School Workforce Census – Bulletin 2

DfE School Workforce Census date: Thu 5 Nov 2020

census date: Thu 5 Nov 2020   return by: Fri 13 Nov 2020

The statutory School Workforce Census takes place on Thursday 5 November 2020. 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 and a document with frequently asked questions will shortly be available on our website.

Changes to data items for 2020

To help reduce the burden during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department for Education have reduced the data collected in this School Workforce Census. The following items will not be required:

• Absence data.
• Qualification data.
• Date of last pay review.
• ‘Subject’ and ‘Tenure’ (within vacancy data).
• Data on third party support staff is not required, though data on occasional teachers is still needed.

For these specific data items not required for 2020:

• If your processes and systems make it easier to submit the unrequired data items, then you can return the data to the DfE. The DfE will not use such data and, as soon as practicable, will delete it.
• If it is easier for your systems and processes to not collect the unrequired data items, then it will not be required or requested.

This only applies to the data specifically pointed out above as not required. For other data, the DfE will, as always, expect that to be returned to the highest standards.

Please see the collection guidance available here on the government website.

SIMS users – Fileset

Schools must have upgraded to version 7.194 or above and must have imported the most up to date fileset (1606) at the time of publication. This fileset fixes query 4100Q (missing teacher number) which is being generated incorrectly for non-teachers. If you are a hosted school, Scomis will apply filesets automatically for you. If you encounter any difficulties please contact Scomis on 01392 385300. Non hosted schools will need to download the filesets and apply themselves from the Scomis website.

Teacher pay ranges

Last year many schools generated queries in the COLLECT Workforce Census reports as they had not updated their teachers pay ranges. The Department for Education has published the TP&C for 2020 which includes information on teachers’ pay ranges on our website. Could all schools please ensure that their pay ranges in sims have been updated if agreed within your school.

Missing contracts

Each year a significant number of schools upload members of staff without contracts. When producing the census in sims, please run the Summary Report and check Table A. It states whether you have members of staff without a contract. Check the Workforce Member Area Details Report to identify the member of staff.  (There will be an “x” in the Contracts column in “snapshot on census day”). Please add a contract of Service Level Agreement if they should be included in the census. If not, please exclude them from the census (eligible for SWR tick box).

COLLECT credibility reports

The DfE has produced a range of credibility reports in COLLECT to help schools check their data. We will include a summary of these credibility reports in the Education Information Team’s 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.

EDIT School Workforce Census Checking Service – School Reports

As you may be aware the Education Information Team undertake a number of quality checks. Our new ‘Workforce Census Checking Service – School Report’ will have any queries listed and 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.

Uploading Files to COLLECT via DfE Sign-in Portal

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 ‘Having problems’ link on the webpage.

School contact details for COLLECT

The DfE in their administration for the COLLECT portal will use the contact details of the person who uploaded the file. These contact details will be displayed in COLLECT 48 hours after the return has been uploaded. There is further guidance available from the DfE Sign-in web page if there are amendments needed to any contact details via DfE Sign In user details.

If you have any queries, or if this is your first workforce 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)