Department For Education
The school workforce census is a statutory data collection that takes place each autumn. You must complete statutory censuses by law unless theres 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:
- coordinating 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.
Important dates
Dates for the 2022 census:
- census day is 3 November 2022
- deadline for submitting your data is 2 December 2022
Submit your data
Youll need to:
- register and log in with DfE Sign-in
- use COLLECT to submit your data
Please 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, please use the DfE Sign-in request form.
If youve forgotten your password, use DfE Sign-in to reset it. You will need to click Start now and then the Ive forgotten my password link.
Note that well only be able to change the status of your data submission to authorised once youve 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 2022: technical information
- School workforce census 2022: summary specification
- School workforce census 2022: guides (to be added later)
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.
Video: DfE School Workforce
Do you need help?
Submitting data
Please use the service request form if you have any questions about your data. We aim to answer your question within 5 working days.
Feedback
Please use the feedback form if you have any comments about our data collection service, including COLLECT and the helpdesk service.
Last updated 28 July 2022 +show all updates
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Added a link to the 'School workforce census: summary specification' for 2022.
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Updated the census dates for 2022. Added a link to the 2022 business and technical specification and validation rules.
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Added link to 'School workforce census 2021: notepad entries for COLLECT queries'.
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Added a link to 'School workforce census 2021: guides'.
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Updated 'Important dates' and added link to 'School workforce census 2021: technical information' in 'School workforce census documents' section.
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Added School workforce census 2020: notepad entries for COLLECT queries.
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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'.
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Added a link to the guidance 'School workforce census 2020: technical information' (in the section 'School workforce census documents').
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Added link to new guidance on the 'School workforce census 2019: notepad entries for COLLECT queries'.
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Added a link to XML converters and guides for school workforce census 2019.
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