School broadband in Scotland: councils and SWAN

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At a glance

• The 32 local authorities arrange connectivity for their schools, many through SWAN.
• SWAN: up to £350 million over six years, covering more than 6,000 sites.
• We found no Scottish Government standard setting school broadband speeds.
• KCSIE is England-only. In Scotland, specified authorities must have IT policies and filtering under the Prevent duty.

Who buys

In Scotland, connectivity for state schools is arranged by the 32 local authorities, many of them through the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN). If you work in a council school, your council’s IT or education service is the place to start.

We found no Scottish Government standard setting school broadband speeds in the way the DfE standards do for England or the Hwb standards do for Wales.

SWAN

In October 2023 NHS National Services Scotland awarded BT a contract worth up to £350 million over six years to maintain and improve public sector connectivity through SWAN. It covers more than 6,000 sites and 94 public sector organisations, and schools are named among those that benefit.

One example of a council using it: Highland Council and BT agreed a multi-year deal through the SWAN framework connecting over 340 sites, including nearly 200 schools, with new fibre to over 100 sites.

Filtering

Keeping children safe in education applies to England only. The Scottish Government’s national action plan on internet safety for children and young people (2017) expects schools to have IT policies and filtering, and says “Scottish specified authorities must ensure IT policies and IT filtering solutions are in place” to limit access to terrorist or extremist material under the Prevent duty.

Free protective DNS

The NCSC’s free Protective DNS for Schools is open to local authorities and public sector networks in Scotland that provide DNS to their schools. See cyber security.

Questions people ask

What about Scotland and Northern Ireland?

Scottish councils arrange school connectivity, many through the SWAN framework. In Northern Ireland, grant-aided schools get connectivity through the Education Authority’s C2k service, and DE has asked schools using non-C2k broadband to review it.

Sources

Checked 25 October 2026. We wrote this guide from these sources, in our own words:

1. SWAN: NSS awards £350 million SWAN contract to BT (October 2023) (swan.scot)
2. The Highland Council and BT sign network services agreement (October 2023) (highland.gov.uk)
3. Scottish Government: Internet safety for children and young people national action plan (gov.scot)
4. NCSC: PDNS for Schools extended to more institutions (ncsc.gov.uk)

Broadband for Schools is an independent guide. We are not a broker, a reseller or a supplier, and we are not connected to the Department for Education, any local authority or any provider. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.