Spring 2022 School Census Bulletin

Temporary attendance codes available for summer term 2020 must not be used after the end of academic year 2019/20

ESS have released the following information regarding attendance codes:

‘We have heard that some DfE schools are continuing to use the temporary attendance codes that we made available for use in the summer term 2020.  These codes became illegal for use in official registers from the start of academic year 2020/21 onwards.  If a DfE school has used one of these now ‘illegal’ codes in their official attendance registers for autumn term 2022, one of more DfE validation errors for School Census Spring 2022 will be triggered and the DfE is very unlikely to accept any reason provided via COLLECT.  Schools that have used the now ‘illegal’ temporary attendance codes for the autumn term 2021 must replace them with a suitable ‘legal’ attendance code.

Please note that a patch was provided at the end of academic year 2019/20 that replaced any temporary attendance codes used for the summer term 2020 with the normal codes it was mapped to and then made the temporary attendance codes inactive (so they could not be selected for future official attendance registers).  As I understand it, any school that has made use of the defunct temporary attendance codes could not have run the said patch.  With this in mind, we are looking into providing a patch that will ensure that the now illegal temporary attendance codes are set inactive. Such a patch could then be included in a SIMS release, which should ensure that the defunct temporary attendance codes cannot be used for the official attendance register.’

ESS have released the following information on error 2361 (relating to PRUs ONLY):

‘There are two issues in SIMS that can trigger this validation error.

Issue 1: The PRU phase school has decided not to provide alternative provision data related to pupils who have been admitted as single registered

The inclusion of alternative provision data for pupils who have joined a PRU Phase school as single registered is currently voluntary, so validation error 2361 (Alternative Provision (AP) reason is missing or invalid for a single registered placement) should not be triggered for such a school where they have decided not to provide this voluntary date.  However, our census application is failing to recognise that the school has decided against providing this voluntary data.

Fileset 2005 provides a fix to ensure that none of the alternative provision data is provided for a pupil unless the AP Admission Reason has been entered for that pupil.

Issue 2: The PRU phase school has chosen an AP Admission Reason of ‘Permanent Exclusion’ and the wrong code for the reason is being reported in the XML return file

In the original version of the DfE specification, ‘Expulsion’ was listed as an AP Admission Reason with a lookup category code of ‘EXR’.  In a later version of the DfE specification this was replaced by ‘Permanent Exclusion’ with a lookup category code of ‘PEX’.  We have dealt with the first part of this change to the specification, in that we have changed the description from ‘Expulsion’ to ‘Permanent Exclusion. However, we have not dealt with the second part of the change, where we should have changed the lookup category code from ‘EXR’ to ‘PEX’.

The issue will be dealt with via Consolidated Database Patch E (5) for the Autumn Release 2021, which now becomes relevant to England as well as Wales.’

If you require this patch or fileset for these specific issues please get in touch.

ESS have released the information below regarding known issues in the Spring Census:

‘The following list of known issues is an excerpt from the DfE’s Spring School Census Readiness Bulletin 2.  I have added the notes that are displayed in square brackets.

4007q and 4008q – learner FAM

[4007Q: Please check: no pupils on roll are in receipt of School Led Tutoring]

[4008Q: Please check: no students on roll are in receipt of 16-19 Learner Funding and Monitoring]

An issue has been identified in the XSLT which is sent to software suppliers, these queries will trigger incorrectly when FAM information has been provided. Unfortunately, it is too late to update the XSLT and issue a revised version to software suppliers prior to the spring school census going live. However, queries which have been triggered incorrectly in the school MIS will disappear on loading to COLLECT and only genuine occurrences will remain.

Error 1847 – early years pupil premium

[Early years pupil premium must be recorded for 4 year old’s in Nursery provision]

This error which relates to schools with a phase of NS and early years pupil premium has been deleted and is now covered by error 1848. This change has not been included in the XSLT and so software may still trigger this error. However, it will disappear on loading to COLLECT and only genuine occurrences will remain under error 1848.

Error 1862 – early years pupil premium

This error has been extended to include nursery schools. This error will not trigger for nursery schools in their MIS but may trigger when loaded to COLLECT.

