Categories:
Headteachers, Bursars, Finance Officers, Office Administrators

School Workforce Census 2026

The School Workforce Census (SWC) is a statutory return and every school is required by law to submit a return.

The Department for Education (DfE) has advised that there are only minimal changes for 2026. Qualification and absence data continue to be required, and the 'Newly Qualified Teacher' field remains in place to identify whether Early Career Teachers (ECTs) are in their first or second year of induction.

Key dates

  • Census day: 5 November 2026
  • Deadline for uploading returns to COLLECT: 18 November 2026

Every school is required by law to submit a return.

Important reminders

Ethnicity and disability information

Ethnicity and disability information must be recorded by employees in ESS Lite. This information cannot be collected by the school and entered centrally.

While employees have the right not to provide this information, they should select the 'Prefer not to say' option. Where no data is recorded, the field will default to 'Information not yet obtained', which will be recorded as a query in your return and will require action before submission.

This is not a new requirement, but the census now treats missing data as a query.

Guidance

The School Workforce Census guidance document is available here:

School Workforce Census Guide 2025 v1.1

Please note that, at the time of writing, the 2026 version of the guidance for maintained schools had not been published. However, as there have been minimal changes, schools can use the 2025 guidance to prepare their return.

School process for maintained schools

Schools should continue to use the IBC SWC Tile to generate their return and can use the system's Census Summary Reports to check that all information has been entered correctly.

Step 1: Update records and upload your return

Schools should:

  • Update staff records in the IBC Portal
  • Ensure all required data is complete and accurate
  • Generate and upload their return

If you experience any issues correcting data or running reports, please raise an IBC Enquiry.

Schools will be able to upload their return to the DfE COLLECT website from 5 November 2026.

Important: The deadline for uploading your return to COLLECT is 18 November 2026. This allows Oxfordshire County Council time to review and authorise submissions.

Any errors should be corrected before uploading into COLLECT. Returns containing errors will be rejected by the DfE.

Step 2: Oxfordshire County Council review

Once uploaded to COLLECT, Oxfordshire County Council will review your return.

Where issues are identified, schools will be asked to resolve them and upload an amended return.

Queries are acceptable only where they accurately reflect the school's circumstances and can be explained. For example:

  • 7240Q – This return contains no vacancies (where there are genuinely no vacancies on census day)

Once the return has been validated, Oxfordshire County Council will authorise the submission within COLLECT.

Step 3: Further information

Additional information and instructions for completing the School Workforce Census can be found here:

School Workforce Census Guide for Schools

Please note that this is currently the latest available version pending publication of the 2026 guidance.

Important notes on data completion

Teacher Reference Numbers (TRNs)

Ensure all new starters have been entered into the IBC Portal.

A valid Teacher Reference Number (TRN) must be recorded for every teacher. For recently appointed teachers, TRNs can be obtained by:

  • Checking the Register of Qualified Teachers
  • Notifying Capita Teachers' Pensions of the appointment
  • Obtaining the number directly from the teacher's Qualified Teacher Status award or Teachers' Pensions benefits statement

School Direct salaried trainees

School Direct salaried trainees are within the scope of the School Workforce Census and must be included in returns where they are in service on census day.

SENCO requirements

Under Section 67 of the Children and Families Act 2014, every mainstream school and maintained nursery must have a designated Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) who is a qualified teacher working in the school.

Please ensure the designated SENCO is identified in the role field within the SWC return. More than one role can be attached to a staff member's contract where appropriate.

Pay information

Base pay will be updated automatically following the pay award. The report will extract the required base pay information and no further action is required.

Supply teachers

Do not report individual staff contracts showing zero hours worked per week, such as supply teachers.

Where a supply teacher is working in school on census day, they should be included within the occasional teacher count.

Contracts and roles

Please ensure:

  • Every role reported within a contract is appropriate to the post recorded
  • Secondary support staff duties are recorded as a separate contract where applicable
  • The required data set is completed for every member of staff, including contract information

Qualification data

Feedback continues to show that qualification data is often incomplete.

Although qualification data was not always required historically, schools are encouraged to update records wherever possible. Once entered, the information can be reused in future years.

Absence data

Absence data remains an important requirement.

While absence information may previously have been recorded only within a school's MIS, all absences must now be recorded within the IBC Portal.

Submitting your return

Returns must be submitted through COLLECT, the DfE's centralised data collection and management system.

A separate COLLECT guide will be available to support schools with completing and submitting their return. Information and guidance will continue to be updated on the School Workforce Census webpages as it becomes available.

If you require access to submit data, please contact your school's Secure Access approver(s).

Usernames and passwords for COLLECT are managed through the DfE Sign-in system:

DfE Sign-in

Your school's delegated approver can provide access to departmental systems that use DfE Sign-in.

Further support

If your query cannot be resolved through an IBC Enquiry, please contact:

schoolworkforcecensus@oxfordshire.gov.uk

The team aims to respond within two working days.

Sarah Currell
HR Manager Information Systems