School Workforce Census 2023 (SWC) - SIMS

Key Dates for the School Workforce Census

Census Day         02/11/2023
Absence dates    01/09/2022 to 31/08/2023
Contract dates    01/09/2022 to 02/11/2023*
Snapshot data    Staff in regular service on 02/11/2023 (census reference date)

Historical date:  Staff with regular service who have either or both for the following to report.

• • Contracts/service agreements which started/ended between 01/09/2022 and 02/11/2023
  • Absences in the period 01/09/2022 - 31/08/2023

*Although employment leaving date is not included in this census, it is very important for selected which staff to include in the census when contracts / service agreements are NOT being included in the census.

Deadline for submitting your data to the DfE: 1st December 2023

Changes to the SWC & known issues

1. A new category of School Business Professional (SBP) has been added.
   1. The existing categories of Contract Teachers and Agency/SA Teachers have been modified to exclude SBP.
   2. The data items collected for the SBP category are the same as those collected for the existing 'Leadership, Non-Teacher', except that SBP also collects destination and leaving reason.
2. A new SWC post of School Business Profession (SBP) has been added.
3. A further set of qualifications is included in the subject code set for use with SBP.
   1. Z206 - Level 3 School Administration Foundation Certificate
   2. Z207 - Level 3 Procurement & Supply Assistant
   3. Z208 - Level 4 SBP Apprenticeship
   4. Z209 - Level 4 Diploma SBM
   5. Z210 - Level 4 Commercial procurement & supply
   6. Z211 - CIPFA Certificate in Public Sector Asset Management for School Business
   7. Z212 - Level 5 Diploma SBM
   8. Z213 - Level 6 Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship
   9. Z214 - CIPFA Diploma in School Financial and Operational Leadership
   10. Z215 - Level 7 Senior Leaders Masters Degree Apprenticeship
4. A new data item for membership of the Senior Leadership Team has been added and is collected for all categories.

Further information on the role of SBP (School Business Professional) 

You can click here for DfE guidance, but I have found that looking at the DfE validation 'rules' can also be very instructive to understand what the DfE has in mind, and I think this is also true for the new SBP classification.

DfE validation errors 4589 and 4605 make is very clear that a teacher cannot be a SBP.

• Error 4589: Leaving Reason of 'No longer teaching but still in education' or 'Left the teaching profession' is invalid for School Business Professionals.
• Error 4605: Origin of 'First employment in teaching' is invalid for School Business Professionals.

DfE validation query 6560Q indicates that a SBP might well be a member of the SLT (Senior Leadership Team).

• Query 6560Q: The school has School Business Professionals, but none are on the SLT. Please check and confirm this is correct.

DfE validation query 6570Q indicates that a SBP is likely to have one or more qualifications to report and these are likely to be at level 3 and above, given that the qualifications added by the DfE for SBP are at levels 3 to 7.

• Query 6570Q: No qualifications are recorded for staff with post of 'School Business Professional'. Please check and confirm this is correct.

Known issues 

Issue 1: Working days lost for an absence

Working days lost for an absence is stored in SIMS to accuracy of 5 decimal places, but the DfE will only accept an accuracy of '.0' or '.5' when this is reported in the census return. For example, where SIMS stores '1.00000' this should be reported to the DfE as '1.0'. SIMS is not carrying out this transformation for the reporting of Working Days Lost in the return file, which triggers validation error 2980 (Working Days Lost is in an invalid format. Format must be 999.9 and should be to the nearest half day).

Solution

This issue has proved more difficult to resolve than SIMS expected, and a full solution requires both a fileset import (Fileset 2503 or above) and application of a database patch (CDP 2 or above). 

Over the last few days we have been rolling out the latest patch and filset for our schools so please Check at the top of your census page for the most current fileset version (2506) and patch (28506) - contact Keystone MIS to request this patch if you experience the 2980 error or latest fileset and patch has not been applied to your school.  

Issue 2: DfE validation error 4990 (Where Last Day of a sickness absence is provided then the number of Working Days Lost must be greater than zero).

Solution 
This fix is likely to be provided as part of the database patch 28506 (check if you have that patch at the top of your census return) which we have rolled out to SIMS schools during the last week.  Please contact us if you are still having this issue.  

Guides & Additional help

The Validation errors and query document -  this is a helpful Excel document which explains in further detail about any errors or queries you may have on your own SWC will be added once it is released by SIMS. 

Click here for the Preparing for the School Workforce Census 2023 Return guidebook 

Click here for a link to several reports we created for schools to help them check their data and make sure everything looks correct

Notepad entries for upload onto Collect

Click here on how to update your pay scales and update them on your system.  The guide is one we created in 2019 but it is still applicable and easy to follow. 

Full DfE breakdown of the data that is collected.

Guide on how to use Collect to upload your return to the DfE

There is a lot of information to digest so please don't forget that our service desk is on hand for any queries as always on 01482 238700, you can send us an e-mail to support@keystonemis.co.uk or even click on the live chat button on our website to speak directly to the support team.