these copies of application forms and correspondence with colleges and universities, paperwork generated by the team’s application assessment and correspondence with the Student Loans Company and there could be anywhere between 30 and 200 sheets of paper in just one applicant’s file.

In the time since tuition fees were introduced in 1998, a bank of 18,000 such files of paper had been created in Brent. The majority of these files had to remain accessible to the staff of the Student Support Team, so moving the files off-site for storage couldn’t be an option. Each year, the space required for storage grew. Maintaining the paper system was becoming a drain on human resources. Errors in filing would increase retrieval time and with more and more cabinets would come increased pressure on floorspace

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