Workforce Census – Guidance – all schools

• There are no changes to the data items for this year’s workforce census.

There are new validation rules to encourage the return of data on disability and ethnicity, validation rules 4221Q relating to ethnicity and 4226Q relating to disability.  These new rules will appear where a member of staff has been employed for more than 3 months and their ethnicity/disability is still listed as ‘information not yet obtained’. Staff have an absolute right to not answer this question, in which case the answer should be recorded as ‘refused’ and no query will be raised.  The DfE advise that the difference between ‘information not obtained’ and ‘information refused’ is important and so needs to be recorded correctly;

Staff can refuse to answer these questions, but they should be asked. If a circular email has been sent to staff and they have not responded, this should be recorded as ‘Information not yet obtained’ and a note ‘4221Q: Question has not been asked’ should be entered. The response of ‘Refused’ should be used where staff have actively refused, such as by checking that box in a data collection form.

Annex 9 Improving disability reporting rates provides further information.

There is a new validation error – 4562 if staff member not paid by a daily rate, then pay range must be included. This will generate if members of staff are paid by salary and there is no pay range information recorded in the return.  Bromcom users: please check your base pay structure and staff contracts to ensure you have included pay range information.

Please run the Return Credibility Check to assess the accuracy of your data.

This is a new query that will generate in COLLECT when a return is uploaded or amendments are made directly in COLLECT.  This is likely to update overnight in a similar way to the school census.  The query will likely appear 24 hours after your return has been submitted and will clear 24hours after you have run the Return Credibility Check report.

The submission of the School Workforce Census return, including a set of individual staff records, is a statutory requirement on schools and LAs by virtue of regulations made under Sections 113 and 114 of the Education Act 2005.  This means that:

• although schools and LAs must meet their obligations to data subjects under the Data Protection Act, they do not need to obtain consent for the provision of information from individual members of the workforce (see Data Protection and Data Sharing, Annex 3)
• schools and LAs are protected from any legal challenge that they are breaching a duty of confidence to staff members
• schools and LAs must complete a return

The School Workforce Census is the Department for Education’s main source of data on school staff, including staff pay bills, staff turnover and absences.  The school workforce census data informs departmental policy on pay and the monitoring of the effectiveness and diversity of the school workforce.  School workforce census data is also used by other government departments, local authorities, external agencies and educational researchers.  Accuracy of data is crucial.

Data from the SWC feeds into decision making on teachers’ pensions and induction payments, so it is essential that data reporting is complete and accurate. 

Data is collected on the “collect once, use many times” principle and most of the data collected should be data that a well-prepared school uses themselves or be justified with a clear business case.

Every school¹ in England has a statutory duty to complete the workforce census.  A Summary Report of the data in the workforce census file can be viewed in Bromcom via the School Workforce Census main page (Modules | Census | School Workforce).  All staff preparing the return should use this to check accuracy and completeness before passing it to the head teacher.

The Summary Report allows the head teacher authorising the return to check accuracy and completeness before submitting the return to the local authority and the Department for Education.

The report should be inspected carefully, particularly where it might show data was not entered on the system before creating the return, such as disability, qualifications or ethnicity.  The Department for Education also recommends that the school summary is compared to the previous year’s to highlight changes.

¹ excludes privately funded independent schools, non maintained special schools, sixth form college.

To ensure that the data provided in your Workforce Census is correct the Department for Education have produced Credibility Reports which are available in COLLECT.  As schools are responsible for accurate submissions, these reports should be run, and any anomalies identified need to be investigated and resolved.

To assist schools, the Education Information Team (EdIT) will include any anomalies identified in the Return Credibility report in their workforce census data checking report which will be emailed to schools.  This will be based on reports available in COLLECT and will identify data that needs investigating.  Federated schools submitting one file – please also refer to our separate guidance.

As the data is processed overnight, the DfE’s credibility reports can be run 24 hours after uploading the return to COLLECT, schools can therefore run these reports anytime, there is no need to wait for EdIT’s data checking report.

Further information on the DfE’s credibility reports can be found in Annex 8.

Note: The Education Information Team will not check the content of these reports.  Schools need to confirm by email that they have checked any anomalies identified in the report and are satisfied that the data is correct.

As the School Workforce Census collects data on school staff, schools must ensure compliance with Data Protection Regulations.  The Department for Education have produced detailed guidance on schools’ responsibilities and legal duties under the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).  Further information can be found in Annex 3.  This includes information on Privacy Notices and Data Security.

The DfE have also published updated privacy notice suggested text documents. These documents, contain examples of the relevant sections required in a proposed format.

For further information on UK GDPR please see the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website. and the data protection – toolkit for schools website.

See Annex 2 Data Requirements for a full listing.

Staff level information being collected for members of staff in regular service;

• Staff Personal Details – all staff
• Contract and Service Agreement Details – all staff
• Payment Details – all staff with open contracts/service agreements
• Absences (2024/25 academic year) – Teachers and Teaching Assistants only
• Curriculum Details – secondary schools only – subjects taught by Teachers and Teaching Assistants in regular service during census week
• Qualification Details – all teachers, teaching assistants, School Business Professionals and non–teaching school leaders, not required for ‘other support staff’ but can be returned if present, please see Annex 4 Qualifications for further information

School level information being collected as a snapshot on census day;

• Current Teacher vacancies
• Headcount of Occasional (Supply) Teachers employed on census day
• Headcount of Third Party Support staff (cover/agency), e.g. outside contractors for cleaning

See Annex 1 Inclusion Guide for a detailed listing of who to include in the census.
The Workforce Census covers full and part-time teachers, teaching assistants, non-teacher school leaders and other support staff in regular service1; 

• Teachers: qualified and unqualified teachers employed by schools, including agency / service agreement teachers working within a school in a post that would normally be filled by a teacher employed by the school.
  Please Note: Advisory Teachers are deemed to be ‘support staff’. If they are from an agency they do not require a ‘named record’, they only need to be included in the Third Party Support Staff Headcount (see separate section). 

• Teaching Assistants: support staff based in the classroom for learning and pupil support e.g.  HLTAs, teaching assistants, special needs support staff, nursery officers/assistants, minority ethnic pupils support staff and bilingual assistants.   (TAs employed by a school need a staff record, but TAs employed by another organisation do not need a service agreement, they should only be included in the Third Party Support Staff Headcount) 

•  School Business Professional:  staff with the roles of ‘Bursar’, ‘Business Manager’, ’Finance Officer’, ’Office Manager’, ‘Premises Manager’ or ‘ICT Network Manager’. Staff who are also members of the Senior Leadership Team should have the SLT flag set to true, as this will ensure that their leadership role is still recorded.  

• Leadership non-teacher:  any member of staff not reported in a teaching or School Business Professional post who is part of the school’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) or has other formal leadership responsibilities.  This includes, but is not limited to, staff with school business responsibilities, e.g. operations, HR and other support staff formally recognised in leadership posts.  

• Other Support Staff: comprises support staff (employed by the school) that are not classroom based, e.g. librarians, matrons/nurses/medical staff, technicians, bursars and other administration/clerical staff, premises2 and catering2 staff. 

1. Regular service: Staff are in regular service if they have continuous service of 28 days or more, already undertaken or planned, under a contract or service agreement.  This is based on the contract start and end date, or census date if it’s an open contract.  (This does not mean 28 continuous days.  The DfE have previously advised it can be for as little as one session during that period, provided it is expected there will be at least one more session in the next 28 day period.)

2. Premises and Catering: Caretakers, cleaners and other premises staff employed direct by the school must be included in the census as a ‘named’ record. If you employ them via a third party, i.e.  an agency such as Norse or Glen Cleaning, they should be included in the Third Party Support Staff Headcount section of the SWC.

Note:
These members of staff should be engaged to work in a school under arrangements that must be recordable as either a contract or service agreement with the school.

If supply teachers are provided by a local authority acting like a supply agency and are in regular service at a school, then a service agreement record will be required to reflect the amount of time worked in that school. 

Service agreement records are not required for support staff, including teaching assistants who work in schools but whose contract is with another organisation. Information on support staff employed via a third party and in school on Census day is collected in the third party headcount

Each contract must have a base pay (or daily rate) and hours recorded. Any contracts with neither recorded should be regarded as occasional employment and, for teachers must be recorded in the Occasional Teachers headcount if the member of staff is present on census day.

The table in Annex 1 will help you decide whether members of staff should be included.

A flow diagram to help schools decide which staff to include in the census is available on page 16 of the DfE’s School workforce guide 2025.

The following staff should not be included on a school’s return;

• ScoMIS ICT Technicians provided as part of the Service Level Agreement between you and the LA. They should not be returned even if they work at your school on a regular basis.
• Temporary staff with service of less than 28 days and who are not expected to complete service of 28 days or more. ⁽¹⁾
• Casual staff without contracts employed on an ad-hoc basis. ⁽¹⁾

                    ⁽¹⁾   Note: if temporary staff with service of less than 28 days or casual staff without contracts (categories indicated above) are in school on census day they should be included in the Occasional Teachers/Third Party Support Staff Headcount (cover/agency staff) section.

• Trainee teachers on teaching practice.
• Trainee teachers on a School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) programme (not required as college based QTS route, not classroom based).
• Staff working in extended school service provision e.g. breakfast and after school clubs, Sure Start and Children’s Centres.  Note that staff engaged in the normal running of the school, such as cleaners, should be included regardless of when they work e.g.  before, after, or during the normal school day if they are employed by the school.
• Teachers only engaged in one to one tuition
• Governors and voluntary staff.
• Staff for whom there is no role identifier that equates to the function they carry out e.g. clerk to governors, school crossing patrol staff and School Improvement Partners (SIPs).
• Staff whose contracts finished before 1 September 2023.

Support Staff from another organisation

Support staff, including teaching assistants, who work in your school but whose contract is with another organisation do not have a named record in the census. However they should be included in the 3rd Party Headcount section if they were in school on census day. If you have caretakers, cleaners or premises staff employed from a third party e.g. an agency such as Norse or Glen Cleaning, they should be included as a manual entry in the 3rd Party Headcount section of the census (Cover / Agency Staff on Census Day panel for Bromcom users).

Supply staff (who are not included in the census with named record)

Bromcom users, there is a facility to add Supply Staff as External Staff and record whether they are affiliated to an external agency. Guidance is available via How to Add Supply Staff – Bromcom – Documentation Centre. There’s also a ‘Supply Staff’ flag in Staff Details | Employee Details tab, please remember to tick the ‘Do not include in Census’ box (see how to exclude staff) as these members of staff should not be included with a named record in the census.

