26 March 2008

Cardiff Council powers education services with geographic information

Cardiff Council is using detailed and intelligent mapping data to help improve the management of education services and school transport for all of the city’s learners.

Ordnance Survey’s most detailed mapping and transport information, is being used to help plan the most efficient routes for the free school bus service as well as in the mapping of school catchment areas.

Phil Peddle, working in the council’s Schools and Lifelong Learning Service, says, "Using Ordnance Survey’s transport data has allowed us to identify the children eligible for the free school bus service quickly and accurately and organise providing transport in a far more proactive way.

"For instance, using geographic information has allowed us to optimise the number of buses we need, accurately tailor bus routes to suit where the city’s children live and assign them to their closest and best route".

Phil adds "We are making increased use of Ordnance Survey data with RouteFinder software from Higher Mapping Solutions. We were recently involved in a project where calculating the best and most efficient routes for delivering mail bags to schools highlighted significant potential savings of up to £16,000 per annum"

Cardiff Council is also expanding the use of intelligent geographic information to support the schools admissions process.  By using intelligent mapping along with Capita’s One education software, front line staff are able to deal with the process far more effectively, resolving queries or issues more quickly and easily than had been possible in the past.

Peter ter Haar, Ordnance Survey’s Director of Products, comments, "Cardiff Council are demonstrating the intelligent geographic information has a real impact on everyday citizens and the services they use. I’m pleased to see that by using our data the council’s education services have been able to see a real benefit."

Ordnance Survey’s most detailed mapping is the OS MasterMap family which is made up of different layers. The Topography layer is the largest seamless map database in the world with almost half a billion features nationwide.

The data supporting the council’s school bus service is OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network Layer. It contains 99.21% of the nation’s roads and forms the foundation to many transport applications including the market leading sat nav products.

For more information on OS MasterMap Topography Layer and Integrated Transport Network Layer visit www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/osmastermap

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