Error 1845 – early years pupil premium

[COLLECT only]

This is a new error that will trigger if early years pupil premium has been provided for pupils who are not in receipt of funded hours. This error will not trigger in a school MIS but may trigger when loaded to COLLECT.

Errors 2374 and 2377 – school arranged alternative provision

[2374: Pupils SEN provision on leaving is not required for an open school arranged alternative provision (AP) placement]

[2377: The pupil is shown as full-time therefore, sessions per week are not required for a school arranged alternative provision (AP) placement]

There is an issue with XSLT whereby if a pupil has multiple records for a school arranged AP placement, only the first record will be validated. A fix has been applied to COLLECT so only genuine occurrences will be present on loading to COLLECT.’

Error accessing ‘Update Funding and Monitoring’ 

Some schools are experiencing an issue accessing the following menu route:

Tools | Statutory Return Tools | Update Funding and Monitoring, error ‘String or binary data would be truncated’

Patch 26911 will resolve this issue – please email scomis@devon.gov.uk or phone 01392 385300 if you require this patch.

This is the first school census where the exclusion type ‘Suspension’ is relevant, but as the collection of exclusions covers two terms, ‘Suspension’ is only relevant to the second of these two terms.  The DfE does not collect the end date of an exclusion, so it is only the start date of the exclusion that is relevant to the use of ‘Suspension’ rather than ‘Fixed Term Exclusion’, with the end date of the exclusion being irrelevant.

• If the start date of such exclusions are in the date range 05/04/2021 to 31/07/2021 (inclusive), the exclusion type must be ‘Fixed Term Exclusion’.
• If the start date of such exclusions are in the date range 01/08/2021 to 31/12/2021 (inclusive), the exclusion type must be ‘Suspension’.

The graphic below illustrates the correct use of exclusion type.  The exclusion type for the first and third exclusion is obvious, but the second exclusion seems a bit strange, as most of the exclusion period is in the period when ‘Suspension’ is in use.  However, it is correct, as the correct use of exclusion type is wholly determined by the start date of the exclusion.

Incorrect allocation of the exclusion type will result in validation error 2275 (Suspension or permanent exclusion category is invalid).

Focus | Pupil | Exclusions

ESS have released the following update regarding error 2361 for PRU Phases:

‘The inclusion of alternative provision data for pupils who have joined a PRU Phase school as single registered is currently voluntary, so validation error 2361 (Alternative Provision (AP) reason is missing or invalid for a single registered placement) should not be triggered for such a school where they have decided not to provide this voluntary date.  However, our census application is failing to recognise that the school has decided against providing this voluntary data.

We are looking into providing a fix to ensure that none of the alternative provision data is provided for a pupil unless the AP Admission Reason has been entered for that pupil.’

The DfE have confirmed that validation queries 4007Q and 4008Q are operating incorrectly, as described below.  However, although they will be fixing these two rules in their COLLECT validation, they will not be fixing them for their school validation.

There is a structural error in the DfE coding of the following validation queries, that results in one or both of these validation rules being triggered in all schools (apart from nursery schools), regardless of whether they have entered any relevant FAM data.

4007Q: Please check: no pupils on roll are in receipt of School Led Tutoring

This validation query will be triggered for any school that teaches any year group from year 1 to 11 (or the corresponding age group for special schools who make use of year X) regardless of whether they have entered the relevant FAM data.

4008Q: Please check: no students on roll are in receipt of 16-19 Learner Funding and Monitoring

This validation query will be triggered for any school that teaches any year group 12 or above (or the corresponding age group for special schools who make use of year X) regardless of whether they have entered the relevant FAM data.

Fileset 2003 has been applied to hosted schools.

Non hosted schools can download the fileset from here

ESS have advised the following:

‘Please note that we are reporting to the DfE what we believe to be a structural error in the DfE coding of the following validation queries, that results in one or both of these validation rules being triggered in all schools regardless of whether the have entered any relevant FAM data.

