Information about a child or young person’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is sensitive, so when we send emails about it, we use a security software system called Egress to keep the details safe.
However, we’ve had feedback that it is hard to use, so we’ve been working on ways to make things easier, while ensuring we continue to protect sensitive information about your children and young people.
For example, some people have told us that remembering log in details for Egress can be frustrating. We want to make everyone aware that if you open an Egress email sent to a Microsoft or Google email address, you have the choice of signing in with your Microsoft or Google account details instead of your Egress password. If you do have a Microsoft or Google account you may find this guidance provided by Egress useful.
We’re working on other improvements, but we need people to test them before they are made available to everyone, so that we can check that the changes we’ve made fix the problems we’ve been told about.
It won’t take long, and we can be flexible about when it is done. If you’re a parent, carer or professional and would like to get involved, particularly if you use Microsoft Outlook on a laptop, please complete this short form and a member of our user research team contact you about taking part in the trial.
We will update you on our efforts to improve Egress in August. Sign up to the monthly SEND Local Offer newsletter for all the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.