November 2022 News Blog Post

We have created a handy helpsheet to help you prepare for the school work force census. This can be accessed via the customer portal here: School Workforce census helpsheet

Key Dates for the School Workforce Census
Census date: 03/11/2022
Continuous contracts collected from 01/09/2021to 03/11/2022
Absences collected from 01/09/2021 to 31/08/2022

For schools that submit data to COLLECT the deadline is 2nd December 2022, local authority schools will need to check with their LA for their return deadlines.

Arbor Documentation available from the link below. Please note the document references 2021 as Arbor have not provided an up-to-date version this is still valid for the moment.
https://my.www.schoolicts.co.uk/portal/kb?id=17

Arbor also have an updated webpage on the SWC:
https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002834237-2021-Workforce-Census-Guide#preparing-for-this-census-0-0

DfE Guidance
We strongly advise downloading the DfE guidance for clarification on who should and who should not be included in the census. This can be downloaded from the below link.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094039/School_workforce_census_2022_summary_specification.pdf

Check your data using the Data Quality Dashboard.

Before the Dry Run facility opens, you can start preparing for Census by heading over to your Data Quality Dashboard. You’ll find three key areas to help you check and prepare your data, which you should work through in this order: –

1. Merge or delete any duplicate staff profiles in the Suspected Duplicates section.

2. Add and update basic details in the Staff section.

3. Add in key Census information in the School Workforce Census section to add key Census information. Just click a cell to add the data!

4. Pay Scales: In Arbor, when looking at Pay scales, all scales may display differently and may no longer be separated by Service Term as these are not included in Arbor, such as NJC, Leadership etc. If you have migrated from another MIS, it is advisory to ensure that these are updated and correct. You may wish to rename the scales to ensure you are awarding correctly e.g. NJC scale 1 or Teachers Upper scale 1 etc. Please use the link below for further guidance on how to amend, update, create and complete Pay scales in Arbor: –https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/203790902-Managing-and-Updating-Pay-Scales#deleting-a-pay-scale-0-5

5. Check your SENCo is set up – detailed guidance on how to do this can be found here:- https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014107837-How-to-set-up-your-SENCo-for-the-Workforce-Census#step-2-check-your-senco-is-set-up-0-1

6. Staff Absence data – Make sure staff absences have been recorded: How can I see Staff Absence Statistics?

7. Qualification data – Record Staff qualifications (Qualification codes, Subject Codes and Class of Degree) from the Qualifications & Checks area on staff member’s profiles.

8. Date of last pay review – Use the Staff section part of the Check your data using the Data Quality Dashboard.

9. Vacancies – On census day, you need to add in the vacancies that are currently open at your school. All fields, including the Subject and Tenure fields, are being collected this year.

10. Third-party support staff headcount – On census day, you need to add in headcount numbers for occasional teaching staff and third-party support staff are both required. You can see how to add this in the Workforce Census guide.

11. Please see our guide on recording Additional Payments in Arbor https://my.www.schoolicts.co.uk/portal/kb?id=563

12. Note on staff working in multiple schools – Teachers who work in multiple schools, even if the schools are part of a Multi Academy Trust, will need to be recorded separately in each of the schools.
Each school will need to record the name, teacher number, QTS, QTLS and EYTS of the staff and to separately record the hours worked by staff in each school. This data must be recorded for each school to ensure that staff are not being double counted and to ensure that an accurate record is made of staffing and hours worked in each school.

Update on Payments

With regards to pay scales, we are aware that these have not yet been confirmed by the DfE. Once these have been confirmed, we would advise to add these in, and then submit the census as it looks at the payments as on the day.

Any additional payments such as TLRs are also included within the confirmed details with the pay scales. Again these should be added once the DfE has published them. When entering any additional payments into Arbor, these should be done so via the Additional Payments section of a contract and not by Allowances.

Unfortunately it is not possible to report on who has which payments marked as Allowances or Additional Payments so you would need to check each staff record.

The reason we advised to use Additional Payments is so your census will reflect what the payments are for, whether they be TLR’s or any other additional payments that the DfE list provide. This does include Other so you can add payments which may not fit anything else in the list such as First Aid. As the DfE provide this list, we would advise that anywhere possible where the DfE provide the options for information to be added, to do so using this list to ensure you are complying with the DfE requests.

FREE Webinar
If you have never completed the school workforce census, we would highly recommend attending training to ensure the accurate return of data as the census is a legal requirement. We can put on additional dates if there is demand. Please email helpdesk@Schoolicts.co.uk to place your interest in an additional training session.

