Workforce Census 2018
Census Day: 8th November 2018
Deadline for data submissions: 7th December 2018
Looking for a light FAQ rather than a detailed breakdown? Check out our 2018 Workforce Census FAQ here
For the Census video please click here.
The school workforce census is necessary to inform the Department for Education of staff pay bills, staff turnover and staff absences. This guide outlines what data is required for the Workforce Census and shows where necessary data can be entered into ScholarPack.
Accuracy of data is crucial and you should ensure all staff are aware of Privacy Notices
1. Which school types are required to submit a return? | Is your school data required? |
2. What to do if your data is not stored in ScholarPack | Does the LA hold your contract data? |
3. Who is included? | Who is the census looking at? |
4. School workforce level data (Individuals) | Individual data required |
5. School level data (Headcount) | Census day staff headcount |
6. How to exclude staff from the census | |
7. Absence | What absence data is used for the census? |
8. Validation | Check for errors and queries. |
9. Generate your census file | Create your file to send to the DfE |
All personnel added into ScholarPack that have a current contract will be automatically included in the work force census.
The following school types will be required to participate in the Workforce Census;
School types required to submit a return | School types NOT required to submit a return |
Maintained nursery |
Early years settings |
Primary schools | Privately funded independent schools |
Secondary, including middle deemed secondary | Non-maintained special schools |
Maintained special schools | Sixth form colleges |
Academy special schools | Overseas and offshore establishments |
Sixth form centres and collaborative sixth forms | FE establishments |
Academies, free schools (including 16-19 free schools) CTCs, studio schools and University Technical Colleges |
Service children’s education schools |
PRUs and alternative provision academies | Secure units |
Hospital schools and other miscellaneous establishments |
The changes since school workforce census 2017 are:
- The splitting of Qualified Teacher Status into three categories, QTS, QTLS and
EYTS. These statuses must be recorded for all teachers and teaching assistants in regular service, regardless of whether they are employed by a school, the local authority or a third party provider - The addition of a 'Reason for Leaving' code to indicate the reason for a teacher or
teaching assistant ending their period of employment and a readjustment of the code set for Destination to avoid overlap between the codes
School Workforce Level (Individual) data collected
- Staff Details
- Contract/Service Agreements
- Absence
- Curriculum
- Qualifications
School Level (Headcount) data collected
- Teacher Vacancies
- Staff Information
What data is required?
Contracted Teachers | Agency/SA teachers | Contracted Teaching Assistants | Other contracted support staff | Notes | |
1. Staff Details | |||||
Teacher number | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory for non-teachers, if applicable |
Family name | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Given name | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Former family names | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Optional | |
NI number | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Gender | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
DOB | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Ethnic code | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Disability | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
QTS | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Optional | |
QTLS | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Optional | |
EYTS | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Optional | |
HLTA status | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
QTS Route | Mandatory | Mandatory | Optional | Optional | Mandatory for all staff who, in the last year have taken up their first position since qualifying as a teacher. May also be returned for other staff as well. |
2. Contract/Service Agreement | Contracted Teachers | Agency/SA teachers | Contracted Teaching Assistants | Other contracted support staff | Notes |
Contract/Service agreement type | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Start date | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
End date | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Post | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Date of arrival in school | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Optional | |
Pay review date | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not needed | Not needed | Only for teachers |
Pay range | Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional | Not mandatory but the DfE desires this if available |
Pay framework | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not needed | Not needed | Applies only for leadership teachers |
Pay range min and max | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not needed | Not needed | Applies only for leadership teachers |
Base pay | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory |
Not for Daily Rate 'Y' NB: Daily rate only applies to agency/SA teachers |
Safeguarded salary | Mandatory | Not needed | Not needed | Not needed | |
Daily rate | Not needed | Mandatory | Not needed | Not needed | Not for centrally employed staff |
Reason for Leaving | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Optional | |
Destination | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Optional | |
Origin | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Optional | For contracts starting from 01/09/2009 |
Role identifier | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Hours worked per week | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
FTE hours per week | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Weeks per year | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not if Daily Rate = 'Y' |
