school workforce census autumn 2012

SCHOOL WORKFORCECENSUS

AUTUMN 2012

Anita Belworthy

ScoMIS Applications Analyst

School Workforce CensusThe Annual Statutory SWC Return

enumeration date is

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Return Date to Devon LA is

14 November 2012

School Workforce Census• SIMS will need to be on the Summer

Upgrade. Version 7.146• In order to run the School Workforce

Census you must be a member of the Personnel Officer User Group

• Check in System Manager to make sure that the person responsible has the correct access rights

Personnel Updates

Please make sure that any updates to Service Terms etc that have been supplied by your LA are

imported prior to the Census date

SWC Return 2012 contains..• All members of staff in regular service employed on

6 November 2012• Contract/service level details for staff in regular service

between 1 September 2011 to 6 November 2012• Absence data for all teachers and teaching assistants

during the previous academic year• Current Teacher vacancies• Headcount of third party support staff• Level 4 or above qualifications for all staff in regular

service• Curriculum subjects taught by teachers and teaching

assistants in Secondary schools

CHANGES!

All staff with a named staff record within your return will include their Pay and Hours

information.

Any staff record missing this information will generate a validation error.

CHANGES!Description Total Pay amended to

Base Pay

Base Pay is the pre-tax annual salary of a member of staff as at

6 November 2012.

Information about Base Pay is not collected for staff paid by a daily rate

CHANGES!Workforce Members Allowance Details

ReportThis report shows a breakdown of the Additional Payment Amount and helps with the calculation

of allowances

It uses snapshot data of payment details and allowances as at 6 November 2012

CHANGES!New fields are displayed on the School

Information Panel

Focus – School – School Details

• Previous School Name• Date Name Changed• Previous Estab Number• Date Number Changed

CHANGES!These fields are shown for all schools but

should only be completed where applicable.

This will be necessary for all schools that have changed to Academy status or

changed their name/DfE number within the collection period.

CHANGES!New Academies that have not changed

their name must enter the current school name in the Previous School Name.

They then enter the date of change to Academy Status as the date in the Date

Name Changed field.

CHANGES!The date entered as Date Name Changed will be used to ensure that data relating to the previous

setting of the school is not collected• Contracts, allowances and absences that ended before the date will not

be collected• Contracts that started before the date and continued afterwards will be

collected• Where an allowance started before the date and continued afterwards,

only the data after the date is collected• An absence started before the date and continued afterwards will trigger

a warning message to say the absence is not included in the return. You will need to amend the absence accordingly.

CHANGES!Previous Authorised Census Returns

A new routine enables the school to report on previous returns, so that data can be

compared across years.

These can be accessed via the Tools / Statutory Return Tools / Authorised Census

Returns.

What staff data is included?• Staff details• Contract details• Service Agreement details for agency teachers• Payment details for all categories of staff• Absence details (Teachers and TA’s)• Curriculum details for Teachers and TA’s

(Secondary Schools only)• Qualifications for all staff – level 4 and above

(i.e. Post A Level)

School data included

• Teaching vacancies

• Occasional teachers

• Third party staff count

Which Staff do I include?• Teachers• Teaching Assistants • Other support staff in regular service• Caretakers, Catering and other staff employed direct by

the school (include Agency premises staff in the headcount if they are in the school at any time on Census day)

• Agency staff – if they are in Regular Service• Regular Service defined as completed service of 28

days or more (not necessarily continuous).

Which Staff do I exclude?• Breakfast Clubs and After School Clubs are

extended services and are therefore not in scope.

• Children’s Centres and Early years Settings are also out of scope.

• Any staff supplied via a Service Agreement with the LA (i.e. Educational Pyschologists, Scomis Technicians, DCC Finance Officers)

People in P7 not included• Temporary staff with a service of less than one

month• Non contracted temporary staff employed on a

temporary basis • PGCE students on teaching practice• Staff working in breakfast or after school clubs• Teachers only engaged in one to one programmes• Governors and voluntary staff• Staff whose contracts finish before 1 September

2011

Is this Teacher directly employed by the school with a current contract for 28 days/more

YES:Individual data required

NO:Are they employed via a current Service agreement

with a third party (not LA) for 28 days/more?

YES:Individual data required

NO:Were they employed by the school via a

contract/SA (not with LA) for 28 days/more in the period between 1/9/11 and 6/11/12

YES:Individual data required NO:

Are they an occasional teacher(employed for less than 28 days)

and in school on 6/11/12?

YES:Include in headcount of

occasional teachers

NO:Do not include in

School Workforce Census

Which Teachers to include?

