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Bring clarity to digital leadership and governance
Many schools are still building the basics of digital governance. Only 52% of primary and 70% of secondary schools report having a digital technology strategy in place. Without clear roles and reliable registers for contracts, assets and information, it is difficult to plan confidently and manage risk.
Computeam Compass helps you track how your leadership and governance compares to the DfE digital and technology standard, assign next steps, and keep a clear record of responsibilities, register reviews and strategic updates.
Only 52% of primary schools report having a digital technology strategy in place.
Source: Technology in schools survey: 2024 to 2025 – Research report (Department for Education, carried out by IFF Research, published Nov 2025)
The building blocks of strong digital governance
The DfE digital leadership and governance standard sets out how schools and colleges should organise responsibility for digital technology. It focuses on who leads digital work, how decisions are made, how information about systems and contracts is recorded and how digital planning links to school or trust priorities.
The guidance highlights three core areas: appointing a senior leadership team member as the digital lead, maintaining accurate registers for contracts, assets and information, and creating a digital technology strategy once the foundations are in place. Governors and trustees are expected to have appropriate oversight, often through a named digital link role.
At a glance, this digital and technology standard covers:
Assigning a senior leadership team digital lead with clear responsibilities
Keeping contracts, asset and information asset registers accurate and up to date
Making sure digital decisions align with the school or trust development plan
Involving key roles such as the DPO, DSL, business manager and IT support in planning
Creating and reviewing a digital technology strategy on the basis of good information
Bring confidence to digital planning and accountability
Without clear leadership and governance, digital technology can drift. Decisions are made in isolation, reactive purchases accumulate, and schools end up with a mix of systems that are hard to support and do not fully meet staff or pupil needs. This often leads to duplicated spend, increased workload for IT support and missed opportunities to improve teaching, learning and administration.
Digital leadership is also closely tied to safeguarding and compliance. Registers for contracts, assets and information provide the foundation for cyber security, data protection and business continuity. If nobody is clearly responsible for keeping them up to date, it becomes difficult to know what systems you have, where data is stored and which services are approaching end of life.
For multi-academy trusts, strong digital governance makes it easier to plan trust-wide initiatives, support schools fairly and manage risk. A named digital lead in each school, working alongside a trust IT or digital director, gives a clear route for communication in both directions. Governors and trustees can then ask focused questions, based on reliable information from Compass, rather than relying on occasional informal updates.
How Compass helps you get control of roles, registers and strategy
Computeam Compass turns the DfE digital leadership and governance standard into a practical framework that the whole leadership team can work with. It provides a single, secure place to record roles, registers and strategic documents, so you can see how everything fits together.
Make the expectations visible
Compass sets out the key leadership and governance requirements in a structured format. Schools can record who their SLT digital lead and digital link governor are, how responsibilities are shared and where digital planning sits within wider school priorities. This gives SLT, governors and trust leaders a clear overview of leadership arrangements without searching through multiple documents.
Bring key registers into one view
Compass can be used to record and review the information that sits behind your contracts, asset and information asset registers. While finance and data protection systems may hold detailed records, Compass provides a summary view for digital governance – highlighting key contracts, major assets and important information risks in one place. This helps the SLT digital lead and governors make informed decisions.
Assign ownership and track actions
When gaps are identified – for example, missing register entries, unclear roles or an overdue strategy review – Compass allows you to create actions with named owners and realistic deadlines. Tasks might include updating contract details, reconciling asset records, refining the digital lead role description or scheduling a strategy workshop. Progress is visible to the right people, which makes it easier to keep governance activity moving.
Keep a secure, auditable record
Compass provides a secure record of leadership and governance-related decisions. You can log strategy documents, register reviews, governor meeting notes and key changes to roles or responsibilities against the digital and technology standard. Each entry is time-stamped so you can show how your approach has developed over time and how governance responds to changes in risk and context.
Give MAT leaders a trust-wide view
For multi-academy trusts, Compass brings together digital leadership and governance information from multiple schools. Central teams can see who holds digital responsibilities in each setting, how up-to-date local registers are and where additional support may be needed. This supports more consistent governance, clearer communication and better alignment between trust-wide plans and local implementation.
Your next steps
If you are reviewing your digital leadership and governance against the DfE digital and technology standard, Computeam Compass can provide structure and shared visibility. It helps you capture who is responsible for what, understand the information in your core registers and record the actions you are taking to strengthen digital decision making.
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See how Compass tracks the digital leadership and governance standard alongside the wider DfE digital and technology framework.
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Explore Compass with your team and begin building a live picture of your school or trust’s digital and technology standards.
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