Guidance

General hospital school census: guide to submitting data

What data general hospital schools must collect and how to submit it.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 20 January 2016
• Last updated: 21 October 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

The general hospital school census is a statutory census that takes place every January. You must complete statutory censuses by law unless there’s a good reason not to.

The census collects the following information from general hospital schools:

• their contact details
• how many pupils there are on the attendance register
• the number of teaching staff and non teaching staff
• how many pupils have special educational needs (SEN)
• how many pupils are eligible for free school meals (FSM)

Important dates

2025 census dates:

• census day: Thursday 16 January 2025
• deadline for submitting your data: Friday 14 February 2025

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

• register and log in with DfE Sign-in
• use COLLECT to submit your school census data

Get help using DfE Sign-in

If you’ve forgotten your password, use DfE Sign-in to reset it. You will need to click ‘Start now’ and then the ‘I’ve forgotten my password’ link.

We’ll only be able to change the status of your data submission to ‘authorised’ once you’ve cleared all errors in the data in COLLECT.

Completing the 2025 census

Read the general hospital school census guide on submitting the January 2025 census.

Help

If you would like help completing the general hospital census, or you have any questions about the census, use the data collections service request form.

Feedback

If you have any comments about the Data Collection Helpdesk service, the COLLECT system or any other aspects of our data collection service, use the data collections service request form.

Published 20 January 2016
Last updated 21 October 2024 + show all updates

1. 21 October 2024

   Updated important dates for general hospital school census 2025.

2. 16 October 2023

   Added the 2024 census dates.

3. 24 November 2022

   Updated with dates and link to guidance for 2023 census.

4. 1 October 2021

   Updating important dates and other information for 2022.

5. 15 January 2021

   Updated for the 2021 census.

6. 2 January 2020

   Updated with dates for the 2020 census.

7. 30 January 2019

   Updated 'Submit your data section' and DfE Sign-in help link.

8. 23 January 2019

   Updated page with dates for 2019. Updated general hospital schools census link to 2019 page.

9. 10 December 2018

   Updated COLLECT link from secure access to DfE sign in.

10. 22 November 2017

    Updated with 2018 census dates.

11. 23 December 2016

    Updated census dates with 2017 information.

12. 20 January 2016

    First published.