As some of the members of staff to exclude may be included in Bromcom Personnel you need to ensure they are excluded from the School Workforce Census.  To do this you need to open the member of staff’s record and in the Staff Profile click on the pencil icon to the right of the Staff Name to Edit Staff Details.  In the Employee Details tab tick the ‘Do not include in Census’ box (bottom left) and click Save.

In some instances, a person will have two or more contracts and at least one of them will need to be excluded from the SWC (whilst others need to be included in the SWC);

Scenario 1 –  two contracts but one is not included in the census as the role is not applicable, e.g. extended services contract (breakfast club provision), nursery contract (where not part of school age range).

Bromcom users: in this scenario the contract that is not relevant to the workforce census can be excluded from the return. Open the relevant contract (double click the contract to edit it) and in the Add/Edit Contract window tick the ‘do not include in Census’ box (bottom of Contract Information tab).

Scenario 2 – more than one contract (all relevant to the census) but some might be suspended contracts due to temporary changes in hours, weeks, role undertaken, etc.  For example, a teaching assistant’s contract has been suspended as a new contract has been issued to accommodate a temporary increase in hours.

Bromcom users: in this scenario please include all contracts in the census. Do not tick the ‘do not include in Census’ box.  Please add an end date to the suspended contract to reflect that it is closed whilst the other is open.  If this causes issues with your finance systems then do not make any changes in Bromcom and;

• notify census@devon.gov.uk that certain contract information should not be included (if role not relevant to census) or needs to be amended (if a suspended contract).
• in your email include the name of the member of staff and the post/role details of the contract to be deleted or amended, e.g. role, start date, end date (for suspended contracts), hours per week and give permission for us to alter this for you in COLLECT.
• make a manual note of the change on your detail report(s)

Your SWC file will be adjusted accordingly in the DfE COLLECT system.

If a member of staff is acting up within the same school, e.g.  a deputy head acting up to a head post, the contract for the substantive post (deputy head) should be closed when the acting up role starts and re-opened when the acting up role (head) comes to an end.

To record in Bromcom, you can;

• highlight the original contract and click on copy contract
• in the copy contract window select the future start date (when the original contract is due to re-start, i.e. when the acting up post is due to end)
• end the original contract (editing the end date to reflect the date the acting up post started)
• add a contract for the new acting up contract to fill the gap between the ending of the original contract and the re-starting of the future contract (click on Add/Edit Contact, the + icon)

If a member of staff is ‘acting up’ within the same school, this should not be regarded as a secondment (with absence recorded as secondment) as the staff member is still working at the same school.  This is an ‘acting up’ scenario and the above guidance should be followed.

A member of staff on secondment to another school would have two open contracts, one for each school, with an absence record of secondment reported against their originating contract.

Where members of staff have left your school, do not tick from the ‘do not include in Census’ box.  The SWC collects historical data which includes information on leavers.  Keeping the ‘do not include in Census’ unticked will ensure that the leaver’s data will be included in the census file.

If a member of staff has left and is outside of the leavers’ date range in the census they should automatically be excluded even though the ‘Eligible for SWR’ box is still ticked.

All mainstream schools are expected to have a SEN Co-ordinator and should have a member of staff in the Workforce Census with a designated role of SEN Co-ordinator.  Some schools may have specific SEN Co-ordinator posts whilst for other schools this role might be part of the Headteacher’s roles and responsibilities.

Note: The DfE advise that under Section 67 of the Children & Families Act 2014, all    mainstream schools are expected to have a SENCo and this must be reflected on the return.  The requirements are laid out in detail in the Section 6.84 of the SEND Code of Practice

If you have a specific member of staff whose sole role is SEN Co-ordinator, then please check their contract in the Workforce census Staff Contract Details Report to ensure that the SEN role is listed against them.  If they do not have this role assigned to them, you will need to add it to their contract.

If the SEN Co-ordinator role is part of your Headteacher’s roles and responsibilities, then their contract needs to be amended to include this role.  Please note there is no need to create another contract, as members of staff can have more than one role in a contract.

To add the role in Bromcom;

• Open the member of staff’s contract via Staff > Staff Profile > Contracts
• Highlight the relevant contract and double click to Edit an existing contract
• In the Role tab, click to add a new role, select the SEN Co-ordinator role, amend the start date if applicable and save

Your Headteacher’s details in the Staff contract Details Report will now include ‘SEN Co-ordinator’ in the role column (to the right of the report).

SEN Co-ordinator Qualification

The Department for Education advise that SEN Co-ordinators must, unless they have been a SENCO for more than a year as of 1 September 2009, achieve a ‘National Award in Special Educational Needs Co-ordination’ or ‘National Professional Qualification for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators’ within three years of their appointment.  Please see the SEND Code of Practice and the SENCO regulations for further information.

Where SENCOs have achieved this qualification, it must be recorded against the member of staff using the qualification code ‘Z201 – SEN – SENCO’.  Further information on SEN qualifications and relevant codes can be found in Annex 4.

Absences (teachers and teaching assistants only)

Absence data is required for teachers and teaching assistants employed directly by schools. Information will be required on any activity or circumstances, except for training, that takes a teacher or teaching assistant away from normal duties with their usual employer for half a day or more.  For the purposes of the school workforce census, such periods away from normal duties are absences.

Absences of less than half a day do not need to be recorded, apart from the following exceptions:

• if the morning and afternoon sessions are not equal, each session should be regarded as half a day
• if a member of staff is contracted to work less than half a day, any absences should be recorded and if it is for sickness absence, the working days lost should be recorded as 0.5.

Absence records will be required for any periods of absence which began or ended in the previous academic year (for 2025 census this will be from 1st September 2024 to 31 August 2025).  If teachers or teaching assistants leave the school before the Census day but experienced periods of absence during the previous academic year, then absence records will need to be submitted for them.  If the absence is ongoing at the time when the school workforce census return is made, then the absence must be included with no end date entered.

Examples of activities or circumstances that are not counted as absence for school workforce census are:

• taking part in activities such as field trips
• days that are non-working days under a person’s contract
• PPA (planning, preparation and assessment) time
• INSET days
• NQT non-contact time
• Training
• Working at a consortium school or a Primary/Secondary linked school
• attending meetings that are part of an individual’s normal duties

Note: absence due to training is not required for the school workforce census, but schools need to be aware that any absence recorded as training may still be included in the collection extract and returned to the department.  This information collected will be used internally for research and statistical purposes but not reported on or published.

Bromcom users: whilst the DfE only require working days lost for sickness and pregnancy related absences, if recorded days lost for other absences they will also be collected in the return.

For further details please see How to Record Staff Absence – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

Absence Examples;

• A career break would be covered by unpaid authorised absence.
• a disciplinary suspension should be recorded as authorised absence, paid or unpaid as appropriate. It should be counted as OTH (if the leave is paid) or UNP (if the leave is unpaid)
• If a member of staff makes a phased return to work after a period of long term sickness, they should be recorded as absent for the periods they would normally be working. Whether the absence is recorded as sickness or other paid authorised absence will depend on local HR policy.
• If a teaching assistant accompanies a pupil to hospital and this is not considered part of the teaching assistant’s normal duties, the absence should be recorded as ‘Other paid authorised absence’
• adoption leave should be recorded as OTH (if the leave is paid) or UNP (if the leave is unpaid)
• absence due to pregnancy related medical appointments or pregnancy related sickness should be recorded as PRG (pregnancy related)
• absence on maternity leave should be recorded as MAT, not as PRG.

Last day of absence – this is the last day of a period of absence, not the day the member of staff becomes FIT for work or returned to work – where a sick note is provided, the last day is the final day the sick note is valid for.  A single day’s absence will have the same first and last day.  For further clarification see page 60 of the DfE school workforce census guide, sections 7.3.2, 7.3.3 and 7.3.4: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workforce-census.

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Base Pay  

This must be provided for all staff not being paid a daily rate.  It must reflect the annual salary of a member of staff as at the Census day. It should not include any additional payments or allowances.

The pay of part time or term time only staff must not be adjusted upwards to the pay of a full time equivalent member of staff.  It must also not be adjusted downwards for a member of staff that started working part way through the year.

Please note:

• It is the contracted pay that is required, so if a staff member is on reduced pay due to long term absence, the contracted pay amount should be returned.
• Base Pay should be the amount being paid as at the time of the census. If the teacher is yet to have their annual pay review please ensure that this is recorded by reporting the ‘Date of Last Pay Review’ as being in the previous academic year.
• As Base Pay is the pay at reference day, it follows that Base Pay is not required for closed contracts.

Date of Last Pay Review (Teachers only)

This is the date of the most recent determination of a teacher’s pay.  Maintained schools must carry out these determinations annually and the Department for Education expect that academies will have similar processes.  The results of the annual review should apply from 1 September that year.  However, the review may not have taken place by the time of the School Workforce Census.  Outside of the annual review cycle, schools also make determinations of teachers’ pay when teachers take up a new post or move to the Upper Pay Range.

The DfE needs to know the date of the last pay review to determine whether the figures submitted in the census are relevant to knowing the pay bill for the current year.

The date supplied should be the most recent pay determination (either the regular annual review, or a more recent review for other reasons), even if this did not result, or could not have resulted, in a change to the teacher’s pay.

If this year’s review has not yet taken place, then the date of the previous review should be entered.

The date supplied should be the date of the pay determination.  For example, if the 2025 pay determinations were agreed on 15 Oct 2025 backdated to the 1 Sept 2025 and put into payment on 30 Oct then the 15 Oct 2025 should be recorded.  If the 2025 pay determination has not yet been recorded and the 2024 pay determination salaries are to be reported in the 2025 School Workforce Census then that date should be recorded in the field.   

If the review has not yet taken place this year then the date of the previous year’s determination should be entered so that the DfE can know whether the figure returned in the census will be retrospectively uprated later in the year. For example, if the 2025 pay awards have not been ratified by governors as at the time of the census then the 2024 pay review dates need to be used and a note needs to be added to COLLECT advising that “the new teacher pay and conditions for September 2025 have not been ratified by governors and so have not been implemented yet”. 

