School Workforce Census – checklist – all schools

School Workforce Census 2021 – Check List – All Schools

Use this check list to tick off each of the tasks once they have been completed.

 

COLLECT

• Check your COLLECT access by logging in to: https://services.signin.education.gov.uk/ If you have forgotten your password or username please report this to the DfE via the log-in page.

 

SIMS

• Check you have upgraded to SIMS v7.200 or later. Scomis apply this automatically for hosted schools.  Non hosted schools need to apply this themselves, see website:  https://faq.scomis.org/kb310871
• Check that the latest fileset version has been imported (1907 at the time of publishing), please see Scomis website: https://faq.scomis.org/kb382676/

 

PREPARING THE CENSUS DATA

• Are you complying with GDPR and Data Protection? Are Privacy Notices in place for all members of staff? see Data Protection and Data Sharing on our webpage for further information.
• Ensure you know who to include and exclude from the census, see Annex 1 of our guide (via our webpage).
• Do any of the changes in this year’s workforce census apply to you? Please check our guide
• Are all your staff details up to date and correct? see Annex 2 in our guide
• Have you updated absence records for teachers and teaching assistants? This was optional last year (due to the pandemic) but is now mandatory again
• Have you checked and updated your staff’s qualification data? This was optional last year (due to the pandemic) but is now mandatory again
• Latest pay review date – have you updated your teachers’ contracts with the latest date? This was optional last year (due to the pandemic) and may need updating this year as it’s now mandatory)
• Have you updated your staff’s records if base pay has changed? See ‘Pay Details’ in our guide.
• Do you have any persons with more than one contract? some might not be applicable for the census, please see ‘persons with two or more contracts’ in our guide for instructions.
• Do you have any persons who are ‘Acting Up’? some of their contract information might need amending, see our guide for instructions.
• Does your census include a member of staff with the role of SENCO? – DfE advise that schools must have a staff member with this role.
• Have you recorded Teacher vacancies in the census? See our guidance notes and Annex 4 for flowchart on vacancies.
• Have you recorded any supply/occasional teachers who were in school on census day within the census?
• Have you recorded any agency/third party support staff who were in school on census day within the census?
• Are you a federated school and sending in one file for all schools in the federation? – if yes, please follow our additional instructions and our Federations checklist (available on our website).
• Do all members of staff in your census have a contract? check table A of your summary report and the Workforce Member Areas detailed report
• Carry out a dry run to check what information needs to be amended. Please see our guide on running the census https://www.devon.gov.uk/supportforschools/administration/school-census

 

PRODUCING THE CENSUS

• Do you have any errors? these need to be cleared before uploading your return – please click into each one to resolve.
• Do you have any queries? – (number ending with ‘Q’) – Where queries are correct they can remain but a note needs to be added in COLLECT (once you have uploaded your file), please only use the acceptable notes listed in our guide.
• Have you printed and checked the summary and detailed reports? (liaising with your headteacher)
• Once your headteacher is satisfied that the information in the census is correct, authorise the return in SIMS and upload it to COLLECT (see below).

 

YOUR RETURN

• Returns should be uploaded and submitted in COLLECT via: https://services.signin.education.gov.uk/
• Check for errors/queries in COLLECT: click the ‘All Errors’ button and add appropriate acceptable notes, available via: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-census-2019-notepad-entries-for-collect-queries
• The Education Information Team will email a data checking report to your school, listing any queries that have been identified and need investigating by yourselves. Could you please prioritise these emails to avoid delays in approving your return for the DfE.