Free overview webinar – 4th November 2022
https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/events/school-workforce-census-arbor-webinar/?occurrence=2022-11-04

You can now Generate a quick summary report of your Post-16 data to ensure you receive all your funding from the School Census: Autumn Census Post-16 Report

Known Issue

Some schools have reported to us that where students have either transferred or withdrawn from programmes, in either the current or previous academic year, the total hours are being calculated and amended in the Planned Learning and EEP Hours tables. This calculation of planned hours is shown in the downloadable Post 16 Census Report.

Following discussions with Arbor this is under investigation and they are in conversation with the DfE. They have advised effected schools to manually amend the student planned hours where necessary.

(1)  Open the Learning & EEP Hours table and filter to the appropriate year group and academic year

(2)  Open the Planned Learning Hours for the student

(3)  Open the programme that the student transferred to or withdrew from

Click edit in the programme enrolment and enter a 0 into the planned hours as appropriate first or second year

• School events can be managed easily by heading to  School > Timetable > School Events to use Arbor’s new event management pages. Use All School Events to see all your events and use the bulk actions to change the staff or location or Use Repeating School Events (List) to see events that happen more than once, and use the bulk actions to change the staff, the event type and whether cover is required.
• The Students > Demographics > Students with SEN page now includes the end date, so you can report on expired statuses, or see EHCP end dates.
• P16 Census You can now Generate a quick summary report of your Post-16 data to ensure you receive all your funding from the School Census: Autumn Census Post-16 Report
• Automatically set Outcome Grades from Exam Results for the ILR.
• When importing from Options, unique ID is now required, but name and ID matching is no longer case-sensitive.
• Arbor have improved background processing when you create, end or delete timetable slots.
• When students are deleted in bulk (such as via the Data Retention page), these are now staggered in the background. You might find when deleting large amounts of data, the process will be locked for a few minutes while this is done.
• Assessment – Only assignments from the current academic year will now be shown on the Parent and Student Portals.

Attendance update

• Arbor have reverted the description for the X code back to Not Required (non Compulsory School Age), as it’s no longer used for Covid-related absences.
• The DfE no longer requires schools to complete the weekly EdSet attendance form, but Arbor won’t be removing the Covid-19 Dashboard for now. If you want to continue to share your data, you can use do this via Wonde.
• The Students > Attendance > Absentees By Date page now includes U marks to enable you to follow up with those physically present but statistically absent marks.

A full list of Attendance codes and how they count towards statutory attendance can be found here

MAT MIS

• Charts – you can now compare your data to the previous academic year rather than 2 years prior.
• Arbor have removed the Region field from the Institutions page.
• You can now schedule Custom Report Writer report.

With the SWC fast approaching a reminder of where the relevant details are input for staff in ScholarPack. Search for the staff member using the top tight search box and select them to pull up their details.

Clicking on the cog to the right of their name in the top left of the screen allows you to input items such as their teacher number, NI number, QTS, QTS route and HLTA status, Gender, Ethncity and date of birth amongst others.

Clicking on the cog to the right of contract info in the centre section allows you to input details such as contract start/end date, post held, base salary, daily rate and FTE hours.

Absences can be viewed by academic year in the panel above the contracts by clicking into the relevant year.

Below the contract information panel there is also an extra details section where information such as qualifications and subjects taught can be stored. To open these sections, click on the cog to the right of the heading.

Training courses for the academic year 2022/2023 are now live! We have a comprehensive schedule of online ‘live’ SIMS training courses along with Distance Learning courses to help you develop your knowledge of SIMS and get the most out of your MIS (Management Information System).

Booking is now open please visit https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/online-training/

Upcoming Training courses

SIMS

• SIMS Curriculum Management Using NovaT – 4 days – 08-09/11/22 & 15-16/11/22     
• SIMS Extended Reporting – 10/11/22                                   
• FMS Advanced – 11/11/22                                    
• SIMS Attendance Primary – 17/11/22                                    
• Exam Organiser 2 days – 22/11/22 – this course is now sold out but please let us know if you are interested in attending this course and we will look to schedule another date
• SIMS SEN user – 24/11/22                                    
• FMS School Fund – 25/11/22                                    

Arbor

• Arbor Behaviour – User Training and Reporting – 08/11/22 
• Arbor Attendance – 11/11/22 
• Arbor New Office User – 23/11/22 
• Arbor Staff and Basic Analysis – 23/11/22 
• Arbor Finance – 01/12/22 
• Arbor Parental Engagement and Communications – 06/12/22 
• Arbor Basic Assessment Skills – 08/12/22 
• Arbor Examinations – 13/12/22