Note: this is required for teaching posts only, i.e. Executive Headteacher, Head Teacher,
Deputy Head, Assistant Head, Classroom Teacher, Apprentice Teacher and Lead Practitioner.

How to amend a member of staff’s last pay review date in Bromcom

• Open the member of staff’s contracts via Staff > Staff Profile > Contracts
• Highlight the relevant contract and double click to edit the contract
• In the Contract Information tab enter the review date in the ‘Date of Last Pay Review’ field and click Save.

Leadership Pay Framework (only applies to teachers paid on leadership pay scale)

This indicates the pay framework under which leadership teachers are paid (i.e. Executive Headteacher, Head Teacher, Deputy Head and Assistant Head).  Leadership teachers’ pay will either be based on the scheme laid out in the pre 2014 school teachers’ pay conditions documents (i.e.”Pre 2014”) or that laid out in the 2014 and subsequent pay and conditions document (i.e. “2014”).  For contracts with a start date before 1/9/2014 the MIS will default to “Pre 2014 framework” and for those with a start date from 1/9/2014 will default to “2014 framework”, but these fields are editable.

Note: These frameworks apply to the determination of pay ranges for leadership teachers – this is separate from the annual decisions on progression pay.
For more information please see:

• DfE School Workforce Census Guide, available via https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workforce-census
• DfE School Teachers Pay & Conditions Document, available from via https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-pay-and-conditions

Leadership Pay Range – minimum and maximum  (leadership teachers only)

Every leadership teacher, paid on the leadership scale, will have a basic salary range within which they can expect to be paid while they remain in the same post at the same school.  This is determined individually for each leadership teacher.  For further details please see paragraphs 9.1 to 9.4 of the school teachers’ pay and conditions document available via:  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-pay-and-conditions
Note: this only applies to teachers paid on the leadership pay scale (Executive Head, Headteacher, Deputy Head or Assistant Head).

Please see the Pay Details Panel and Annex 5 Editing Base Pay Structure for further information.

Newly qualified teacher (NQT)

This information is required for all contracted teachers and agency or service agreement teachers. It is not required for teaching assistants, non teaching staff or other support staff. This field is intended to identify Early Career Teachers in the first or second year of their induction, so is not expected to be returned for staff without a teaching post.

All teachers undergoing statutory induction starting from September 2021 are entitled to two years of high quality professional support based on the Early Career Framework (ECF).  State funded schools offering statutory induction will receive additional funding to deliver the ECF.

Funding for the second year of induction partially depends on data submitted in the Workforce Census so special care should be taken to ensure the information is correct.

To be recorded in this field as ether NQT1 (1^st year of induction) or NQT2 (2^nd year of induction) a teacher must;

• have QTS (rather than QTLS or EYTS) and
• be on the Early Career Framework

A teacher working part time may take more than a calendar year to complete a year of induction.  The DfE advise that it is a up to a school to determine whether a member of staff is in the first or second year of their induction.

Three options are available for this item;

• NQT1 indicating a teacher in the first year of induction

(Bromcom: Teacher in 1st Year of Induction)

• NQT2 indicating a teacher in the second year of induction

(Bromcom: Teacher in 2nd Year of Induction)

• Not NQT indicating all other teachers

(Bromcom: Not Newly Qualified Teacher)

Bromcom users: this field is located via Staff Details | Background Check | Qualification checks (click on the Qualification check section and the ‘Add/Edit Qualification Checks’ window appears).  The teacher status must be Qualified Teacher, the Newly Qualified Teacher Status field then becomes available.

Classroom Teacher Posts (inc Apprentice and Unqualified teachers)

Classroom teacher: the ‘Classroom Teacher’ option can be used to record teachers on the main or the upper pay range.  The Teacher Upper Pay Range and Teacher Main Pay Range posts may be used to record which pay range a teacher is on, but this is not essential, these teachers may be recorded on the classroom teachers post.

Please note: all three options are now acceptable in the census (Classroom Teacher, Classroom Teacher Upper Pay Range and Classroom Teacher Main Pay Range).

Apprentice teacher: this post has been created to cover teachers on the new teaching apprenticeship programme.  The post is one of the teacher categories and therefore requires the same data items as other teaching posts.

Unqualified teacher: these should be recorded in the census with a SWC Post of “Classroom Teacher” and a pay range (scale) of “Unqualified Teachers”.

Senior Leadership Team (SLT)

This field identifies staff who are members of the Senior Leadership Team and includes non-teachers. This should be set to ‘True’ where the post is one of ‘Head Teacher’, ‘Deputy Head’, ‘Executive Head Teacher’, ‘Assistant Head’ or ‘Leadership – Non-Teacher.

The SLT flag should also be set to ‘true’ for School Business Professionals where SBPs are formally recognised members of their schools’ SLT. (Bromcom users: go to Staff | Staff Profile | Contracts | Edit Contract | Contract Information tab, the Senior Leadership Team flag is located to the right of the ‘Post (SWF)’ field).

This field has been introduced to collect data on School Business Professionals (e.g., school business managers, finance managers) who are members of schools’ SLTs. It will support the Department’s assessment of the sector’s ability to achieve good financial and resource management and to inform where support should be provided.

Pay – Additional Payments 

For teachers, non-teaching school leaders and teaching assistants, any additional payments received as part of their contract must be recorded.  More than one additional payment can be recorded.  The category of any additional payments must be selected, examples include special educational needs allowances and teaching and learning responsibility payments.  TLR3 payments need to be reported separately from other teaching and learning responsibility payments.  Performance payments to seconded teachers should also be reported separately. For further information on these payments please see the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, part 4.

For each additional payment, the annual actual amount paid should be given. It should include all payments earned since the previous census, i.e. all additional payments from 08/11/24 to 06/11/25. Any one-off payments should show the amount received in full. If two people share an allowance equally, then the amount for each person would be half of the allowance – in other words, what they actually received.

Please take care when recording additional payments.  Incorrect additional payments have been returned which have substantially inflated the average teacher pay for a school.

Start and end dates must be recorded for TL3 payments.  For example, a classroom teacher may be awarded a TLR3 payment for a time-limited school improvement project, or one-off externally driven responsibilities.  The duration of this payment must be established at the start of the additional payment.  Start and end dates must be recorded even if the end date is outside of the reporting period.  For example, if the TLR3 payment finishes after census reference date then the actual end date should still be recorded even if it’s in the future.

Zero Hour Contracts

Please do not report individual staff contracts in the school workforce census showing zero hours worked per week.  This could include staff employed on flexible ‘zero hours’ arrangements where the hours worked cannot be determined.  Where this applies to a teacher and they are in school on the day of the census they should be included in the occasional teacher headcount.

Hours for staff on zero hours contracts should reflect the hours they work in a typical week and base pay should be calculated in line with those hours.  Where it is not possible to determine the hours worked in a typical week then the staff should be recorded in the occasional teacher count if they are present on census day.  If the staff are not present on census day, then they should be left out of the census return.

If your school is part of a Federation and the ‘Personnel’ module for all schools in the Federation has been amalgamated into one system (resulting in one census file), you will need to follow this section.  If your school is part of a federation but each school sends in their own return via COLLECT – please follow the guidance and checklist for all other schools.

As the DfE requires a separate School Workforce Census for each school within the Federation, the school holding the personnel information needs to provide;

• one School Workforce Census containing all the data
• a list of all staff with their contract details allocated against each school they attend¹, i.e. contract post, dates, hours per week, FTE hours, weeks per year, annual pay and any additional payments (please see below for guidance on how to provide this information)
• a list of teacher and teaching assistant absences indicating which schools the absences should be assigned against
• headcount information for Current Vacancies, Occasional (Supply) Teachers and Third Party Support Staff (Cover/Agency Staff) present on census day for each of the schools
• name of school holding the contract for the Executive Headteacher post (as the post should be recorded against this school, with the other school/schools not reporting an Executive Head)

¹   The DfE state that where staff are shared across schools, they must be returned separately for each school, showing the appropriate hours.

Note:  A checklist for Federations submitting one file is available in the Workforce Census – Federation guidance – Support for schools and settings (devon.gov.uk)

.

How to provide the information

Once you have run through your Workforce Census and resolved your errors and queries you need to provide information on;

• Workforce member contract/service agreement details
• Workforce member allowance details
• Workforce member absence details

Bromcom users: whilst Sims provided standard reports to output this information unfortunately Bromcom doesn’t for contracts and allowances (there is a standard report for absences).  You can either

• Create quick reports in Bromcom to generate the required information, guidance is available here Workforce Census – Federations – quick reports – Support for schools and settings
• Upload the census return to COLLECT and the Education Information Team will send the three spreadsheets to you to complete and return. These will be sent 24hrs after your return has been uploaded.

Once you have the spreadsheets please add columns for each school in your federation and indicate with a ‘ü’ or ‘yes’ which records should be recorded against each school.  Alternatively, you could add one column and enter the school name or DfE code relevant to the contract.

Where members of staff have a contract where hours are split across the schools please specify the proportion of hours per week to be allocated against each school.  This proportional split will also be applied to the payment details.

If you encounter difficulties in exporting the reports to Excel, please contact us in order that we may help you to provide the information in a format we can administer.

Please

• forward completed spreadsheets to census@devon.gov.uk
• include name of school holding the contract for the Executive Headteacher post (as the post should be recorded against one school)
• include details on Current Vacancies, Occasional (Supply) Teachers and Third Party Support Staff in your email (if the information has not been provided elsewhere).
• ensure that the subject of the email includes the DfE code of the main school followed by the Federation name (for ease of identification).

Federations and COLLECT Credibility Reports

The Return Credibility Check and other reports in COLLECT identify data that needs to be investigated.  For example, the credibility report identifies staff with no contracts, missing personal details (NI number, teacher number), missing qualifications and staff who appear to be working more than full time hours.

Once you have uploaded your return to COLLECT the Education Information Team (EDIT) will email the Return Credibility and other reports to you to check your data is correct;

• If there are numerous amendments required then you will need to make the changes in sims and upload another file to COLLECT, EDIT will not work on creating separate files until an updated single file has been received
• If there are only a few amendments required you can email census@devon.gov.uk with the necessary changes and authorise us to update your file in COLLECT for you.

Please be aware that some of the queries raised may be because the report is being run on one file for the whole federation.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any support.

Further information and guidance on the Credibility Reports can be found in the sections ‘checking Credibility reports’ and also Annex 8 Credibility Reports.