Category of additional payment | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not if Daily Rate = 'Y' |
Additional payment amount | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not if Daily Rate = 'Y' |
Pay start date | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not needed | Not needed | Not if Daily Rate = 'Y' Only for TL3 |
Pay end date | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not needed | Not needed | Not if Daily Rate = 'Y' Only for TL3 |
3. Absence | Contracted Teachers | Agency/SA teachers |
Contracted Teaching Assistants |
Other contracted support staff | Notes |
First day | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Optional | Not required for centrally employed staff |
Last day | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Optional | Not required for centrally employed staff |
Working days lost | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Optional | Not required for centrally employed staff |
Absence category | Mandatory | Optional | Mandatory | Optional | Not required for centrally employed staff |
4. Curriculum | Contracted Teachers | Agency/SA teachers | Contracted Teaching Assistants | Other contracted support staff | Notes |
Subject code | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not needed | Not required for centrally employed staff |
Hours | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not needed | Not required for centrally employed staff |
NC year group | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Not needed | Not required for centrally employed staff |
5. Qualification | Contracted Teachers | Agency/SA teachers | Contracted Teaching Assistants | Other contracted support staff | Notes |
Qualification code | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | |
Class of degree | Mandatory | Optional | Optional | Optional | Mandatory where date of arrival is on or after 1st August 2013 |
Subject code | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory |
Staff Data Capture Sheets
To ensure your staff data is complete and up to date you can ask staff members to complete a basic personal information sheet. This can be downloaded via Admin>Personnel>Download Data Capture Sheet.
Data held outside of ScholarPack
Some schools may not hold all necessary data in the system to complete the Workforce Census as contract information may be stored on the local authority’s HR or payroll systems - if this is the case please contact your local authority for further advice. If you have partial census data in ScholarPack and have another system (HR/Payroll) that contains the remainder, you will need to contact the DfE help desk to discuss how this should be submitted.
Who’s included:
The following, if they are in regular service, are examples of those for whom school workforce level data should be returned:
• teachers employed by the school, both with and without QTS, EYTS or QTLS
• support staff employed directly by the school
• teachers working at the school who have been supplied by an agency or a local
authority if the local authority is acting like a supply agency
• staff on paid or unpaid absence, whether long or short term
• teachers on the School Direct (salaried) programme, the Overseas Trained
Teacher Programme (OTTP) and the Teach First programme
Who’s Not included:
School workforce level data does not need to be returned for the following:
- Temporary staff with service of less than 28 days
- Casual staff without contracts employed on an ad hoc basis
- Trainee teachers on teaching practice
- Trainee teachers on a School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) programme
- Staff working in extended school service provision, for example breakfast and after
school clubs, Sure Start and Children’s Centres. Note that staff engaged in the
normal running of the school, such as cleaners, must be included regardless of
when they work, for example before, after, or during the normal school day - Staff employed by the local authority that provide support to schools for example
peripatetic music teachers, advisory teachers, educational psychologists,
educational welfare officers (information on these will be submitted by the local
authority) - Teachers only engaged in one to one tuition
- Governors and voluntary staff
- Staff for whom there is no role identifier code that equates to the function they
carry out, for example clerk to governors, school crossing patrol staff and school
improvement partners - Staff whose contracts finished prior to 1 September 2017
Every school will be expected to have a SENCO and to have a headteacher or executive headteacher. If this is a combined role within the school, for example the Head is also the SENCO then a note will need to put on COLLECT for queries 6540Q and 6550Q
Headcount data (on the day) is required for supply teachers who have a contract or are employed under a service agreement with a school for less than 28 days (occasional teachers) that are in school on census day.
Headcount data is also required for support staff who are not employed directly by the school or LA who are in school on census day, i.e. contract cleaners or outsourced IT technicians.
Data does not need to be returned for the following if they are not in school on the
census day:
- temporary staff with service of less than 28 days and who are not expected to
complete service of 28 days or more - casual staff without contracts employed on an ad hoc basis.
If these staff are in school on census day then head count data should be reported for
them.
‘Other support staff’ incorporates support staff that are non classroom based: matrons, nurses, medical staff, librarians, technicians, bursars and other administration/clerical staff, premises and catering staff.
School Workforce Level Data
The majority of the staff information that will be collected for the Workforce Census can be updated in bulk in the Staff Group Updater area, providing the admin user has HR permissions. This can be located in Admin > Personnel > Staff Group Updater.
