Key Dates for the School Workforce Census
- Census date 06/11/2025
- Absence Start date 01/09/2024
- Absence End Date 31/08/2025
- Continuous Contract Start Date 01/09/2024
- Continuous Contract End Date 06/11/2025.
Access DfE guidance about the School Workforce Census here. Including the main changes compared to previous years.
Deadline for submitting your data to the DfE: 5th December 2025
The DfE asks for the following items to be given specific attention when schools are making their return.
- Ethnicity and disability status are requested for all staff. Staff can refuse to answer these questions, but they should be asked. If a circular email has been sent to staff and they have not responded, this should be recorded as ‘Information not yet obtained’ and a note ‘4221Q: Question has not been asked’ should be entered. The response of ‘Refused’ should be used where staff have actively refused, such as by checking that box in a data collection form.
- Each school’s return should identify the qualified teacher who has the role of SEN Coordinator
- Base pay for part-time staff must be reported as the actual annual salary and not the full-time equivalent
- Each teacher must have the correct qualified teacher status recorded in the fields for QTS, EYTS or QTLS
- Each teacher in the first or second year of induction should be identified in the Newly Qualified Teacher field
- Only Teacher vacancies are required in the census
- Where Computer Science is taught, it should be recorded as such (code CSI), and not ICT.
Schools should ensure that ethnicity and disability information is recorded for workforce members within 100 calendar days of them joining the school
During our suppliers meeting with the DfE on 15/07/2025, the DfE made it clear that schools should be recording both ethnicity and disability information for their workforce members within 100 days (3 months) of those workforce members having joined the school.
The ethnicity aspect of this requirement is unlikely to need much implementing for most schools, but the new disability field was only introduced as blank to SIMS by the SIMS Summer Release 2025 and will need to be fully implemented as soon as possible and before the School Workforce Census 2025 is uploaded to the DfE via COLLECT.
Ethnicity
Acceptable: Any of the Ethnicity lookups, including 'Did not wish to be recorded', except for 'Not obtained'.
Unacceptable: Blank or 'Not obtained'.
Disability
Acceptable: Any of the Disability lookups, including 'Refused', except for 'Information not yet obtained'.
Unacceptable: Blank or 'information not yet obtained'.
Relevant excerpt from the DfE validation specification
The corresponding DfE file for use in School Workforce Census applications is not yet available
| Rule number | Validation Check | Error Messages |
| 4221Q | Where <SchoolArrivalDate> present, and <ReferenceDate> minus <SchoolArrivalDate> greater than 100 days, then <Ethnicity> should not be equal to 'NOBT' | Please check: Staff member started more than 3 months previously but Ethnicity has not been obtained. Staff members can refuse to provide the information, but it should be asked for. Refusal should be recorded as 'Refused' (REFU), not as 'Information not yet obtained' (NOBT). |
| 4225 | <Disability> must be provided and field format and/or allowed values must match associated CBDS entry | Disability is missing or invalid. This data is important to improve outcomes and opportunities for disabled people and should be fully reported. |
| 4226Q | Where <SchoolArrivalDate> present, and <ReferenceDate> minus <SchoolArrivalDate> greater than 100 days, then <Disability> should not be equal to 'NOBT' | Please check: Staff member started more than 3 months previously but Disability Status has not been obtained. Staff members can refuse to provide the information, but it should be asked for. Refusal should be recorded as 'Refused' (REFU), not as 'Information not yet obtained' (NOBT). |
Please note
There are two ethnicity category codes referred to above that have slightly different descriptions in CBDS compared to SIMS. However, we don't expect this to cause confusion.
| Staff Ethnicity Category Code | CBDS Description | SIMS Description |
| NOBT | Information not yet obtained | NOBT - Not Obtained |
| REFU | Refused | REFU - Did not wish to be recorded |
Initial version of the DfE validations and SIMS solutions Excel workbook
Version 2025.1.0 of the workbook is available from our Statutory Returns Downloads page. This initial version is based on version 2025.1.0 of the DfE validation workbook for School Workforce Census 2025 and the SIMS solutions file provided by Fileset 3101. You will find that several new DfE validations don't yet have a SIMS solution, but those missing solutions will be put in place by Fileset 3102.
You can scroll down to the attachments at the bottom of this page to download a copy of this initial version of of the DfE validations and SIMS solutions Excel workbook.
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.
Please see the below attachments on this article
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.
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