Federations’ Queries and Errors in COLLECT

Please do not enter any notes in response to queries/errors raised in COLLECT until EDIT has contacted you advising that your return has been processed (it could take a couple of weeks for your files to be processed).

Any errors/queries are initially generated against your single file and therefore you need to wait until separate files have been created and processed (any queries will then be relevant to your individual schools’ returns).

If you are the lead school in the Federation and have any queries in this regard, please email census@devon.gov.uk and a member of the Education Information Team will contact you.

Before beginning the School Workforce Census please ensure that all current staff are recorded in Bromcom and that the information is up to date and accurate.  We advise you to complete a dry-run as soon as possible to check your current data.
Please check that:

• new staff have been added.  If they should not be included in the census, e.g. Extended Schools staff with no other contracts please ensure the ‘Do not include in Census’ box is ticked (in the Staff Profile click on the pencil icon to the right of the Staff Name to Edit Staff Details.  In the Employee Details tab tick the ‘Do not include in Census’ box).
• leavers have been recorded (if they left before the date range of the workforce census they will automatically be excluded from the return)
• all teachers, school business professionals, non-teacher school leaders, teaching assistants and other support staff employed for 28 days or more on census day have a contract/service agreement record against their Bromcom record (Staff|Staff Profile|Contracts panel)
• any unwanted staff records (e.g. staff only working in extended schools’ provision, staff who left the school some years ago) have been amended so that the ‘Do not include in Census’ box is ticked
• check the pay scale and salary amounts to ensure they are correct (via Base Pay Structure, see next section for more information)

Please note;

• A full list of staff who should be included in the School Workforce Census is available in Annex 1 Inclusion Guide.
• A full list of the information collected in the School Workforce Census is available in Annex 2 Data Requirements.

If this is the first time that you are running a School Workforce Census, please email census@devon.gov.uk and a member of the Education Information Team will contact you to provide guidance and support.

In Bromcom select Modules | Census | School Workforce.

Please remember that the census holds sensitive data so care must be taken when working on the return and schools must be mindful of their responsibilities with respect to information security.

When running the census for the first time select the New button to create a census file (in future instances you can then Edit the existing file being working on). Please remember that if you make any amendments  to staff records you will need to create a New census file for the changes to be included in your return.

The School Workforce Census screen appears, click Generate to display the following panels;

• Workforce Census Parameters – displaces the key collection dates
• School Detail
• Select Census Items to include – please do not remove any ticks from this panel as all the data needs to be included in the return
• Curriculum Details for Teachers & Teaching Assistants – panel appears for all schools but only needs to be completed for secondary and all-through schools with computerised timetable systems
• Absences
• Teacher Vacancies
• Occasional Teachers on Census Day
• Cover / Agency Staff on Census Day

If you need to make any amendments please click either of the Edit buttons in the School Details panel.  This redirects you to the Administration pages to either the Core Details or Characteristics.  Once all changes have been made click on Save, return to the Workforce Census page and click Refresh in the School Details panel.

This section collects information on the curriculum being delivered during census week (for schools with computerised timetables).  When completing this section, please note;

• Information is required for all teachers (including agency teachers) as well as teaching assistants in regular service where they are timetabled.
• Information is not required for School Business Professionals, Leadership non teacher staff or other support staff such as technicians.
• Each teacher/teaching assistant may have several entries, one for each combination of Subject and Year Group taught by the individual.
• Time allocated to PPA and registration should not be included in the return. The information collected in the Curriculum module will not therefore be a complete reflection of the working week.
• Where computer science is taught it is recorded as such, (code CSI), and not ICT.

When checking this data please note that;

• Hours  is the number of hours in a typical week a person is timetabled to teach or support (for each subject and NCY group) and is recorded to two decimal places, e.g. 3hrs and 30mins would be 3.50.
• Year Group should reflect the NCY group to whom the lesson would normally be taught and not the age of the pupils in class. For example, a group of Year 12 pupils taking an additional GCSE would be NCY 10 or 11 to reflect the content taught and not NCY 12.

Bromcom users:  this information is calculated from the timetable model applied on census day.  Records can be added manually to this list, e.g. some staff may teach outside of the normal timetable, e.g special support units and will not be included here. To permanently delete a manually entered record that is no longer required, highlight the line and then click the Remove button.

Note: detailed guidance on curriculum collection periods, timetables and subject codes can be found in the DfE’s Workforce Census Guide available from the DfE website.  Guidance on timetabling in Bromcom is available via How to Manage Staff Timetabling – Bromcom – Documentation Centre.

This section collects information on each teacher post that is vacant or temporarily filled on the census day (i.e. executive head, head teacher, deputy head, assistant head, classroom teacher, apprentice teacher or leading practitioner post).

A post is considered vacant for the purposes of the School Workforce census if it is:

• not covered, or
• covered temporarily by other staff within the school, or
• covered by a teacher on a contract of less than one term, or
• covered by a teacher on a contract of at least one term and no more than three terms (except if the incumbent is on recognised long term absence such as sick leave, maternity leave, other paid leave, training or secondment)

A vacancy should be included in this section of the census where;

• the teaching post is either permanent or has a contract that lasts for one or more term, and
• the vacancy is one where the applicant is expected to have qualified teacher status (QTS) – or QTLS or EYTS – or to be an Overseas Trained Teacher¹, and
• the school has tried to fill the vacancy but it has not been filled on the census day, or
• an appointment has been made but the appointee was not in post on the census day

¹ Further information on Overseas Trained Teachers is available from the DfE website; https://www.gov.uk/education/qualified-teacher-status-qts

The following vacant posts should be excluded:

• Those not becoming vacant until afte r the census day, e.g. a teacher has resigned but is serving notice

Note: A flow diagram on page 70 of the DfE’s ‘school employed staff guide’ should help schools determine the information they need to provide on vacant (including temporarily filled) teacher posts.  It also helps schools to determine whether the vacancy should be recorded in the Workforce Census.

To add a vacancy, click on the ‘Add’ button.  You can either search for the member of staff who left to use their contract details or complete each field with the appropriate options from the drop down menus.  Click into each field to select the appropriate options from the drop down menus.

Please note;

Main Subject

• For head, deputy head or assistant head vacancies, please leave the main subject as ‘not selected’, this will then populate with the DfE option of ‘not applicable’
• In Primary schools where the post is not for a specific subject, select ‘Primary Curriculum’*
• In Special Schools where the post is not for a specific subject, please leave the main subject as ‘not selected’, but if the post is to deliver the Primary Curriculum select ‘Primary Curriculum’

* Primary schools using Bromcom – if ‘Primary Curriculum’ is not listed as a main subject, the option will need to created.  Please see How to Create and Edit a Subject – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

 Tenure

• Identifies whether the post is full or part-time.

Temporarily Filled;

• Select ‘Yes’ if covered by a teacher on contract of at least one term but no more than three terms (except if the incumbent is on recognised long term absence).

Occasional Teachers Information (Supply Teachers)

This section collects information on the number of occasional (supply) teachers who are in school on census day, grouped by their Qualified Teaching status.   Occasional teachers are teachers who have a contract or service agreement with the school but are not in regular service, i.e.  their contract/service agreement is for less than 28 days (they may just be in school covering a short period including census day).

To input this information, click into the relevant option, enter your figures and then click Save (very top of the census screen).

Please note:

• Qualified Occasional teachers include those with QTS, QTLS or EYTS
• Unqualified Occasional teachers are those without QTS, QTLS or EYTS
• each teacher should be counted as one (1) regardless of whether they are full or part time.
• schools should know the QT Status of occasional teachers. Not known should only be used when the school has been unable to obtain this information.

Third Party Support Staff Headcount (cover/agency staff)

This section records the number of support staff (teaching assistants, non teaching school leaders and other support staff) not employed directly by the school who are in school on census day.
This applies to support staff such as contract cleaners, e.g. Glen Cleaning or Norse, or nurses employed by a PCT.

For the purposes of this return Advisory Teachers from an agency are deemed to be Support Staff so only need be included in this section and only if they are in School on the census day.
Please Note:  Any member of teaching staff (other than an Advisory Teacher) from a third party agency employed in regular service (including peripatetic music teachers employed from Music Devon) must be included with a contract or a Service Level Agreement.

To enter Third Party Support Staff information, click the Add button in the Cover/Agency Staff on Census Day section.  Select the relevant role and enter the number of staff, then click Save. 

Third Party Support Staff Headcount (cover/agency staff)

This section records the number of support staff (teaching assistants, non teaching school leaders and other support staff) not employed directly by the school who are in school on census day.
This applies to support staff such as contract cleaners, e.g. Glen Cleaning or Norse, or nurses employed by a PCT.

For the purposes of this return Advisory Teachers from an agency are deemed to be Support Staff so only need be included in this section and only if they are in School on the census day.
Please Note:  Any member of teaching staff (other than an Advisory Teacher) from a third party agency employed in regular service (including peripatetic music teachers employed from Music Devon) must be included with a contract or a Service Level Agreement.

To enter Third Party Support Staff information, click the Add button in the Cover/Agency Staff on Census Day section.  Select the relevant role and enter the number of staff, then click Save. 

Once you have completed your census click Save & Validate.  This saves the census file and runs the validation process which will identify any errors or queries with the return.

This validation process may take a while so please bear with it and wait for the process to complete.

Once it has run it will take you to the School Workforce Census main page which lists the returns that you have worked on.  At the top of the screen the following options are available;

• View Summary – This generates the summary report for the Return. We recommend you print this off and use it as a starting point to check your data.
• View Errors – This shows you any errors or queries that the validation process has found.
• View File – This gives you the option to view and save the Census XML file. You will not need to do this until you are ready to upload your file to COLLECT.

Once the save and validate process is complete, in the school workforce census main page click the View Errors option at the top of the screen.  A list of errors and queries will appear which you can export via the ‘grid actions’ options to an excel spreadsheet if you find this easier to work through.

Error messages must be corrected and cleared whilst queries are acceptable as long as the data is true.  If you click on the magnifying glass icon to the left of the error/query detail a new window appears with the details to be amended to clear the error.

Please note:

• When working through the errors / queries there is no refresh option to update the census that you are running. For the resolved errors/queries to be removed from the list you will need to generate a new census and remember to save & validate to clear/update the errors/queries.
• To help you manage the errors/queries you can mark them as resolved once you’ve dealt with them. To do this click on the ‘x’ icon to the right of the error, this changes to a tick icon which means that its now resolved. The row will also change colour to green. If you need to change a resolved query back to unresolved simply deselect the tick icon (the row returns to an amber colour).