For more information on the Staff Group Updater click this link:
Please Note: When using the Staff Group Updater to input or change contract information this will only affect the Main Contract. Additional contracts must be altered manually via the staff profile area.
Personal details
To enter or amend details you will need to access a staff member’s profile through Admin > Personnel > Staff > Personal Details (cog), or you can alternatively update everyone’s information in bulk through the Staff Group Updater.
- Family name
- Given name
- Former family names (where applicable and available)
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- Disability
- National Insurance Number
- Ethnic Code
- Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
- Qualified Teacher Route
- Teacher Number – If a teacher number cannot be located please leave blank and submit a note to the DfE or your Local Authority.
- Higher Level Teaching Assistant Status (HLTA)
All fields highlighted in red are mandatory and dependent on the staff members role at the school may be collected for the Workforce Census.
Contract Data
To enter or edit details you can access each staff member’s profile through Admin > Personnel > Staff > (Choose member of staff) Contracts, or you can alternatively update some fields in everyone’s information in bulk using the Staff Group Updater.
You can have multiple contracts open at the same time for one account and one should be set as the 'Main Contract'. To create an additional contract, please click on the black cogwheel in the contracts header.
All fields highlighted in red are mandatory and dependent on the staff members role at the school may be collected for the Workforce Census.
It is considered best practice to give each contract a name. You could for example name each contract with the associated job role i.e ‘teacher contract’.
The census will be collecting all contract data where the end date is after 01/09/2017 or blank.
Each contract must have a base pay (or daily rate) and hours recorded.
Contracts with neither base pay/daily rate or hours recorded should be regarded as occasional employment and must be recorded in the school level module if the member of staff is present on census day.
Contract Type
- Contract types are provided from the common basic data sets.
Contract Dates
- The contract dates must be in the format of DD/MM/YYYY.
- Start date and end date (or blank)
Post
- The classroom teacher post may be used to record teachers on the main or the upper pay range
- Unqualified teachers must be recorded in the post of classroom teacher
- Executive head teacher should be used for a head teacher who directly leads two or more schools in a federation or partnership agreement.
- Support staff based in the classroom for learning and pupil support must be assigned the post of Teaching Assistant
Role Identifier
- This list is provided directly by the DfE. If a role cannot be located please select the role that has the closest description to your role type.
Date of Arrival in School
- The arrival date must be in the format of DD/MM/YYYY (optional for other support staff)
- Used to show the start of the current period of continuous service.
Pay Review Date
- For contracted teachers and Agency/SLA teachers this should be the most recent determination of a teacher’s pay since 1st September 2017 (the review may not have taken place by the time of the school workforce census)
Pay Range
- For non-teachers this will be either “National Joint Council (Local Government Services)” or “Other”. For teachers this will depend on their post and whether or not they have crossed the threshold to the upper pay range. Academies that use their own pay range should assign “Other”.
- The Leadership Pay Range should only be used for staff in leadership positions (head teachers, executive head teachers, deputy heads and assistant heads) and not for classroom teachers.
Pay Framework (Leadership members only)
- Contracts starting before 01/09/2014 will default to the Pre 2014 framework, whereas contracts starting after this date will link to the 2014 framework.
Pay Range Minimum and Pay Range Maximum (Leadership members only)
- Every leadership teacher paid on the leadership pay scale will have a basic salary range
within which they can expect to be paid while they remain in the same post at the same
school.
Origin (Where From)
- If an employee has a new contract and has not changed job role please ensure you choose ‘Not Applicable – Change of Contract’ from the available options. You will need to supply this information for teachers and teaching assistants if the contract start date is later than the 1st September 2009.
Reason for Leaving
- Reason for leaving is separate from Destination and indicates the reason for a teacher or
teaching assistant ending their period of employment with the school or local authority. - Examples include Voluntary Redundancy, Compulsory Redundancy, Left for other
teaching post.
Destination
- Required for all teachers and teaching assistants if they have a finished contract and the contract end date is after 1st September 2017.
Daily Rate
- Only required for Agency/SLA teachers. If daily rate is 'Yes' then hours worked per week and FTE hours per week must be provided. If daily rate is provided, no base pay is needed.
