Date: 9th September 2026
School Census Bulletin 1 – Autumn 2026
DfE School Census Date: Thurs 1st Oct 2026
Return Deadline Date: Tues 6th Oct 2026
1. Preparing for Census Day
We strongly recommend that schools begin to prepare for the School Census by ensuring that, so far as possible, pupil databases are up-to-date and the relevant systems / accesses are in place.
Schools can do a dry run of their census prior to census day to check their data and identify any errors/queries that need to be resolved. This will not be the file version that’s uploaded to COLLECT, this needs to be run either on census day or within a couple of days afterwards, but it will help you clean your data.
Bromcom users: you can do a dry run as soon as Bromcom have upgraded their software to enable census returns to be run. Please check the Scomis website for regular updates; Autumn School Census 2026 – Bulletin
2. Bromcom users: software readiness
At the time of publishing this bulletin Bromcom advise that the Autumn 2026 Census file is not yet available to run and so incorrect validation errors might appear if generating the census file. Please do not finalise and upload a return until the Autumn 2026 Census file has been applied, please check Scomis and Bromcom school census webpages for latest information.
3. Changes to data items
Free School Meal eligibility – as FSM transitional protections have ended all pupils’ FSM eligibility must be re-checked. Devon County Council will be rechecking all pupils known to be eligible for FSM, with school FSM lists available to download via the provider portal at the start of term.
4. New data items
- Free School Meal last verified date – this date must be recorded in the census, without a valid date, pupils will not be counted as eligible which will result in a loss of funding for schools.
- Free School Meal categories – there will be two categories of Free school meals, targeted FSM and expanded FSM. FSM lists will be available to download via the provider portal at the start of term which will include the claim type (targeted or expanded). For further information please see ‘Free school meal legislation changes’ section of our quick guide.
- Kinship Care indicator – this new indicator records, for those children on roll on autumn census day only, whether they have been identified as living in Kinship Care.
- Managed Moves – for each managed move arranged during the collection period, schools must provide the managed move start date, destination school URN and reason for managed move. As managed moves are permanent transfers these data items will be for pupils no longer on roll only. Please note: DfE advise managed moves are permanent transfers arranged to reduce a pupil’s risk of exclusion and/or following a review of off-site direction.
Please see our advance notice bulletin and quick guide for further information on these new items.
5. BROMCOM users – Refreshing the Student Cache
Please ensure that you refresh the student cache before running your census return – this will ensure that any recently updated data will be pulled through to your census return. This step is included in Scomis’ FAQ BROMCOM – Quick Summary Guide – Pre-checks and Generating School Census.
6. Early Years 2yr olds – hours and basis of funding
We’ve recently identified that some schools incorrectly recorded their 2yr olds as being in receipt of the universal free entitlement (funded hours) due to economic criteria. Our colleagues in EY advised that these children should have been recorded with expanded hours and not funded hours.
It is vital that schools complete the EY portal tasks as indicated below and use the available reports to inform their census returns. If you are unsure which hours a child should be recorded with please contact us via email at census@devon.gov.uk.
Bromcom users: you can check the EY information in the Census Data Check Report for on roll pupils available via the reports button in the school census page.
7. Early Years Portal – deadline to inform reports needed for census
For this Autumn census the early years portal and school census collections are based on different weeks. The early years headcount week is Sun 13th to 19th September (before census).
The EY portal informs the EYPP and EY 2yr old funding reports that you need to complete your census return. New children and parent/carer details need to be submitted by close of Sun 27th Sept to allow time for the information to be processed centrally.
As the collections are based upon different weeks comparisons of hours held in the two collections cannot be made. However, we will check that pupils in the EY portal also exist in the school census return.
8. Department for Education (DfE) Sign-in Portal – COLLECT
We are aware, that some schools, have in the past encountered difficulties with their COLLECT access. We therefore ask that you check your COLLECT access by logging in to the DfE Sign in Portal as soon as possible.
9. Further Guidance
Our School Census Quick Guide, Supporting Guide (indicating census data items in Bromcom) and checklist are available at School Census – Support for schools and settings (devon.gov.uk).
Scomis Autumn Census bulletin has the latest information on Bromcom guides and any known issues.
Bromcom A 2026 School Census home page
Bromcom school census guide is available via Autumn 2026 School Census Guide – Bromcom – Documentation Centre
Bromcom error resolutions for the Autumn 2026 return is available via Autumn 2026 Error Resolutions Guide – Bromcom – Documentation Centre
If you have any queries, or if this is your first census, please email census@devon.gov.uk and someone from the Education Information Team will contact you to provide support and guidance.
Kind regards,
Education Information Team (EdIT)