Note:

Roles/Contracts of staff working in extended services or only working in the OneToOne Tuition Programme are not required

Is this non-teacher directly employed by the school with a current contract for 28 days/more

YES:Is there a role code that corresponds to the job that

the person carries out?

NO:Are they employed via a current Service agreement

with a third party (not LA) for 28 days/more?

YES:Individual data required

NO:Were they employed by the school via a contract/SA (not withLA) for 28 days/more in the period between 1/9/11 and 6/11/12

NO:Are they employed via a service agreement with a third party

(not the LA) and in school on 6/11/12?

YES:Individual data required

NO:Check with LA/DfE

what level of data is required

YES:Is there a role code that corresponds to the job that the person carries out?

NO:Do not include in

School Workforce Census

YES:Include in the headcount of

third party support staff

NO:Check with LA/DfE

If this person should be includedin the headcount

Which Non-Teachers to include?

Note:

Roles/Contracts of staff working in extended services or only working in the OneToOne Tuition Programme are not required

Which staff to in/exclude?

If you are in any doubt please contact your local authority.

Academies – contact the Dfe helpdeskDSD.Helpdesk@education.gsi.gov.uk

Teachers & TAsOrigin information must be provided for all Teachers and Teaching Assistants who started after September 2011

Destination information must be provided for all Teachers and Teaching Assistants who left after September 2011

REMINDERSubmission of the SWC is statutory.

This means that schools do not need to obtain consent for the provision of data from

individual members.

However, schools and LA’s must satisfy Data Protection Act obligations and let staff know that the information is being collected

Privacy Notices for Staffformerly Fair Procession Notice

The DfE recommend that those already in receipt of Privacy Notices are advised of these new links as the previous links were to documents which have now been removed.

Privacy Notices for Staffformerly Fair Procession Notice

• The Privacy Notice guidance has been updated. This can be found at:-

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/schooladmin/ims/datacollections/schoolcensus

Privacy Notices for Staffformerly Fair Procession Notice

• DEVON SCHOOLS ONLY

• The Privacy Notice guidance has been updated. This can be found at:-http://devon.gov.uk/j4s-privacynotice

Data Checking Sheets• There is a staff data checking form

report available from the Scomis website http://faq.scomis.org/kb7560/

• Follow the instructions on the faq to import and run the report.

• The report does not contain contract information.

Reminder• Temporary Teacher Numbers should

not be submitted.

• If a Teacher Number is not available, then the corresponding field should be left blank and a note sent to the local authority or put against the query in COLLECT to explain why.

Reminder• Where staff are acting up within the

same school, the Department’s preference would be for contract information on the acting up post, not the substantive post, to be returned.

ReminderPlease do not remove the “Eligible for SWR” tick from a member of staff’s record who has left. The SWC collects historical data, so may need their information to be supplied.

If they have left before the start of the SWC period, they will be automatically excluded from the collected data

ReminderIf a member of staff has more than one contract and one is required for SWC, then you will need to leave the tick in “Eligible for SWR” on their record.

You will then need to email your LA/DfE to tell them which contract information to exclude via Collect.

You will need to manually record the name and contract details of the staff member on your detail reports to ensure a true and correct record.

PREPARATIONSIMS requires a Fileset provided by Capita

This can contain:• Files used to determine what is included in

the return• Updates to the Validation Errors Summary• Updates to the Summary reports• Updates to the Detail reports

PREPARATIONThe current fileset for SWC is number 116.When you have run the Create and Validate

routine, the Validation Fileset ID is displayed on the left-hand side of the

Summary panel header.If you are not on Fileset 116 you can follow

the instructions on http://faq.scomis.org/kb2896/

PREPARATIONRun the Pay Related Checking Reports to ensure all Service Terms are mapped correctlyReports – Run Reports – Focus – Service Terms

Run the following reports• ST Pay Scale Definitions• ST Allowances• ST Post DefinitionsThese reports will show the mappings for each Service Term in use.

Curriculum

Information on the curriculum is only required from Secondary Schools with timetabling software that interfaces with their MIS.

Curriculum

• The default requirement is the week in which the census date falls.

• Subject code, hours taught and year groups must be recorded.

Curriculum

Information is required for all teachers in regular service, as well as teaching assistants where they are timetabled.

Curriculum - Hours

• If your school operates a timetable cycle covering two weeks, then an average figure over that period should be calculated and submitted.

• The SIMS SWC software does this for you – as tested by a secondary school last year

Curriculum – Year Group

• This must reflect the NC Year Group to whom each subject is being delivered.

• Year 10 students on an accelerated GCSE course should be shown as Year 11

Staff AbsencesAbsence data must be entered in SIMS.net and is being collected for staff employed in the previous academic year i.e. 1st September 2011 to 31st August 2012.

This includes many types of absences, such as sickness, compassionate leave and secondment periods.