Bromcom advise that individual errors/queries can be searched in their Help Centre for more specific guidance.

Once you have worked through all your errors/queries you need to generate a new census and click Save & Validate.

Note:  Term on Term queries are only generated in COLLECT (via DfE Sign-In), they do not appear in Bromcom.  It is therefore vital that you check for additional queries in COLLECT

Solutions to the common errors and queries listed in the table below can be found in Annex 6. 

Once you have cleared your errors and checked your queries you should print the Summary and Detailed Reports to check that the information is correct.  Please remember only eligible staff will be listed in the reports (those where the ‘do not include in Census’ box has been ticked will not be included).

School Workforce Census Summary report – this report provides summary tables of all the information in your return. To run this report click on the School Workforce Census page, click on the appropriate return and click on ‘View Summary’.

• Summary Report – this provides a summary of the staff records in the census and includes number of staff contracts and missing staff details, e.g. numbers missing QTS indicator, NI number, etc. It enables school staff to check the accuracy and completeness of the return before passing it on to the Head Teacher for their review.

Please check table A Staff Records and Contracts as the last column indicates whether you have any members of staff without a contract/service agreement in the census.  If you do, please check the Staff Contract Details report to identify member of staff who does not have a contract.

Census Detailed reports – a range of detailed reports are available in Bromcom and can be accessed via Report > Census > School Workforce.  Some of the reports are listed below.

• Staff Details: lists all staff included in the School Workforce Census,.   Shows: NI number, sex, date of birth, ethnicity, disability, QTS, QTLS, EYTS, NQTS (newly qualified teacher status, HLTA and QTS Route.
• Staff Contract Details: lists contracts of all staff in regular service employed during the previous academic year and up to the census day.   Illustrates contract type, start and end dates, post, latest pay review date, hours per week, FTE hours, weeks per year and role.
• Staff Curriculum Allocation (Secondary Schools only): lists Teachers and Teaching Assistants in regular service on the census day and illustrates subject, hours taught, and year group taught.
• Staff Qualification Details: lists all staff in regular service on census day along with any qualification information and illustrates Qualification, Class of Degree, first subject and second subject (if applicable).
• Staff Absence Details: lists staff with absences (other than training) during the previous academic year, illustrating first and last day of absence, absence category and working days lost.  Note; whilst DfE only require working days lost for sickness and pregnancy related absences , if recorded days lost for other absences they will also be collected in the return.

Bromcom users: please note there are no workforce census reports that illustrate workforce members payment details nor allowances details.  To view this information schools need to create their own quick reports.

Once all errors have been resolved, queries checked (and resolved if applicable) and you are satisfied that all the information is correct (after checking your reports), re-run the census (creating a new census and remember to save & validate). In the School Workforce Census page;

• click on the relevant return and click Authorise. This converts your file into an XML format for you to upload to COLLECT. A date also appears in the ‘Date Authorised’ column. You can have more than one authorised file, each is date stamped to help you identify which file you wish to submit.
• click on the relevant authorised return and click View File.  This will export a copy of the file to the downloads folder of your computer, ready to be uploaded to COLLECT.

The headteacher is responsible for reviewing and authorising the census data before it is submitted to the LA and DfE. Please ensure you run through the census reports with your headteacher, as authorisation by the headteacher confirms that the data submitted is accurate and correct.

Note: Once the census has been authorised it cannot be amended. Should you need to make any amendments you will need to create a new census using the buttons in the School Workforce Census main screen (click on New and then Generate, once you’ve worked on the census panels click on Save & Validate). If you amend any information held in a member of staff’s record, e.g. qualifications, absences, you will need to create a new census to bring through the changes that you have made.

All schools must upload and submit their authorised census return direct via COLLECT, available via the DfE Sign In portal https://services.signin.education.gov.uk/.

Once you have logged in to the DfE Sign In web portal select COLLECT from your available applications.  Click Continue to proceed into COLLECT.  Select the appropriate data collection i.e. School Workforce Census 2025 by clicking on the data collection to highlight it and then click Select Data Collection.

The following screen appears where you need to Upload your Return and then Submit the Return;

Please Note:

• the file name should be in the following format: 878nnnn_SWF-878LL25-aaa.XML where nnnn is your DfE Establishment Code and aaa is the file number
• once you have Uploaded your Return you must then click the Submit Return to enable the Department for Education and Local Authority to access the file.

The Status of your Data Return should then indicate “Submitted” and there should be a Date Submitted in ‘What is Happening to My Data Return?  Once you have Submitted your return you should Open your return to check for Errors and queries.

Once you have uploaded your file into COLLECT you can then check immediately for any queries that might have been generated (unless you are part of a federation that uploaded one file – see separate guidance) and enter explanatory and/or confirmation notes (there is no longer any need to wait 24 hours before checking).

It is advisable to check your file for any queries as some queries are only generated in COLLECT (they do not appear in Bromcom), e.g. Year on Year queries.  To assist you, a list of the Department for Education’s acceptable notes for queries commonly generated in COLLECT can be found in Annex 7.

Please Note:  Even though the return might show 0 Errors and 0 Queries on the front screen, please Open the Return to check, as some queries are not visible in the initial screen.

To check your file for queries, click on ‘Open Return’.

Click on the All Errors button to view your errors and/or queries.  Once you have checked all queries and are satisfied that the information is correct add the relevant acceptable note(s) by returning to the School Workforce Census Annual Collection page and clicking on the Return Level Notes pencil icon.

In the Note Page screen click Add New Note.  This will generate a text box where you will be able to enter your note (as indicated below).  Once you have typed your note, click Create and log out of COLLECT and from DfE Sign In.

Contact Details on COLLECT

Details of the user that uploaded the School Workforce return will be displayed in COLLECT, from the second day after the return has been submitted. These details will be used in the administration of COLLECT and to contact users. Users can edit the alternative contact details, but the main contact details will be populated from the DfE Sign-in user details and will not be editable in COLLECT. To change the DfE Sign-in user details, see the DfE Sign-in web page.

Federated Schools: as the Education Information Team (EDIT) will be uploading files into COLLECT for each school in the Federation, the contact details will initially reflect a member of the team.  Someone from your school will then need to make amendments as mentioned in the paragraph above.

To ensure that the data provided in your Workforce Census is correct the Department for Education have produced Credibility Reports in COLLECT.  To assist schools, the Credibility Reports will be included in the Education Information Team’s data checking report that will be sent to all schools.  As schools are responsible for accurate submissions any anomalies identified in the report need to be investigated and resolved.

Once you have checked the Education Information Team’s data checking report and any additional Credibility Reports (as required) and are satisfied that the data is correct please email census@devon.gov.uk confirming that you have checked these reports and that the information in your return is correct.  Please include your DfE number in the subject of the email for identification purposes.
If you amend your data in COLLECT, or upload another return to COLLECT, please email census@devon.gov.uk advising us of your changes so we can check your return (if needed).  Please include your DfE number in the subject of the email for identification purposes.
Please Note:

• whilst the reports will be included in the Education Information Team’s data checking report (to save schools logging into COLLECT and running several reports), the contents of these reports will not be checked on your behalf.
• these reports are updated overnight and should only be run the day after you upload your file.
• Your return will not be authorised until the Education Information Team receive your email confirming that you have checked the data in the report and that you are satisfied that your data is correct.

Schools can run these reports in COLLECT themselves to check their return for completeness and credibility.  Credibility checks covered within the reports include;

• There are no duplicate records (i.e. same staff member/contract appearing more than once in a single return)
• There are no duplications of additional payments
• There is at least one valid contract for each staff member listed
• Each school has at least one qualified teacher contract open on the November census date
• No teachers with multiple open contracts have FTE ratios greater than 1.2
• No teachers have FTE ratios differing substantially from previous year
• All teachers have a teacher reference number and this number is unchanged from previous year
• No teacher has a National Insurance number that differs from previous year
• All teacher have qualifications recorded
• Where Base Pay is provided for full time teachers, it is within the expected range
• More than 90 per cent of the teachers have Qualified Teacher, or Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills or Early Years Teacher Status. (All teachers with qualified teacher status must be recorded as such)
• There is at least one sickness or pregnancy related recorded (a sickness or pregnancy related absence is expected for at least 95 percent of LA schools)
• Schools do not have more than three Vacancies recorded each
• An occasional teacher headcount is attached
• A third party support staff headcount is attached

Federated Schools sending a single return for more than one school
Once you have uploaded your return to COLLECT the Education Information Team (EDIT) will email the Return Credibility Check report to you for your attention;

• If there are numerous amendments required then you will need to make the changes in sims and upload another file to COLLECT, EDIT will not work on creating separate files until an updated single file has been received
• If there are only a few amendments required then you can email census@devon.gov.uk with the necessary changes and authorise us to update your file in COLLECT for you

Do not add notes to any queries in COLLECT at this time.  EDIT will advise when you need to do this, after they have processed your spreadsheet.

For technical problems contact the ScoMIS Helpdesk on 01392 385300 if you have a Service Level Agreement with them, otherwise contact your service provider.

For data queries or guidance on contracts to be excluded:  If you are a Devon LA Maintained School e-mail census@devon.gov.uk and a member of the Education Information Team will be in touch.  If you are an Academy please contact the DfE.

Workforce Census checklist to help you complete your return correctly is available on our website School Census and School Workforce Census – Support for schools and settings (devon.gov.uk)

Federated schools have an additional checklist providing guidance on the process to be followed, also available via the above website.

Department for Education Workforce Census guide can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workforce-census

Bromcom users: a ‘School Workforce Census Guide’ provides information on all data collected in the census and this is available on the SCOMIS workforce census webpage

Useful Links:

DfE School Teacher Pay and Conditions:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-pay-and-conditions

DfE School Workforce census 2025: notepad entries for COLLECT queries:

School workforce minimum notepad entries: guide

If the column “On SWC” is set to;

Yes, full details of the member of staff should be recorded in Personnel 7.
Yes – Headcount, entered manually in the Third Party Staff Headcount if in school on census day.  (bromcom users: this is the Cover / Agency Staff on Census Day panel)
Yes – Occasional Service, needs to be entered manually in the Occasional Teachers Information if in school on census day

A flow diagram to help schools decide which staff to include in the census is available on page 16 of the DfE’s School workforce guide 2025.

