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School Workforce Census – 5th November 2026

By 7th October 2026No Comments

School Workforce Census Thursday 5th November 2026 

We would like to remind all schools that the School Workforce Census date is set for Thursday 5th November 2026. It is crucial to ensure that all necessary data is accurately collected and prepared for submission. The final deadline to return the data to the Department for Education (DfE) is Friday 4th December 2026.

Please be aware that your Local Authority may have an earlier submission deadline, so we recommend checking with them to avoid any delays.

Customer Support 

We will be available to take calls throughout the collection period so please do not hesitate to contact the help desk if you require support.

To help us resolve any issues as quickly as possible, please provide any query or error numbers when logging your ticket.

Any further updates will be shared via the MIS specific campaign news feeds on our customer portal (listed under Additional Resources at the bottom of this email).  Customers can also check the news section at https://www.schoolicts.co.uk/latest-news/ .

Consultancy Services – Census Support

Flexible, expert-led support for statutory returns – our Data Services package is a flexible, remote solution designed to support schools through key statutory returns and annual MIS procedures. Whether you need help with one return or all of them, we work alongside your team to ensure data is clean, complete, and submitted correctly saving valuable staff time and ensuring compliance. Reach out today @ helpdesk@Schoolicts.co.uk for more information

School Workforce Census (Autumn) 

  • Help completing staff contracts, roles, and pay data
  • Error resolution and validation support
  • Staff absence checking
  • Pay scale and allowance updates

Training 

We will be running School Workforce Census training sessions on the following dates; please use the links below to book your place.

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.

The full autumn term training schedules can be found using the below links: –

 

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: –

 Key Dates for the School Workforce Census

  • Census date: 05/11/2026
  • Continuous contracts collected from 01/09/2025 to 05/11/2026
  • Absences collected from 01/09/2025 to 31/08/2026
  • For schools that submit data to COLLECT, the deadline is Friday 4th December 2026.  Local authority schools will need to check with their LA for their return deadlines.

Notable Changes to the School Workforce Census for 2026

How to record working days lost in cases where less than half a day has been lost has been clarified.

  • Only Sickness and pregnancy related absences are collected- and only for classroom staff
  • Working days lost should be recorded to the nearest half day
    • Absences less than a half day do not need to be reported
    • If they are reported, then working days lost should be equal to zero.
    • If contracted to work less than half a day and absent that day, working days lost should be recorded as a half day.

Note on Newly Qualified Teacher

From September 2021, statutory induction changed for new teachers and all early career teachers undergoing statutory induction starting from September 2021 are entitled to 2 years of high-quality professional support based on the ECF. State funded schools offering statutory induction will receive additional funding to deliver the new ECF.

Funding for the second year of induction will depend on data submitted in the SWC, so special care should be taken that data entered in this field is correct. 

Note on School Business Professional and Leadership Non-Teaching

Schools are required to indicate those members of their staff who are School Business Professionals.

‘School Business Professional’ refers to staff and is expected to include staff with the roles of ‘Bursar’, ‘Business Manager’, ’Finance Officer’, ’Office Manager’, ‘Premises Manager’ or ‘ICT Network Manager’.

To be added as School Business Professionals they must hold a specific qualification, the full list can be found on page 42 of the School Workforce Business and Technical specification 2026

Schools are required to indicate those members of their staff who are part of the Senior Leadership Team, including non-teachers

‘Leadership non-teacher’ refers to any member of staff, not reported in a teaching post, who is part of the school’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) or has other formal leadership responsibilities.

Note on staff working in multiple schools e.g. MATs

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.

Additional Resources

All Census documentation can be found on our customer portal https://my.schoolicts.co.uk/ – click on Knowledge Base tile and then tile for relevant MIS

MIS specific guidance links – please select the relevant link below for MIS specific guidance.

Critical SIMS Patches for On-Premise Schools

It is essential that all external SIMS7 On-Premise schools have deployed the following critical patches when there are no users logged in SIMS. Please note, they should be deployed after the summer upgrade has been applied.

Patch 31418

Includes important fixes for DMS-related issues affecting:

  • Individual Reports
  • Profiles
  • Reporting

SIMS Summer 2026 Workstation Patch 2

This update contains important workstation fixes and improvements. We strongly recommend applying this patch if it has not already been deployed.

Patch 31424: SIMS7 – Next Gen Conduct Redirect Issue

PPG have identified an issue with the SIMS7 redirects for Conduct in SIMS Next Gen, specifically affecting: Focus > Student > Student Teacher View. Patch 31424 has been created to resolve this issue.

Database Patch 31462: Validate Memberships and Free School Meals Records

PPG have identified an issue affecting the Validate Memberships process when used with the new Expanded and Targeted Free School Meals (FSM) record types.

Historically, the Validate Memberships process merged overlapping FSM records into a single continuous record. With the introduction of the new FSM categories, records belonging to different FSM types may be merged incorrectly.

To prevent this, Database Patch 31462 has been released.

Important: Until this patch has been applied, PPG strongly recommend that users do not run the Validate Memberships process on records containing the new FSM types.

Patch 31422 : Consolidated Database Patch 1 for the SIMS Summer Release 2026.

Patch 31425: SIMS and FMS Login Timeout Issues

On 22 July 2026, an issue was reported where users were unable to log in to SIMS or FMS and experienced timeout-related errors, including:

  • Not Responding
  • Database Query Timed Out

To resolve this issue, please apply Patch 31425 and Restart the SSM Service.

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