Contact us on 01392 385300 or scomis@devon.gov.uk for further information

SCHOOL WORKFORCE CENSUSAUTUMN 2015

Anita BelworthyProfessional Services Consultant

School Workforce Census

The Annual Statutory SWC Return enumeration date is

Thursday 5 November 2015

School Workforce Census

Latest Return Date to DfE isFriday 4 December 2015

What is SWC?• The equivalent of the school census for students• Collects individual-level data for all teaching and

support staff in regular educational employment including:– Personal details – Contract/service agreements – Qualifications, Subjects Taught and Absences– Destinations for Staff Leavers

Why do we do it?The DfE use it to:• Review the success of Equal Opportunities Policies• Monitor qualification levels• Plan Head teacher succession guidelines• Develop staff recruitment/retention strategies• Identify potential teaching demand

Who has to provide it?•

maintained nursery schools •

primary schools •

secondary, including middle deemed secondary schools •

maintained special schools •

sixth form centres and collaborative sixth forms •

CTCs, free schools (including 16-19 free schools) and academies, including studio schools and University Technical Colleges

• pupil referral units and alternative provision academies.

The maintained sector covers England only, and includes Community, Foundation, Voluntary Aided and Voluntary Controlled schools.

Who uses this data?Department of Education

The Local Government AssociationHM Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s

Services & SkillsAudit Commission

Office of Manpower EconomicsTeachers Pension Scheme

Approved Researchers

How do we deliver it?

COLLECT(Collections Online – Learners, Education, Children & Teachers)

Maintained Schools Send files to your LA and they will upload them

AcademiesUpload directly into COLLECT

SIMS Specifics• SIMS will need to be on the Summer

Upgrade version 7.164.• 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, Allowances, etc, have been incorporated into SIMS prior to

the Census date

SWC Return 2015 contains..• All members of staff in regular service

employed on 5 November 2015

• Contract/service level details for staff in regular service between 1 September 2014 to 5 November 2015

• Absence data for all teachers and teaching assistants during the previous academic year up to 31 August 2015.

SWC Return 2015 contains..• 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

Federated SchoolsIf your school is part of a Federation the ‘Personnel’ module for all the schools in the Federation might have been amalgamated into one system. As the DfE requires a separate School Workforce Census for each school within the Federation, the school holding the personnel information needs to provide the following information:

Federated Schools• one School Workforce Census containing all the data • a list of all staff with the hours/FTE etc. for each of

the schools that they attend • a list of Teacher and Teaching Assistant absences for

each of the schools that they attend • headcount information for Current Vacancies,

Occasional (Supply) Teachers and Third Party Support Staff present on census day for each of the schools

CHANGES!Teacher Numbers must be provided for every Teacher.They can be gained by:• Checking on the NCTL register of qualified teachers• Notifying Capita teacher’s pension of their appointment• The Teacher themselves (QTS Award or Pension statement)

Teacher Number now only allows those numbers issued in England or Wales.

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.

CHANGES!School Direct Trainees (Salaried)

These are to be included within the Return and therefore must be included if they are in service at Census Date.They will require a full personnel record.

CHANGES!SENCO RoleEach Maintained School and Nursery must identify their Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator under the Children and Families Act 2014. This must be a qualified teacher to comply.This will be collected as part of the return. Please add this additional role to the relevant person within their contract in SIMS to bring this information into the Return.

CHANGES!Base Pay for Part-Time StaffThe base pay provided must be the actual annual salary in payment and not the full-time equivalent salary upon which the actual salary is based.

CHANGESUnqualified TeachersThese were linked to Classroom Teacher - main pay range last year as an interim measure.The DfE has reinstated the SWC post of Classroom Teacher for Unqualified Teachers only. Therefore they will need to be mapped back to Classroom Teacher for the 2015 return.

CHANGES!Pay Range Minimum and Maximum added for Leadership Teachers only in accordance with changes from 01/09/2015.Within the Return, you will be asked to specify whether the Leadership Pay is Pre-2014 or 2014. This denotes :• Pre-2014 – Appointed on or before 31/08/2014• 2014 – Appointed on or after 01/09/2014

CHANGES!Separate Panel for Leadership Details

CHANGES!Teaching & Learning Responsibility PaymentsThese will now be split within SIMS to indicate 1st or 2nd TLR, and TLR3, in order to record dates accurately.

CHANGES!Start Date and End Date taken for Teacher & Learning 3 Allowance. This is the only allowance that is currently paid on a variable scale so these fields are not available for other allowances at this time.

REMINDERBase pay is the pre-tax annual salary of a member of staff This year base pay is mandatory for all staff not being paid via a daily rate.For existing pay scales – base pay is still reported as the Pay Award amount on census day.For converted or new pay ranges, Base Pay is reported as the Actual Salary on Census Day.

CHANGES!Pay Review Date added for all teachers with contracts or service agreements. This is the date of the pay award in use.The important word here is ‘in use’. Put simply, if your SIMS Pay Amounts have been updated to 1/9/2015 by Census Date, then put 1/9/2015 else the date should be 1/9/2014.

CHANGES!Pay Review DateRecorded within each Individual Contract

CHANGES!Pay Review DateOr within each individual Service Agreement

CHANGES!Pay Review DateThis will be shown in the revised Contracts Report

CHANGES!Ethnicity Codes - Staff2 new choices have been made available:• Traveller of Irish Heritage• Gypsy/RomaYou may need to go back and amend your staff records to ensure accuracy.