Note: Zero-hour staff contracts

The Department for Education have advised that schools should not include staff contracts showing zero hours per week.  This could include any staff employed on flexible zero hours arrangements where the hours worked cannot be determined.

Hours for staff on zero hours contracts should reflect the hours they work in a typical week and base pay should be calculated in line with those hours.  If it is not possible to determine the hours worked in a typical week then

• where this applies to a teacher and they are in school on census day they should be included in the Occasional Teacher headcount.
• if the staff are not present on census day then they should be omitted from the census return.

Below is a list of all the data fields required for the School Workforce Census.  So far as is possible they are in the order in which they appear in the Staff Record in Bromcom.  The columns on the right indicate which categories of staff the data is required for:

¹ These fields are not required if Daily Rate is provided (daily rate only applies to Agency Teachers)

Bromcom users – useful links;

How to locate items in the Staff Profile – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

How To Add Staff Contract information – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

How to Create/Edit and Update Base Pay Structures – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

How to Manage Additional Allowances – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

How to Manage Staff Qualifications – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

How to add NASENCO Qualification for SENCO Staff – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) mandate certain safeguards regarding the use of personal data by organisations, including the department, local authorities and schools. Both give rights to those about whom data is processed (known as data subjects),  such as pupils, parents and teachers. These rights include (amongst other information that the department is obliged to provide) the right to know:

• the types of data being held
• why it is being held
• to whom it may be communicated

The sections below provide additional information on two aspects of data protection legislation – namely privacy notices and data security. However, as data processors and controllers in their own right, it is important that schools process all data (not just that collected for the purposes of the school census) in accordance with the full requirements of the UK GDPR. Further information on the UK GDPR can be found in the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) UK GDPR guidance and resources | ICO

Legal duties under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018: privacy notices

Being transparent and providing accessible information to individuals about how you will process their personal data is a key element of both the UK GDPR and the DPA 2018. The most common way to provide such information is through a privacy notice. Please see the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website for further guidance on privacy notices.

The Department for Education provides suggested wording for privacy notices that schools and local authorities may wish to use. However, where the suggested wording is used, the school must review and amend the wording to reflect local business needs and circumstances. This is especially important, as the school will process data that is not solely for use within census data collections.

It is recommended that the privacy notice is included as part of an induction pack for pupils and staff, is made available on the school website for parents and features on the staff notice board / intranet. Privacy notices do not need to be issued on an annual basis, where:

• new pupils and staff are made aware of the notices
• the notices have not been amended
• they are readily available in electronic or paper format

However, it remains best practice to remind parents of the school’s privacy notices at the start of each term (within any other announcements / correspondence to parents), and it is important that any changes made to the way the school processes personal data are highlighted to data subjects.
 
Legal duties under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018: data security

Schools and local authorities have a (legal) duty under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 to ensure that any personal data they process is handled and stored securely. Further information on data security is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Where personal data is not properly safeguarded, it could compromise the safety of individuals and damage your school’s reputation. Your responsibility as a data controller extends to those who have access to your data beyond your organisation where they are working on your behalf; for example, where external IT suppliers can remotely access your information.

It is vital that all staff with access to personal data understand the importance of:

• protecting personal data
• being familiar with your security policy
• putting security procedures into practice

As such, you should provide appropriate initial and refresher training for your staff.

Information Commissioners Office and Department for Education websites:

Qualifications – (teachers, teaching assistants and non-teaching school leaders)

Information is required on the type and subject of certain qualifications held by all teachers, teaching assistants, school business professionals and non-teaching school leaders in regular service.  Qualification information is not required for ‘Other Support Staff’ but may be returned if present.

For teachers, the following qualifications of level 4 and higher are required:

• their initial teacher training qualification e.g. PGCE, BEd, Certificate in Education
• for those with QTS (or QTLS or EYTS): level 4 and above qualifications gained prior to teacher qualification
• for those without QTS, QTLS, EYTS or those trained overseas, all level 4 and above qualifications relevant to their engagement as a teacher
• any subsequent qualifications gained relevant to their job as a teacher

For leadership – non teacher and School Business Professional posts, all relevant qualifications above level 4 must be reported. Examples include diplomas in School Business Management, Certificates in Human Resources for School Business Professionals, degrees in financial, business or HR related subjects.

For School Business Professionals (SBP), certain level 3 qualifications are requested. Specific list of qualifications has been added, for SBPs has been added, please see the Subject Codes section below for more information. Schools are asked to take care to record these qualifications correctly. A validation rule (6570Q) checks that qualifications have been added for SBPs.

Qualifications at Level 4 and above

Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are grouped into levels from entry level to level 8.  The following qualifications which are graded at level 4 or above (i.e. those higher than A level) should be included will be required:

• Post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE)
• BEd or other ordinary degree combined with teacher qualifications
• Certificate in Education or equivalent
• Doctorate, e.g. PhD or DPhil
• Master’s Degree, e.g. MA, MSc, MEng, MEd
• Postgraduate certificates and diplomas
• Other first degree (i.e. degrees other than a BEd or other first degree combined with teacher qualifications) for example degree with honours – bachelor of the arts (BA) hons, bachelor of science (BSc) hons, or ordinary degrees without honours
• Degree apprenticeship
• Graduate certificates and diplomas
• Diplomas of higher education (DipHE)
• Foundation degrees
• Higher national diplomas (HND)
• Certificates of higher education (CertHE)
• Higher Apprenticeship
• Higher National Certificate (HNC)
• Awards, Certificates, Diplomas or NVQs at level 4 or above

Department for Education Requirements re: Teacher Qualifications

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) holds information about the first degree and initial teacher training qualification of some teachers and will share this information with the DfE.  However, the agency does not hold information on any additional qualifications gained nor on the qualifications of those teachers who qualified some time ago.  To gain a complete picture of the qualifications held by teachers, the DfE requires the gaps to be filled in the TRA’s data.  Schools will need to do one of the following:

• Either check the qualifications held by the TRA for their qualified teachers, instructors and overseas trained teachers via their web based service, and provide, in the workforce census,  any qualifications not held by the TRA. Instructions on how to use the website and how to register for the service are available from https://teacherservices.education.gov.uk/. Please contact the TRA in good time as it may take several working days to register for the service;

• Or gather and record all the qualifications information on all your teachers and submit it to the department.

For teachers, information on the following qualifications does not need to be provided as the department will obtain it directly from the TRA:  National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and Certificate/Diploma for School Business Management (CSBM/DSBM).

Workforce Census – Qualification Code

This indicates the type of qualification awarded.  All relevant qualifications grouped at level 4 or above (i.e. those higher than ‘A’ level) should be included (with level 3 qualifications for SBPs).  The full set is listed in the table below.

Workforce Census – Subject Codes

As each qualification must have either one or two subject specialisms associated with it, there are two available fields for Subject Codes.  If you cannot find an exact match from the list of codes, please use a code from Z101 to Z107 if they’re a close match, these represent subject areas commonly taught in schools.  If you cannot find an appropriate Z code then leave the subject code blank, your census may generate a query which will require an explanatory note in COLLECT.

Subject codes – Special Educational Needs Staff

Staff who have qualifications relevant to teaching SEN pupils will be able to use a set of five SEN qualification subject codes.  SENCOs (which every mainstream school should have) must, unless they have previously been a SENCO for more than a year as of 1 September 2009 – achieve either a

• ‘National Award in Special Educational Needs Co-ordination’ or
• ‘National Professional Qualification for Special Needs Co-ordinators’

within three years of their appointment (see the SEND Code of Practice and the SENCO regulations). This should be recorded in the census using the code ‘Z201 – SEN – SENCO’.

The SEN qualification areas are Z201 – SEN – SENCO; Z202 – SEN – Sensory impairments; Z203 – SEN – Severe Learning Difficulties; Z204 – SEN – Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties; Z205 – SEN – other.
Note:  The SENCO qualification must be recorded where present for any SENCOs.

Bromcom users: To add a relevant qualification for SENCO

• open the member of staff’s record via Staff > Staff Profile and click on Qualifications
• in the Qualifications Panel click on the + icon in the top right corner
• in the ‘Add/Edit Qualification’ screen, in the Subject Area field select ‘Non-Standard Codes’ then in the Main Subject field select the appropriate SENCO qualification from the drop down menu. Click Save once completed.

Note: if the SENCO qualification is the second subject, e.g. member of staff has a degree in Mathematics as their Main Subject, the Main Subject* would be Mathematics, the second Subject Area field would be ‘Non-Standard Codes’ and the 2^nd Joint Subject would be SENCO.  Alternatively separate qualification records can be added against the member of staff.

Detailed information for Bromcom users is available via: How to add NASENCO Qualification for SENCO Staff – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

Subject Codes – School Business Professionals

Staff who have gained a School Business Professional qualification should use one of the codes listed below:

• Z206 – Level 3 School Administration Foundation Certificate
• Z207 – Level 3 Procurement & Supply Assistant
• Z208 – Level 4 SBP Apprenticeship
• Z209 – Level 4 Diploma School Business Management (SBM)
• Z210 – Level 4 Commercial procurement & supply
• Z211 – Level 4 CIPFA Certificate in Public Sector Asset Management for School Business
• Z212 – Level 5 Diploma SBM
• Z213 – Level 6 Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship
• Z214 – Level 7 CIPFA Diploma in School Financial and Operational Leadership
• Z215 – Level 7 Senior Leaders Masters Degree Apprenticeship.

Some qualifications have been renamed and should be recorded under their current name. These include:

• Staff holding the Level 4 Certificate School Business Management (SBM), should be recorded as holding the Level 4 Diploma School Business Management (SBM)
• Staff holding the Level 6 Advanced School Business Management, should be recorded as holding the Level 6 Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship.

For more information about the JACS code set visit the HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) website.

Workforce Census – Class of Degree  

This must be provided for all teachers whose “date of arrival in school” is on or after 01/08/13.  It is only mandatory where for Bachelor of Education (BEDO) or First Degree or Equivalent (FRST), see above table for details.

Some information collected in the Workforce Census is held in the Configuration | Administration settings within Bromcom.  The Base Pay Structure holds information on pay scales and spinal points and informs some of the data held in staff contracts so its important that this information is accurate.

