School Workforce Census 2026
From this November, all schools must complete and submit the School Workforce Census (SWC) via the IBC portal. Census Day this year is Thursday 5 November.
The SWC is a statutory annual return collecting individual‑level data for all teaching and support staff in regular employment.
Why use the IBC portal?
- Much of the return is pre‑populated using data collected throughout the year
- Reduces manual effort and duplication
- Ensures compliance with current Department for Education requirements
- Generates a fully compliant census file ready for submission.
What schools need to do:
- Review the online work instructions for SWC guidance and key dates: work instructions
- Find the Schools Workforce Census app in the IBC portal, select the Open search icon, search Apps for Census and choose SWF Annual Census.
- Run the SWC report in Test Mode and resolve any errors: School workforce (SWF) run and correct TEST report | Staff and managers
- Ensure Fixed‑Term Contract data is accurate and up to date: https://extra.hants.gov.uk/employee/swfannualcensus/error-and-warning-guide
- Encourage employees to enter ethnicity and disability information into Employee Self Services (ESS Lite) ‘My Information’ to reduce the number of queries in the report.
If you experience any issues accessing the video guidance, please visit the IBC portal landing page and navigate to the ‘Things to be aware of’ section. From there, select the tile for enabling video guidance: Shared Services | Staff and managers
Further information will be issued in the autumn term. In the meantime, queries should be raised via an IBC enquiry:
- Type: Employment / Salary / Pay
- Sub‑type: Schools Workforce Census
- Title: Schools Workforce Census 2026
This information has also been sent to headteachers by email.