Reminders!

Converting to Academy

Reminders!The date entered as Date ULN changed for new Academies 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

Reminders!• 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.

Reminders!Academies should ensure that they complete the following:• School Type • School Governance• Previous Name• Date Name Changed.• Previous Estab Number• Date Number Changed.• Previous URN Number• Date Number Changed.

These data items must be entered for all academies, because the date the URN changed is interpreted as the date the academy opened. If this date is not entered, some of the historical information from before that date will be included in the School Workforce Census incorrectly, e.g. a member of staff who left before the academy opened.

Reminders!The latest ccs_base_lookups are now included in the upgrades to SIMS, so please do not re-import them.Importing base lookups after the Summer 2014 upgrade will have overwritten any new additions to the lookups.Contact your Local Support Unit if you have done so, you may need a Patch to bring in the additions to the lookups.

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

What staff data is included?• Staff details• Contract details• Service Agreement details for agency teachers• Payment details for all 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 as Headcount on Census Day

• 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 Psychologists, Scomis Technicians, 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 2014

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 1/9/14 and 5/11/15

YES:Individual data required NO:

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

and in school on 5/11/15?

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 for 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 with LA) for 28 days/more in the period between 1/9/14 and 5/11/15

YES:Is there a role code for the job

that the person carries out?

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

(not the LA) and in school on 5/11/15?

YES:Include in the headcount of

third party support staff

NO:Do not include in

School Workforce Census

Which non-teachers to include?

YES:Individual data required

NO:Check with LA/DfE what level of data is required

YES:Include in the headcount of

third party support staff

NO:Check with LA/DfE what level of data is 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 & TAs

Origin information must be provided for all Teachers and Teaching Assistants who started after September 2014Destination information must be provided for all Teachers and Teaching Assistants who left after September 2014

Reminder

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.

ReminderSecondment between 2 schools should result in 2 records being returned to DfE for a member of staff (1 containing absence)You would suspend the contract and enter an absence for the same dates in the original school.

ReminderWhere 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.

ReminderDo not suspend an Acting-Up contract as this can create the ‘more than1.5FTE Validation Error’.• Clone the original contract and add future

dates• End the original contract• Enter the Acting-Up Contract to fill the gap

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.

REMINDER

Submission 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:-

https://www.gov.uk/schools-colleges/data-collection

Data Checking Sheets• There is a staff data checking form report –

this is available from Scomis if required.• Follow the instructions on

http://faq.scomis.org/kb7560/ to import and run the report.

• The report does not contain contract information.

PREPARATION

Check that :• All new Staff have been added to SIMS• Leavers have been recorded within SIMSEnsure that the ‘Eligible for SWR’ is ticked for both where relevant

PREPARATION

SIMS 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 205.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.Hosted schools will automatically be upgraded to the latest Fileset.If you are not a hosted school please 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.

CHANGES!Curriculum for Teachers and Teaching Assistants Panel for All-Through SchoolsThis panel will appear for all Secondary, Middle deemed Secondary and All-Through Schools. The DfE only requires curriculum information for Year Taught In 5 and above, so any records for below Year Taught In 5 should be deleted from the panel before the Return file is created.

Reminder

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

Reminder

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

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

Reminder

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

Reminder - 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

Reminder - 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 2014 to 31st August 2015.

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, especially for part-time staff

• Good practice would be to always record the working days lost against all absences for all staff and then analysis can be carried out within the school across all absences.

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• 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 National College for Teaching & Leadership 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 National College for Teaching & Learning for their qualified teachers, instructors and overseas trained teachers via their web based service (link below) and provide any qualifications not held by NCTL. https://teacherservices.education.gov.uk/

Qualifications

• 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.

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

Please contact the NTCL 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

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

one year (except if the incumbent is on recognised long term absence)

VacanciesThe 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

VacanciesThe 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• A full list of these are available from our bulletin• http://news.scomis.org/new2311/

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 205) before doing a dry run.

• It can be downloaded from the Scomis website via http://faq.scomis.org/kb2896/

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

vary for schools from different local authorities if they are hosting their own data. For hosted schools it isG:\Sims\Star\ASCOut\SWC(hosted)

• Calculate All Details (Secondary only)

• Create and Validate (all schools)

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 the headcount of Occasional Teachers in school on Census Day

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

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 ErrorsErrors/QueriesWhen you run “Create and Validate” it will give you a list of failures against your data. Each of these will have a number. The Error and Resolutions document can be found on the School Workforce Census Bulletin.http://news.scomis.org/new2311/

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 – if necessary, remove the suspension and recreate as 3 contracts (1 closed, 1 current, 1 future).

Known ErrorsSpot Allowances with an end date before the 28th day of the monthWhen a school has indicated that they want the Census calculation to interpret Spot Allowances as actual amounts rather than amounts for “annualisation”, the SIMS software is expecting the end date of such an allowance to be on or after the 28th day of the month. If you have entered your Spot Allowances with end dates before the 28th day of the month, this will result in the return not including the Spot Allowance amount.

This is fixed by the Consolidated Patch v6 (21139) available from http://faq.scomis.org/kb16087/

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 Information

DFE site for advice for schools and academies

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

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.

LA’s will load your data overnight so allow 24 hours before logging in to COLLECt and making your notes.