In 2012, a consortium of interested public sector partners within East Sussex combined to develop a joint infrastructure and associated services to build a single ‘Public Sector Network’ within East Sussex for all partner organisations to share.
The resulting partnership became known as ‘The Link’. The Link enabled savings for all organisations involved, through sharing of costs, removal of duplication and enabling collaborative sharing of building assets. The Link services have been consumed by the founding organisations since 2012, with the venture proving to be successful for all members involved. Customers of The Link include local government, education, healthcare and blue light services.
The existing Link PSN contract will run out in 2022 and over the last year, East Sussex has led a procurement exercise for a replacement which is called South East Grid. The contract award will be announced by mid 2021 and current customers will be able to purchase from the Framework from that time, with new customers following shortly afterwards.
The SEG Framework will be available for any public sector organisation in the South East region. The SEG procurement is being supported by South East Grid for Learning who will be using the new Framework as a preferred route to access a range of network services for schools across it member authorities.