The Base Pay Structure panel holds the following;

• Code – this could be NJC or MPS, for example
• Description – this is the name of your Base Pay Structure
• Base Payment Category – this is the pay scale/range and is a pre-defined dropdown that you can choose the DfE Payscale Name that corresponds to your Base Pay Structure, e.g. National Joint Council (Local Government Scheme), Teachers Main, Teachers Upper
• Hours Worked/Week – This is the maximum number of hours worked per week and will be used in the Pro-rata calculation.
• Weeks Worked/Year – This is the maximum number of weeks worked per year and will be used in the Pro-rata calculation
• Financial Group – Ensure the correct financial group is assigned as this is crucial for maintaining accurate payroll and budget tracking
• Active – enables the Base Pay Structure so that it is available to select in the Contract area of Staff Profiles

Further information on each of the above items is available via How to Create/Edit and Update Base Pay Structures – Bromcom – Documentation Centre

Guidance on clearing errors linked to these data items, e.g. pay ranges can be found in Annex 6 solutions to common errors and queries

Leadership Minimum and Maximum Pay – Base Pay Structure 

This is collected for Executive Headteachers, Headteachers, Deputy Heads and Assistant Heads.  The information is automatically brought into the Workforce Census as it is stored against the Leadership base pay category and spinal points.

To view the minimum and maximum pay in the pay range;

• open the Leadership Base Pay Structure
• in the Spine Points panel scroll to the relevant minimum and maximum points to check the amount.
• changes to the amounts can be made by overtyping the figures and then saving the base pay structure.

This section provides solutions to common errors and queries that have been generated in the School Workforce Census in previous years.  If your census has generated any of the following errors, then please follow the guidance provided.

If you encounter any errors or queries that you are unable to resolve please send an e-mail to census@devon.gov.uk and a member of the Education Information Team will contact you.

4228 Qualified Status is missing for a teacher

Where this is being generated against

• support staff, along with error 4410 (Post is missing), it is likely being generated in error due to an incorrect SWC post. Historically the SWC post for support staff was ‘Support Staff’ but this has been replaced by ‘Other Support Staff’.  To resolve these errors we need to open the member of staff’s contract and in the contract information tab change the post (SWF) field to ‘Other Support Staff’
• a teacher then it’s likely that the Qualified Teacher Status has not been completed against the member of staff’s record.  Bromcom users: the ‘Teacher Status’ field is held in Staff Details | Background Check | Qualifications Check | Professional Details.
• the query will disappear when you next Generate a new census (from the School Workforce Census main page) and Save & Validate your return.

4376 service agreements and temporary contracts that have lasted less than 28 days will be picked up in the next year’s census if they go on to last 28 days or more, do not include them now.

This error is generated when the contract type is not permanent, and the contract start date is less than 27 days before the census date (06/11/25).  The error message explains that if the contract starts less than 27 days before the census day and lasts longer than 28 days then it will be picked up in next year’s census.

For example, a contract starts on 23/10/25 which is less than 27 days before 06/11/25.  It should not be included in this return as it will be included in next year’s census which will collect contracts starting between 01/09/24 and 06/11/25.

Therefore, if the ‘contract type’ and ‘start date’ are correct in your census, the contract should be removed from this year’s return as follows;

• If this is the only contract held by the member of staff and there is no historic information collected for earlier contracts or absence records, then the person can be excluded from the Workforce Census (tick the ‘do not include in Census’ box against the member of staff’s record in Bromcom – Staff Details | Employee Details). Please see section ‘How to Exclude Staff from the Census’.

• If the member of staff holds other open contracts and/or has historic data such as absences or contracts that ended in the last year then;

• • Do not tick the ‘do not include in Census’ box against the member of staff’s record in Bromcom (Staff Details | Staff Profile | Employee Details),
  • Tick the ‘do not include in Census’ box held against the member of staff’s contract in Bromcom (Staff Details | Contracts | Contract Information)
• The query will disappear when you next Generate a new census (from the School Workforce Census main page) and Save & Validate your return.

4410 Post is missing

This is generated where a contract does not have a valid post against it, e.g. post is Support Staff which is invalid and should be replaced with Other Support Staff.  To resolve this error, we need to open the member of staff’s contract and in the contract information tab change the Post (SWF) filed to ‘Other Support Staff’.

Note: the query will disappear when you next Generate a new census (from the School Workforce Census main page) and Save & Validate your return.

4470Q Qualified Status inconsistent with Pay Range type

If this is being generated against a Qualified Teacher, then it’s likely that the QTS flag has not been completed against the member of staff’s record. Bromcom users: the ‘Teacher Status’ field is held in Staff Details | Background Check | Qualifications Check | Professional Details.

If the ‘Teacher Status’ field has been completed then the Base Pay needs to be checked;

Go to the staff record and click on the Contracts tab. If the Contracts panel is set to ‘contracts – current’ you may need to change this to ‘contracts – all’ to see a full list of contracts (need to focus on those that were active during the census period).

Open the contract, in the Pay tab the ‘Base Pay ‘and ‘Spine Point’ fields should be completed. If they are completed you need to check that the spine points have a monetary value recorded against them in the Base Pay Structure;

• Identify the member of staff’s base pay structure and spinal point via their contract.
• Go to Configuration | Administration | Base Pay Structure and double click or Edit the relevant base pay structure for the member of staff.
• Once the Base Pay Structure is open go to the Spine Points section at the bottom right of the screen.
• Scroll to the relevant spine point, enter an amount and then click Save. There is now a Base Pay value against the member of staff’s pay scale and point.
• the query will disappear when you next Generate a new census (from the School Workforce Census main page) and Save & Validate your return

4516 Teacher should have had a pay review since beginning of previous academic year

This is being generated because a pay review date has either not been entered against the member of staff’s record or the pay review date is before 1^st Sept 2024 as the expectation is that pay reviews occur on an annual basis.

If this is correct, please add the appropriate note in COLLECT as indicated in Annex 7 Acceptable Notes in COLLECT.

If, however the member of staff has had a pay review since 1^st September 2024, a pay review date needs to be entered against their contract in Bromcom.  In the member of staff’s record open the relevant contract (highlight the contract and double click).  In the Contract Information, enter the review date in the “Date of Last Pay Review” field (to the right) and click Save.

Please Note:  The ‘Date of the last pay review’ is the date of the most recent determination of a teacher’s pay.  This would either be the date of the regular annual review, or a more recent review for other reasons (e.g. when teachers take up a new post), even if the review did not result, or could not have resulted, in a change to the teacher’s pay.

The date supplied should be the date of the pay determination.  For example, if the 2025 pay determinations were agreed on 15 Oct 2025 backdated to the 1 Sept 2025 and put into payment on 30 Oct then the 15 Oct 2025 should be recorded.  If the 2025 pay determination has not yet been recorded and the 2024 pay determination salaries are to be reported in the 2025 School Workforce Census then that date should be recorded in the field.

Note: in order for the resolved error/query to be removed from the list of errors/queries you need to generate a new Census return and remember to save & validate for the errors/queries to update/clear.

4540 If staff member is not paid by a Daily Rate, Base Pay must be provided

This error is generated when there is no Base Pay amount recorded in the census and is likely to be caused by a missing pay figure in the member of staff’s pay scale held in the Base Pay Structure.

To resolve this in Bromcom check the member of staff’s Pay in their Contract, the Base Pay and Spine Points fields should be completed.  If they are completed then we need to check the Base Pay Structure;

• Identify the member of staff’s base pay structure and spinal point by opening their contract in Bromcom.
• Go to Configuration | Administration | Base Pay Structure and double click or Edit the relevant base pay structure for the member of staff.
• Once the Base Pay Structure is open go to the Spine Points section at the bottom right of the screen.
• Scroll to the relevant spine point, enter an amount and then click Save.  There is now a Base Pay value against the member of staff’s pay scale and point.
• the query will disappear when you next Generate a new census (from the School Workforce Census main page) and Save & Validate your return.

4723Q Role identifier appears to be inconsistent with Post

This query has been generated because a member of staff has a contract where the role does not match the SWC post, some examples of posts and associated roles are listed below;

To resolve this, the SWC Post or Role needs to be amended.  In Bromcom the SWC Post is held in the ‘Post (SWF) ‘ field in the Contract Information tab whilst the role is held in the Role tab.  When making amendments please ensure that the start dates are relevant for the census period.

4725Q Role of TASS (Teaching Assistant) or HLTA (Higher Level Teaching Assistant) should be linked to the post of TAS (Teaching Assistant)

This query has been generated because a member of staff has a contract with a role of ‘Teaching Assistant’ but the SWC post is not set as ‘Teaching Assistant’.

If the member of staff is a teaching assistant then we need to amend the SWC post to reflect Teaching Assistant. In Bromcom open the member of staff’s contract and in the contract information tab change the ‘Post (SWF)’ field to Teaching Assistant and Save.

If the member of staff is not a teaching assistant then we need to amend the role.  In Bromcom open the member of staff’s contract and in the role tab select the appropriate role, check the dates correspond for the census period and Save.

Note: the query will disappear when you next Generate a new census (from the School Workforce Census main page) and Save & Validate your return.

4745Q Member of staff is working more than 48 hours a week – link to 6530Q

This query has been generated because the total number of hours per week for a member of staff across all their contracts is greater than 48 hours.  If this is correct then an explanatory note needs to be added in COLLECT.

However, if the member of staff is working less than 48hrs a week this query could be generated if the individual has any suspended contracts. If there are suspended contracts you need to add an end date to the suspended contract to reflect that it is closed whilst the other is open.  If this causes issues with your finance systems then do not make any changes in Bromcom and;

• email census@devon.gov.uk advising that certain contract information needs to be amended
• in your email include the member of staff’s name and the post/role of the contract that is suspended, along with contract start date and hours per week, plus the date that the contract was suspended
• make a manual note of the change on your detail report(s)
• The suspended contract will be amended in your Workforce Census file in COLLECT to reflect that it is temporarily closed which will then clear the query.

If there are no suspended contracts, check the hours for each open contract to ensure that they are correct.

If the member of staff is ‘acting up’ in the school, e.g. Deputy Head acting up as Head, then please see section on Persons who are Acting Up.

4935Q Last Day of absence missing for a non-maternity absence, please confirm if absence is ongoing

This query has been generated because there is no end date against an absence record.   Click on the error magnifying glass icon (to the right of the error) to open the member of staff’s record in Bromcom.  Check the absence details in Absence & Leave Requests and add an end date if appropriate.  If there is no end date, as the member of staff is on long term sickness and still absent on census day, a note needs to be added against the Census in COLLECT confirming that ‘the absence is ongoing’.

