Guidance

School workforce census: guide to submitting data

How local authorities, local-authority-maintained schools, and academies should collect and submit data for the school workforce census.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 25 March 2014
• Last updated: 25 April 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

The school workforce census is a statutory data collection that takes place each autumn. You must complete statutory censuses by law unless there’s a good reason not to.

The census collects data on all teaching and support staff in regular employment, including those working for:

• local authorities on central contracts
• local-authority-maintained schools
• academies
• free schools, including:
  • studio schools
  • university technical colleges
• pupil referral units (local authority establishments that provide education for children who cannot attend a mainstream school)

Local authorities are responsible for:

• co-ordinating and approving the submission of census data from all their maintained schools
• submitting data for centrally employed school staff

Academies are responsible for submitting and approving their own census data.

Local authorities, local-authority-maintained schools and academies should issue privacy notices to all members of staff. Privacy notices inform staff members about the details of the census and their rights under the Data Protection Act.

You can find earlier versions of this page on the National Archives website.

Important dates

Dates for the 2024 census:

• census day is 7 November 2024
• deadline for submitting your data is 6 December 2024

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

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

Contact your school or local authority approver, if:

• you want to request a DfE Sign-in username or password so you can access COLLECT
• ‘school workforce census’ is not on the list of collections you can see in COLLECT

Get help using DfE Sign-in

If you do not know who your approver is, use the DfE Sign-in request form.

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.

School workforce census documents

These documents will help you complete the census:

• COLLECT guides for schools and local authorities
• School workforce census: technical information
• School workforce census: summary specification
• School workforce census: guides

If you wish to request XSLT files for the validation rules and school summary report, contact the data collection helpdesk via the service request form.

Help submitting data

Use the service request form if you have any questions about your data. We aim to answer your question within 5 working days.

Use the feedback form if you have any comments about our data collection service, including COLLECT and the helpdesk service.

Published 25 March 2014
Last updated 25 April 2024 + show all updates

1. 25 April 2024

   Updated the dates for the 2024 census.

2. 6 July 2023

   Removed 'School workforce census 2022: notepad entries for COLLECT queries' as it is no longer relevant.

3. 21 April 2023

   The 'Important dates' section was updated with dates for the 2023 census.

4. 3 November 2022

   The 'School workforce census 2022: notepad entries for COLLECT queries' has been added.

5. 5 September 2022

   Added a link to 'School workforce census 2022: guides'.

6. 28 July 2022

   Added a link to the 'School workforce census: summary specification' for 2022.

7. 14 April 2022

   Updated the census dates for 2022. Added a link to the 2022 business and technical specification and validation rules.

8. 22 October 2021

   Added link to 'School workforce census 2021: notepad entries for COLLECT queries'.

9. 20 September 2021

   Added a link to 'School workforce census 2021: guides'.

10. 20 May 2021

    Updated 'Important dates' and added link to 'School workforce census 2021: technical information' in 'School workforce census documents' section.

11. 28 October 2020

    Added School workforce census 2020: notepad entries for COLLECT queries.

12. 24 August 2020

    Updated 'Important dates' and 'School workforce census documents' sections. Added a banner about reductions to the data collected in the 2020 school workforce census. Added a link to 'School workforce census 2020: guide'.

13. 12 February 2020

    Added a link to the guidance 'School workforce census 2020: technical information' (in the section 'School workforce census documents').

14. 15 October 2019

    Added link to new guidance on the 'School workforce census 2019: notepad entries for COLLECT queries'.

15. 4 October 2019

    Added a link to XML converters and guides for school workforce census 2019.

16. 18 June 2019

    Added link to guides for school workforce census 2019.

17. 17 June 2019

    Added link to School workforce census 2019: summary report specification.

18. 26 March 2019

    Added a link to 'School workforce census 2019' and updated important dates.

19. 29 January 2019

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

20. 10 December 2018

    Updated COLLECT link from secure access to DfE sign in.

21. 30 October 2018

    Updated video in the guide.

22. 17 October 2018

    Added 'School workforce census 2018: notepad entries for COLLECT queries' guidance.

23. 2 July 2018

    Added 'School workforce census 2018: guides'.

24. 17 April 2018

    Added 'School workforce census 2018: business and technical specification'.

25. 31 January 2018

    Added 2018 census dates.

26. 16 November 2017

    Added 'Introduction to the School Workforce Collection' video.

27. 30 October 2017

    Added 'School workforce census 2017: notepad entries for COLLECT queries' guide.

28. 31 August 2017

    Added link to 2017 school workforce census guides.

29. 4 April 2017

    Added dates for the 2017 census and a link to the 'School workforce census 2017: business and technical specification'.

30. 18 October 2016

    Added a link to COLLECT report guides for people who submit data (source) and people who check the submitted data is correct (agent).

31. 5 October 2016

    Added link to 'School workforce census 2016: notepad entries for COLLECT queries'.

32. 6 September 2016

    Added COLLECT user guides for schools and local authorities.

33. 8 August 2016

    Added a link to 'School workforce census 2016: LAs with centrally employed staff'.

34. 4 August 2016

    Added links to the 2016 school summary report technical specification and guide for school-employed staff.

35. 18 March 2016

    Added dates for the 2016 census.

36. 29 October 2015

    Added a link to 'School workforce census 2015: notepad entries for COLLECT queries'.

37. 11 September 2015

    Added links to 2015 COLLECT guides and a guide for centrally employed staff'

38. 28 July 2015

    Added link to 'School workforce census 2015: guide for school-employed staff'.

39. 1 July 2015

    Added a link to the XML schema files and the school summary report technical specification for the 2015 census.

40. 21 May 2015

    Added link to 'School workforce census 2015: business and technical specification'.

41. 11 September 2014

    Added link to 'XML generators' page in the technical area.

42. 9 September 2014

    Added school workforce census 2014 guides and COLLECT guides.

43. 1 September 2014

    Added link to 'School workforce census 2014: early warning letter'.

44. 4 August 2014

    Added link to 'Access database 2014 collection'.

45. 8 July 2014

    Added links to XML schema and XSLT validation files.

46. 25 March 2014

    First published.