School Workforce Census 7th November

School Workforce Census 2024 The School Workforce Census (SWC) is a statutory return and each School is therefore required by law to submit a return. 

Census day is 7 November 2024. 

The deadline for uploading your return onto COLLECT is 20 November 2024.  

As previously advised, schools should continue to use their MIS to generate the return. To help you ensure all the details have been added correctly you can use the system’s Census Summary Reports. The process for maintained schools will be as follows: 

1. School updates records in their MIS and uploads their return Regardless of which MIS you use you will need to ensure that records are complete in order to complete your return. Your MIS support provider will be able to support you with the use of the Schools Workforce Census functionality to generate your return. You can access information held on the IBC portal which may be useful, if you have gaps in your MIS data (that need new data input.) Both Salary reports contain useful data and can be found in the Finance folder. The Attendance & Absence report may also provide useful information. In addition the maintain HR Data tile is a place where you can find information about individual members of staff such as their contract type, additional payments, DfE number for example. You will be able to upload your return to the Department for Education COLLECT website from 7 November 2024. NB: The deadline for uploading your return onto COLLECT is 20 November 2024 – this allows Oxfordshire County Council to check and authorise the return for submission. Any errors should be corrected prior to uploading into COLLECT. Returns with errors will be rejected by the DfE. 
2. Oxfordshire County Council will check your return When you upload your return to the COLLECT website, the county council will check your return. If a return has errors, schools should check with their support provider for guidance as a return with errors will be rejected by the DfE. A query is only acceptable if it reflects the situation in school and can be explained, eg 7240Q – Please note this return contains no vacancies (ie there are no vacancies in school on Census Day) The council will identify any gaps or issues, ask you to resolve them and to upload your return again. Once your return has been validated by the council, they will authorise your return within COLLECT. 

Please note any returns uploaded with errors will be rejected for correction. Please see the additional documents to help you ensure your return is complete and accurate. If you have any queries, or you require Starter and Leaver Information, absence Data or Establishment details, please contact schoolworkforcecensus@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

School workforce census guide 2024 (pdf 694kb)

School workforce census  (pdf 23kb)