Staff Absences• Absence data is only required for

teachers and teaching assistants. It is optional for other members of staff.

• Absence data due to training is included in the return but is not reported upon as it is not a statutory requirement

Staff AbsencesExamples 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 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

Working days lost – sickness only

• It is important to accurately record the number of working days missed

• Good practice would be to discuss the period of absence and working days lost with the member of staff at a “return to work” meeting.

Staff Absences

Schools using Cover software• Where absences are recorded via Cover,

some but not all of the SWC required fields are completed in the Absences panel. The additional details will need to be entered manually before the Census is run.

• Where absences are recorded via the Absences panel, the relevant fields are copied to the Cover software. The Cover record does not require any further input.

Staff Absences

Qualifications

• Post A Level (NFQ Level 4+) qualifications are collected for ALL staff

• Whether or not a qualification has been verified does not need to be provided.

Qualifications - Teachers• Their initial teacher training qualification e.g.

PGCE, BEd, Certificate in Education.• For those with a PGCE, information on prior

degrees.• For those without QTS or those trained

overseas, all qualifications relevant to their engagement as a teacher.

• Any subsequent qualifications gained relevant to their job as a teacher as detailed later.

Qualifications for TA’s to include• Post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE)• BEd or other 1st degree combined with teacher qual• Certificate in Education or equivalent• Doctorate, eg PhD• Masters Degree, eg MSc, MEd • Postgraduate certificates and diplomas• Other first degree (ie not BEd or other first degree

combined with teacher qualifications) such as BA & BSc• Graduate certificates and diplomas• Diplomas of higher education and further education• Foundation degrees• Higher national diplomas• Certificates of higher education • Non-UK teaching qualification

Qualifications• Schools may check the qualifications

held by the Teaching Agency and provide any qualifications that are not held by them

• OR gather and record the information in SIMS

QualificationsSchools check the qualifications held by the Teaching Agency for their qualified teachers, instructors and overseas trained teachers via their web based service (link below) and provide any qualifications not held by the Teacher Agency. www.education.gov.uk/employeraccess/LoginAction.do,

If your establishment has not already registered for this service please e-mail teacher.enquiry@education.gsi.gov.uk with the following information:

• Full name of the establishment• Contact address of the establishment• Establishment DfE number• E-mail address of the Head teacher or Principal and their full name.

Please contact the Teaching Agency in good time as it takes at least four working days to register for the service.

QualificationsInformation on the following qualifications

does not need to be provided as the Department will obtain it direct from the

National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services:-

National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and Certificate/Diploma

for School Business Management (CSBM/DSBM).

First & Second Subjects• Each qualification should have either one or two

subject specialisms associated with it and these should be recorded using the JACS (Joint Academic Coding System) codes.

• The codes are not visible in SIMS, just the descriptions

• If a subject is not listed, then please leave it blank on the submitted record.

First & Second Subjects

• A second subject would only be required if the qualification had two subject specialisms attached to it, e.g.

• A BSc in Mathematics & Statistics would have the first subject as Mathematics (G100) and the second as Statistics (G300)

Vacancies

This is a manual input for vacant teacher posts and requires the subject codes to be mapped as mentioned previously

Vacancies

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

• is not covered, or• is covered temporarily by other staff within the

school, or• is covered by a teacher on a contract of less than

one year.

Vacancies

The following vacant posts should be included:-• those the school has tried to fill but were not

filled on the Census day• those where an appointment has been made

but was not in post on the Census day• those for all types of qualified teachers from

classroom teachers to head teachers

Vacancies

The following should be excluded:-

• those not becoming vacant until after the Census day (eg where teacher has resigned but is serving notice).

Running the SWC

• Having completed as much preparation as possible please carry out a dry run

• Once validated this will give any validation errors that may need investigating

Running the SWC• If you do NOT buy into the Scomis upgrade

service or are NOT on the terminal server you will need to import the latest Fileset (currently 116) before doing a dry run.

• It can be downloaded from the Scomis website by clicking on the Frequently Asked Questions link and typing in Fileset 116 in the Search box.

Running the SWC• Check the path for the output file,

for a stand alone computer this should be c:\sims\star\ascout\swc

• Create and Validate (Nursery, Primary and Special Schools

• Calculate All Details (Secondary)

Running the SWC

• The section for Vacancies

• All vacancies that remain unfilled on the Census Day must be entered

Running the SWC

• The section dealing with Occasional Teachers Information

• Details of Supply Teachers employed on the Census Day will need to be entered here

Create &ValidateThis can be carried out as many

times as you wish in order to correct any validation errors that have been

reported in earlier attempts.