4960Q More than one absence record with absence category of sickness or pregnancy related absence covering same date(s)

This query has been generated because a member of staff has more than one sickness absence record and the start and end dates overlap.  For example, a member of staff has the following absence records in Bromcom.

There are two possible reasons for the above dates;

• The member of staff was due to return on 16/05/25 but remained off sick for a further two days – in this case there should be one absence record for the duration of the absence
• The date entered for the ‘end date’ was the date the member of staff returned to work (not the last day the staff was absent) – in this case the ‘end date’ needs to be amended to reflect that the last day of absence was actually 15/05/25.

6500 There is more than one record with the same Teacher Number

To resolve this error we need to identify if the number has been recorded against different members of staff or only one member of staff who has two records in Bromcom.

Run the Staff Details Report and export as an Excel spreadsheet (Bromcom users: Reports | Census | Workforce Census | Staff Details). You can then sort/filter the staff list by the teacher number to identify the two instances of the same number.

If the same Teacher Number has been recorded against two different members of staff, please check their records and amend the incorrect Teacher Number.

If, however the Teacher Number is allocated against the same member of staff, this error has been generated because there is more than one record for the member of staff in Bromcom Sims.  You then need to identify which record does not need to be included in the Workforce Census and exclude it from the Census (as detailed earlier in ‘How to Exclude Staff from the Census’).  You also need to consider whether any information needs to be transferred to the record that is to be included in the census, e.g. contracts, absences, qualifications.

6510 There is more than one record with the same NI Number

As this error is similar to error 6500 where there was more than one record with the Teacher Number, please see error 6500 for the resolution.

6530Q Same person has total FTE ratio greater than 1.5 – link to 4745Q

This query has been generated because the total FTE (Full Time Equivalent) for a member of staff across all their contracts is greater than 1.5.  If this is correct, then an explanatory note needs to be added in COLLECT.

However, if the member of staff’s Full Time Equivalent is less than 1.5 this query could be generated if the member of staff has any suspended contracts.  If there are suspended contracts you need to add an end date to the suspended contract to reflect that it is closed whilst the other is open.  If this causes issues with your finance systems then do not make any changes in Bromcom and;

• email census@devon.gov.uk advising that certain contract information needs to be amended
• in your email include the member of staff’s name and the post/role of the contract that is suspended, along with contract start date and hours per week, plus the date that the contract was suspended
• make a manual note of the change on your detail report(s)
• The suspended contract will be amended in your Workforce Census file in COLLECT to reflect that it is temporarily closed which will then clear the query.

If there are no suspended contracts, check the Full Time Equivalent value held in each contract to ensure that they are correct.

If the member of staff is ‘acting up’ in the school, e.g. Deputy Head acting up as Head, then please see section on ‘Persons who are Acting Up’.

Note: contracts with an end date equal to, or later than 6th Nov 2025 are regarded as open.

6550Q At least one staff record should show a role of SEN Co-Ordinator

The Department for Education have advised that under section 67 of the Children and Families Act 2014, all mainstream schools are expected to have a SEN co-ordinator and this must be reflected in the return.  Please see ‘SEN Co-ordinator Role’ section for further information.

School Workforce Census validation queries and acceptable notes  – For full list please see: DfE Acceptable notepad entries for queries in COLLECT.
At the time of publication, these are the acceptable notes available.  Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries.

COLLECT Return Level Queries

COLLECT Year on Year Queries

If you encounter any errors and/or queries that you are unable to resolve please send an e-mail to census@devon.gov.uk and a member of the Education Information Team will contact you.

To ensure that the data provided in your Workforce Census is correct the Department for Education have produced Credibility Reports in COLLECT.  To assist schools, these reports will be included in the Education Information Team’s data checking report which will be emailed to your school.  As schools are responsible for accurate submissions any anomalies identified need to be investigated and resolved.
The full set of reports are available to run direct from COLLECT should schools wish to do so;

• Return Credibility Check – provides an overview of items that need to be checked to ensure the information is correct in the census (overnight report)
• Missing Contracts – identifies any staff members who do not have a contract or service agreement against their personal record but have been included in the census (‘eligible for SWC’ ticked in Sims). (overnight report)
• Credibility Check Staff Names – lists all members of staff that have failed a check in the Return Credibility Check report and indicates which check(s) they failed.
• Missing Payment Details for Contracts – identifies any staff member who do not have any payment details recorded against their contracts. (overnight report)
• Teacher Data Consistency – identifies any inconsistencies with NI numbers, Teacher numbers, QT status and FTE ratios in relation to data submitted in the previous workforce census return. (overnight report)
• Teacher Missing Qualifications – lists teachers who do not have any qualification records in the census return. (overnight report)
• Teacher Pay Outside Range – identifies teachers whose base pay is outside of the expected range for their grade
• Teachers with Multiple Contracts – identifies teachers with more than one open contract which have a combined FTE value of greater than 1.2. (overnight report)

These reports update overnight so if you wish to run them, please run them the day after you submitted, or made amendments to, your census in COLLECT.
Below are some examples of anomalies picked up by the reports and guidance on what action needs to be taken.

Teachers with Teacher Number queries

There is 1 teacher with an open contract where the Teacher Number differs from previously returned – please check and ensure the correct number is submitted with this return

If the teacher number in this current census is incorrect, please email census@devon.gov.uk confirming the correct number and authorising us to amend the census in COLLECT for you.

Teachers with FTE ratio queries

Teachers with an open contract where the calculated FTE ratio differs from previously returned – please check this is correct.  If this is due to member of staff leaving or changes in contracts (e.g. reduced hours) then the information is correct;

Teachers with QTS, QTLS and EYTS queries

The following teacher has a combined QTS, QTLS and EYTS status that differs from previously returned – suggesting they no longer have QTS. Please check this is correct;

If the QT status in this current census is incorrect then please email census@devon.gov.uk confirming the correct number and authorising us to amend the census in COLLECT for you.

Member of Staff with Missing Contracts

The above member of staff’s record has been uploaded in the Workforce Census, but he doesn’t have a contract against him.  Could you please advise whether he/she should be included in the census?
If he/she’s a new member of staff who hadn’t started at the time of the census or is a member of staff who left the school some years ago then he/she shouldn’t be included in the census and his/her record in COLLECT will need to be removed.  Please email census@devon.gov.uk authorising the Education Information Team to remove the member of staff from the Workforce Census in COLLECT.

If however he/she’s a current member of staff a contract will need to be added to his/her record in COLLECT.  Please email census@devon.gov.uk with details of the post the member of staff has at the school, e.g. teacher, mealtime assistant.  You will then receive an email with a list of information that the Education Information Team need to add the contract to the census in COLLECT for you.

Importance of accurately recording disability data 

The DfE advise that in the Nov 24 workforce census disability data was not obtained by schools for 59% of teachers, preventing the reliable reporting of the proportion of disabled staff within the workforce. 

The DfE advise that collecting accurate disability data is crucial as it enables a comprehensive picture of the workforce and its diversity. Through accurate data, the DfE can better understand the impact its policies are having on different groups, identify potential challenges and direct future work.  

Improved reporting on disability will enable the Department, along with Local Authorities, Schools, and Trusts to better support disabled people in the workforce. The Department’s research on disability reporting highlighted a number of barriers, some of which are referenced in the next section below.

It is for Schools and Trusts to decide how best to collect and submit disability information and for staff themselves to decide whether they want to share that they are disabled¹. 

It is important to assure staff that the information they disclose will be handled sensitively and confidentially and used to improve opportunities and outcomes for them. All data collected and processed by your school should be held in accordance with UK GDPR legislation and the Data Protection Act 2018. 

All Local Authorities, Schools and Trusts should aim for complete data² on disability in the workforce. To achieve complete data, employers need to accurately record a ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘prefer not to say’ response from all employees. Where information as to any disability has not yet been collected, this is recorded as ‘NOBT’ (information not yet obtained).  Where an employee declines to provide disability data, code ‘REFU’ (refused) is recorded and returned.  

Where complete data has not been achieved, Local Authorities, Schools and Trusts are encouraged to consider how they can improve reporting for the next return. Guidance on how to improve data collection is available in the ‘Improving disability data reporting rates: overcoming the barriers’ section below. 

¹ The Equality Act 2010 defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect of a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. 

² Complete data refers to having responses that enable understanding of the disability status of members of the workforce (i.e. ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘refused’) 

 Improving disability data reporting rates: overcoming the barriers 

Whilst previous years’ data from the SWC has had good coverage of characteristics such as ethnicity and sex, the same cannot be said for disability data. In the November 2024 SWC, disability data was not obtained by schools for 59% of teachers, preventing the reliable reporting of the proportion of disabled staff within the workforce. 

The Disability data collection in schools (workforce) research report was published on 23 February 2023 and found that schools were more likely to report ‘information not yet obtained’ for disability than other characteristics. 

Several perceived barriers were found to schools collecting complete data³ on disability in the workforce. These included, but were not limited to: 

• a lack of awareness of the need for collecting data on disability; 

• not having an effective process for monitoring and updating the disability status of staff; and 

• concerns about following up with staff to clarify disability status for fear of being, or seeming to be, discriminatory. 

The School Workforce Census guide sets out the importance of accurately reporting disability data. 

The Department for Work and Pensions has published a framework to support employers to collect and report data on disability, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, which may be helpful to Local Authorities, Schools and Trusts in designing an effective process. The Department for Education is actively considering whether additional bespoke resources would further assist Local Authorities, Schools and Trusts in collecting disability data from staff.

³ complete data means that each individual has stated ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘prefer not to say’ when asked if they have a disability.

Further information 

• Find out more about how to make reasonable adjustments for workers with disabilities or health conditions. 

• The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has published guidance on how employers can support disabled people at work. 

• The Disability Confident employer scheme supports employers to make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to the workplace. It provides employers with the knowledge, skills, resources, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace. 

• Disability Confident and CIPD: guide for line managers on employing people with a disability or health condition 

• Guidance on employing disabled people and people with health conditions 

• The DfE has published guidance on the Equality Act 2010 for schools which includes advice on how they can meet their duties under the Act for disabled people and adhere to equality and diversity policies and employment law. 

• Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) | ICO 

• Data Protection Act 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)