4007Q: Please check: no pupils on roll are in receipt of School Led Tutoring

We believe that this validation query will be triggered for any school that teaches any year group from year 1 to 11 (or the corresponding age group for special schools who make use of year X) regardless of whether they have entered the relevant FAM data.

4008Q: Please check: no students on roll are in receipt of 16-19 Learner Funding and Monitoring

We believe that this validation query will be triggered for any school that teaches year group 12 or above (or the corresponding age group for special schools who make use of year X) regardless of whether they have entered the relevant FAM data.’

Fileset 2003 has been released by ESS. For more information please see this FAQ.

The DfE has apologised for these files being provided to suppliers later than expected.  The files will be provided to schools via Fileset 2003, but the delay in receiving the files from the DfE is likely to mean that Fileset 2003 will not be available to schools until the start of the Spring term 2022.

The DfE has indicated that the following changes are provided by their revised validation and summary report files.

– Early Years –

Additional Validation

• 4012: Number of hours of tuition must be provided and be greater than zero for pupils recorded as in receipt of school-led tutoring
• 4013: Number of hours of tuition are only required for school-led tutoring

Updated Validation

• 1847: Early years pupil premium must be recorded for 4 year olds in Nursery provision.
• 1848: Early years pupil premium must be recorded for 4 year olds in ‘E1’, ‘E2’, ‘N1’ or ‘N2’
• 1851: Child’s funded hours must not be provided for pupil aged 5 and over or aged under 2
• 1854: Childs hours at setting must not be provided for pupil aged 5 and over or pupils aged under 2
• 1861: Early years pupil premium only required for pupils aged 3 and 4
• 1862: Early years pupil premium not required for pupils aged 4 in reception or above
• 3120: The disability access fund indicator should only be recorded for all pupils aged 3 and those aged 4 who are in nursery provision
• 5230: The disability access fund indicator is missing or not a valid value for pupils aged 3 or 4 in nursery provision

Update summary report tables

• Table 7: Early years pupil premium – nursery schools [For: Schools with phase ‘NS’ only] [used for funding]
• Table 8: Early years pupil premium [Not for: Nursery] [used for funding]

– School arranged alternative provision placements –

Additional validation

• 2379Q: Please check: AP Placement information should not be returned for pupils with main or subsidiary registration. Unless the data relates to a previous term when the pupil had sole registration
• 2385: The UKPRN has been provided, AP Setting Type is not required
• 2386: The URN has been provided, UKPRN and/or AP Setting Type are not required

Updated validation

• 2378: School arranged alternative provision (AP) placement leaving date is outside of the collection period

Please see information here regarding consolidated patch D and Fileset 2002 which have been produced by ESS to update SIMS with the changes below made by the DfE.

Hosted Schools – patch 26911 and fileset 2002 will be applied to hosted schools this weekend (18th/19th December)

Non hosted schools – patch 26911 and fileset 2002 will be released in SOLUS. Fileset 2002 can also be downloaded from here.

ESS have released the following information:

‘The DfE is making a very late change to its specification regarding the date range for the funding of 4-year-old’s.  The date range is being reduced from the 01/09/2016 – 31/08/2017 to the 01/01/2017 – 31/08/2017 (inclusive).  We will take account of this very late change in the specification via Consolidated Database Patch D [4] for Autumn Release 2021 (Patch 26911) and Fileset 2002 (or above).  The DfE will also be adjusting their validation and summary report files in line with this change is specification, but we don’t yet know when the replacement XSLT files will be provided to suppliers.

Relevant changes for the Consolidated Database Patch D [4] for the Autumn Release

After application of this consolidated database patch, Tools | Statutory Returns Tools | Update Early Years and the Early Years panel of Routines | Statutory Returns | School Census [Spring 2022] will take account of the reduced date range for 4-year-old funding.

Relevant changes for Fileset 2002 – Available

After importing this fileset the report criteria for the two early years detail reports will indicate the reduced 4-year-old DOB range of 01/01/2017 – 31/08/2017 instead of the previously specified DOB range of 01/09/2016 – 31/08/2017 (inclusive)

• Early Years Detail Report
• EYPPR Detail Report