ReportsOnce you have Created and

Validated and before Authorising the return you should run the

Detailed and Summary Reports for data checking purposes.

Detailed Reports

Reports

Reports are generated in HTML - use the Page options to send by e-mail or edit in Word

Alternately copy and paste the table into Word or Excel further analysis and checking

Authorising the ReturnWhen you have produced the file you wish to

submit – click on Authorise.

This panel was introduced in the 2011 SWC Return. You will not be able to continue until you have ticked the box to confirm the head teacher is satisfied with the Return

Authorising the Return

Once Authorised the Summary report is displayed on the Screen in HTML which you can Print and Save for future reference or submission to the LA / Dfe if requested.

Known ErrorsPeople missing from or wrongly included in the SWC return.On the Staff record there is a tick box entitled “Eligible for SWR”. This allows you to control which records are brought in or excluded from there return.If your personnel numbers are wrong, check this box against missing/extra names and set accordingly.

Known ErrorsPeople missing from the SWC return.On the Service Term mapping report, ensure that their service term is mapped to a post.Tools – Staff – Pay Related

Highlight their Service Term (i.e. LD) and check that a SWC post has been specified within Section 4 – double-click on the post and the 4th field is entitled SWC post. If necessary, select one from the drop-down list and save.

Known ErrorsErrors/Queries

When you run “Create and Validate” it will give you a list of failures against your data. Each of these will have a number.

A full list of the 2012 Error/Query codes can be found under the SIMS/FMS button on the Scomis website.

The dedicated SWC page holds all available DCC links and documentation.

Known ErrorsError 4410/4700/4710 - No Role details have been supplied.• Check the details of the contract. • Select the required employee via Focus - Person - Staff • Open the applicable contract from the Employment Details

panel. • The Edit Contract dialog is displayed. Click the New button

adjacent to the Role area to display the Add Contract Role dialog and add the role details.

• If a role already exists, check the role End Date is valid.

Known ErrorsError 5000 - Absence Category is invalid.

•Open the record through Focus | Person | Staff and navigate to the Absences panel.

•Open the absence record and select the appropriate Absence Category from the drop-down list.

Known ErrorsError 6200 - Qualification Code is invalid.

• Open the record through Focus | Person | Staff and navigate to the Professional panel. Select and open the qualification record to display the Edit Qualification dialog.

• Select the correct Qualification Level from the drop-down list. Post A Level qualifications only are required for the School Workforce Census.

Known ErrorsError 6530 - The same person has a total Full

Time Equivalent ratio greater than 1.5.• Open the record through Focus | Person | Staff

and go to the Employment Details panel. Open the contract and review the value in the FTE field. It is unlikely that a FTE over 1.5 is correct.

• Check that dates on suspended or previous contracts are correct and valid

Known ErrorsFailures noted, role identifier missing

This was due to the contract end date not matching that of the role end date.

Known ErrorsUploading the file via SecureNet

• Ensure that you are sending the .xml file.

• Hosted schools should run SecureNet from within the Terminal Server in order to find the file successfully.

• If the file does not upload, close the file and open it again. Try the upload again

• Contact Scomis if you are still experiencing problems.

Known Errors

Click on OK. Click on the browse button and navigate to where you have saved your workforce

census. This is normally [network letter]:\sims\star\ASCout\SWC

Further InformationThe Guidance Notes and other

documentation etc. will be available from the following website:-

www.devon.gov.uk/j4s-workforcecensus

Further Information

DFE site for advice for schools and academies

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/schooladmin/ims/datacollections/

swf

Further Information

Once the file has been authorised, it must be uploaded to the LA as advised or direct to DFE via Collect as soon as

possible.

It is best to upload this overnight on COLLECT as it can take a long time

Need more help?Running the Census via SIMS Scomis 01392 385300 scomis@devon.gov.uk

General AdviceDevon 01392 383142 census@devon.gov.uk

Plymouth 01752 307503 performance.team@plymouth.gov.uk

Torbay 01803 208916 lesley.gibbings@torbay.gov.uk

Academies - contact the DfE directDSD.Helpdesk@education.gsi.gov.uk

Check latest versions of SIMS, CCS_Base_Lookups and Fileset are installed

Reports – Run Reports - Focus – Service TermRun all reports to check current settings

Routines – Statutory Returns – School Work CensusCreate a new return

Check information displayed on School Workforce Census Details page. Add/Edit pages if required

Create and Validate the return

Any Errors or Queries requiring action

YES

NO

Produce the Validation Errors Summary Report

Resolve Errors and Check Queries

Produce the details ReportsCheck report content is correct

Produce the Summary ReportCheck the content is correct

Seek Authorisation approval and signature from Head teacher

Authorise the Return

Submit the Return

Printout the Summary Report