{"id":3645,"date":"2020-10-20T16:47:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T15:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/supportforschools\/?page_id=3645"},"modified":"2025-11-14T09:25:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T09:25:18","slug":"workforce-census-bulletin-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/administration-and-finance\/administration\/school-census\/workforce-census-bulletin-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Workforce Census – Bulletin 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Education Information Team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email: census@devon.gov.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Date: 21st October 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Colleagues,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DfE School Workforce Census: Thu 6th<\/sup> Nov<\/strong>   Return by: Fri 14th<\/sup> Nov<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statutory School Workforce Census takes place on Thursday 6th<\/sup> November.  We strongly advise schools to do a dry run prior to this date to identify queries with your data.  Devon Guidance notes for LA Schools using SIMS.net are available via: School Census and School Workforce Census \u2013 Support for schools and settings (devon.gov.uk)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New validation rules for 2025<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Disability and Ethnicity information – there are new validation rules to encourage the return of data on disability (4226Q) and ethnicity (4221Q).<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These rules will appear where a member of staff has been employed for more than 3 months and their ethnicity\/disability is still listed as \u2018information not yet obtained\u2019. Staff have an absolute right to not answer this question, in which case the answer should be recorded as \u2018refused\u2019 and no query will be raised.  The DfE advise that the difference between \u2018information not obtained’ and ‘information refused\u2019 is important and so needs to be recorded correctly. Annex 9 of our School Workforce Census guide, Improving disability reporting rates, provides further information.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DfE advise that ethnicity and disability status are requested for all staff. 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 \u2018Information not yet obtained\u2019 and a note \u20184221Q: Question has not been asked\u2019 should be entered. The response of \u2018Refused\u2019 should be used where staff have actively refused, such as by checking that box in a data collection form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For further details on data items please see the DfE Workforce collection guidance available at School workforce census: guides \u2013 GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4562 if staff member not paid by a daily rate, then pay range must be included<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DfE advise for non-teachers, e.g. support staff and school business professionals, this will be \u2018National Joint Council (Local Government Services)\u2019 or \u2018Other\u2019.  For teachers it depends on their post and whether they have crossed the threshold to the upper pay range. The \u2018Leadership Pay Range\u2019 is only for staff in leadership positions (head teachers, executive head teachers, deputy heads and assistant heads) not for classroom teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New Reports query in COLLECT \u2013 Please run the Return Credibility Check to assess the accuracy of your data<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is a new query that will generate in COLLECT when a return is uploaded or amendments are made directly in COLLECT.\u00a0 Please run the report in COLLECT, check the information is correct and then add a confirmation note \u2018Report run, data checked and correct\u2019.\u00a0 This query will not clear once you have run the report, it will clear during the DfE\u2019s data cleaning processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Teacher Pay Ranges<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The DfE have published School Teachers Pay and Conditions for 2025.  As teacher pay generates a large number of queries in the census we recommend schools check their pay ranges in their MI systems to ensure they are correct before running a return. Further information can be found via;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workforce Census – Teachers’ pay ranges information – Support for schools and settings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

School teachers’ pay and conditions – GOV.UK<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administration 197: Updating Confirmed Pay Award 25\/26 in Bromcom – Support for schools and settings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Missing Contracts<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Each year a significant number of schools upload members of staff without contracts.  When producing the census, please run the Summary Report and check Table A which states whether you have members of staff without a contract.  If there are, check the Staff Details Report against the Staff Contracts Report to identify members of staff missing contracts. If they should be included in the census please add a contract or Service Level Agreement. If not, please exclude them from the census (tick the \u2018do not include in census\u2019 box).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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COLLECT Credibility reports<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The DfE have produced a range of credibility reports in COLLECT to help schools check their data.  A summary from these credibility reports will be included in the Education Information Team\u2019s data checking report that will be sent to schools.  This will indicate any data that needs to be checked and any additional credibility reports that the school needs to run in COLLECT.  As schools are responsible for accurate submissions these reports should be run and queries should be investigated and resolved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EDIT School Workforce Census Checking Service \u2013 School Reports<\/strong> <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

As you may be aware the Education Information Team undertake a number of quality checks.   Any queries will be listed in our \u2018Workforce Census Checking Service \u2013 School Report\u2019, which will be emailed to your school for your attention.  The report will provide details of any queries along with guidance on what action needs to be taken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Uploading Files to COLLECT via DfE Sign-in Portal<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.  If you encounter difficulties logging in click on the \u2018Having problems\u2019 link on the webpage.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Further Guidance<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our School Workforce Census guide is available via  School Census and School Workforce Census \u2013 Support for schools and settings (devon.gov.uk)<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DfE School Workforce Census guide is available via https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/school-workforce-census<\/a>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scomis maintain a School Workforce Census Bulletin website which has latest information on known issues as well as guidance documents: School Workforce Census Bulletin 2025 – Frequently Asked Questions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have any queries, or if this is your first workforce census, please email census@devon.gov.uk<\/a> and someone from the Education Information Team will contact you to provide support and guidance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kind Regards <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education Information Team (EdIT)<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Education Information Team Email: census@devon.gov.uk Date: 21st October 2025 Dear Colleagues, DfE School Workforce Census: Thu 6th Nov   Return by: Fri 14th Nov The statutory School Workforce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":748,"featured_media":0,"parent":107,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-3645","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 13:48:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/748"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3645"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34541,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3645\/revisions\/34541"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}