Base Pay
- Please ensure when inputting your base pay that no special characters are used, such as the ‘£’ symbol. The Base Pay is the employee’s gross actual annual salary.
- It should not include any additional payments or allowances.
- The pay of part-time or term time only staff must not be adjusted upwards to the pay of a full-time equivalent member of staff.
- If any elements of the salary are safeguarded these must be reflected in the base pay.
- Necessary for all staff not paid by daily rates.
Safe Guarded Salary
- Only required for contracted teachers.
Category of Additional Payments
- Should include all additional payments earned between the 03/11/2017 and 08/11/2018.
- TLR3 payments need to be reported separately from other TLR payments.
Additional Payment Amount
- The annual actual amount should be given.
Pay Start Date
- For TLR3 payments
Pay End Date
- For TLR3 payments
Hours Worked Per Week
- This number should be no more than one decimal place (e.g. 32.5). The hours per week represents how many actual hours the employee works. The standard directed hours per week for teachers is 32.5.
- Hours are recorded as decimal figures, not as hours and minutes (27.5 means 27 and a
half hours).
FTE ratio |
Directed hours per week |
0.1 |
3.25 |
0.2 |
6.5 |
0.3 |
9.75 |
0.4 |
13 |
0.5 |
16.25 |
0.6 |
19.5 |
0.7 |
22.75 |
0.8 |
26 |
0.9 |
29.25 |
1.0 |
32.5 |
FTE Hours Per Week
- This number should be no more than one decimal place (e.g. 32.5). The FTE hours per week represents how many hours a full time person would be completing. FTE hours per week may vary.
Weeks Per Year
Absences
The census will be collecting absence data for teachers and teaching assistants active during the period of 01/09/2017 and 31/08/2018.
To enter this data please go to Admin > Personnel > Manage Staff Attendance.
The census will be looking for the first and last day of each absence, working days lost and the absence category for all contracted teachers and teaching assistants.
This data item is required for sickness and pregnancy related absences only and is reported in days to the nearest half day.
For help using the Manage Staff attendance module, please click on the link below.
Qualifications
Qualifications will need to be submitted for all teachers, teaching assistants and other support staff. All qualifications graded Level 4 or above should be supplied.
The SENCO qualification must be recorded where present for any SENCOs.
Contracted teaching staff will need to declare their class of degree if their school arrival date is from 1st August 2013.
To enter employee qualifications you will need to go to Admin > Personnel > Staff > Staff Profile > Qualifications and click on the black cog. All qualifications provided in the drop down box are supplied directly from the DfE common basic data sets.
School Level Data (Headcounts)
Teacher Vacancies
The census will be collecting information about each vacant or temporarily filled teaching post on census day including:
- Vacancy Post
- Vacancy Subject
- Vacancy Tenure
- Vacancy Temporarily Filled
- Vacancy Advertised
To input this information you will need to go to Admin > Census > Workforce > Staff Vacancies. More information will be supplied on this page.
Staff Information
A headcount of occasional staff members in service on census day (8th November) should be recorded. To input this information you will need to go to Admin > Census > Workforce:
- Input occasional teacher count
- Input other staff head count
If the count is ‘zero’ then please enter 0. If you completed your Workforce Census with ScholarPack last year you may see your count from the previous census when accessing this area please amend this.
Removing staff from the census
If you go to Admin > Personnel > Staff, on each account you will see a note specifying if that account ‘will be included in the workforce census’.
To exclude an account simply click on the green note saying ‘[Account Name] will be included in the workforce census’ and the note will then change to red text saying ‘[Account Name] will be excluded from the workforce census’
Validating your census File
Once you have ensured that all necessary information is complete, go to Admin > Census > Workforce Census> Calculate Full Census Return to validate your information. Any errors or queries will be displayed here.
Generating your census file
Once you have checked the validity of your data you will be able to generate a summary of the information in Admin > Census > Workforce > Generate Census Summary. Once you are happy with the summary of information you will need to click on Download Census File from the main census page.
This file will download to your computer and you will be required to either send this information to your Local Authority, or upload directly to the DfE Collect Portal. If you are unsure we recommend you contact your Local Authority for more information.
For further advice and support, please see the attached link to the DfE census documentation: