School Workforce Census Bulletin 2023

Hosted Schools – Autumn Upgrade and Consolidated Database Patch 1

On Friday evening (10/11/23) hosted schools were upgraded to the Autumn Release of SIMS and CDP1 for the autumn release was also applied.

Consolidated Database Patch 4 (CDPSu4) and Fileset 2506 – Available – Summer Release

NOTE:  This patch is being applied upon request only as it will be included in the Autumn Release Update.  Please contact the service desk if you wish to have this patch applied.

ESS have released the following

Consolidated Database Patch 4 for the Summer Release and Fileset 2506 

As we understand it, the order of importing the fileset and applying the patch can only cause an issue if a return is run after the fileset is imported, but before the patch is applied. Such an issue is then ‘fixed’ by applying the patch. Hence, our suggestion that it may be best to apply the patch shortly before importing the fileset.

Description: Consolidated Database Patch 4 for Summer Release 2023 Statutory Returns

Issues that are dealt with via CDPSu4 and Fileset 2506 for SWC Census are:

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).

Validation error 4990: Where Last Day of a sickness absence is provided then the number of Working Days Lost must be greater than zero.

Our SWC application is continuing to calculate workdays lost for an absence between zero and half a day as zero. This was fine when we were preventing working days lost of zero being reported in the census, but now that we report zero working days lost in the census return, we must use another method for ensure that absence between zero and half a day is not reported.

Solution:

Instead of relying on rounding down to exclude fractions of a day that must not be reported in the census, we will provide a fix to directly exclude them from being reported in the census.

Current known issues

ESS have reported current known issues:

Leaver destination codes and descriptions

The DfE’s final version of the contract leaver destination code and description changes is in line with neither the DfE validation nor the lookup changes we made in CDP (Consolidated Database Patch) 2 to 4.

Solution

We will provide the lookup changes via CDP 5 and the DfE validation file changes via Fileset 2506. The releases will be co-ordinated, and we will recommend that CDP 5 is applied shortly before Fileset 2506 is imported.

Applying CDP 5 will bring our list of lookups for contract leaver destination in line with the DfE’s CBDS list.

School business professional qualifications 

The latest version (24th August 2023) of the DfE CBDS (Common Basic Data Set) indicates the following descriptions for two of the new subject qualification codes.

• Z208: Level 4 SBP Apprenticeship
• Z209: Level 4 Diploma School Business Management (SBM)

However, in section 7.5.2 of the DfE school workforce census guide 2023 the descriptions are the wrong way around for the two codes.

• Z208: Level 4 Diploma School Business Management (SBM)
• Z209: Level 4 SBP Apprenticeship

Solution

All suppliers are obliged to follow the code descriptions in CBDS, so we have asked the DfE to correct their guidance so that it is in line with their latest CBDS.

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).

As you probably know, following requests from customers we allowed working days lost of 0 to be reported in the census so that validation error 4990 could identify the staff absences where the school had not indicated the number of working days lost.

This change is working as expected, but we did not take into account that the method we use for excluding working days lost above 0 but below half a day, as specified by the DfE, was to round down that fraction of the day to zero and then allow them to be excluded along with ‘actual’ zero days loss. This results in validation error 4990 being triggered in a situation that the school can only avoid by removing the fraction of a day that has been lost. It is never our intention to put a school in the position where they have to remove correct data for completing a census, so we will be providing a solution for our census application.

Solution

Instead of relying on rounding down to exclude fractions of a day that must not be reported in the census, we will provide a fix to directly exclude them from being reported in the census. This fix is likely to be provided as part of CDP (Consolidated Database Patch) 4 for the SIMS Summer Release 2023.

DfE requirements compared to SWC 2022 

1. Date have been rolled over. See the Key Dates item below.
2. 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.
3. A new SWC post of School Business Profession (SBP) has been added. You can click here to view further details in our CBDS newsfeed.
4. A further set of qualifications is included in the subject code set for use with SBP. You can click here to view further details in our CBDS newsfeed.
   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
5. A new data item for membership of the Senior Leadership Team has been added and is collected for all categories.

SWC Key dates

All date spans are inclusive.

Census reference date: 02/11/2023

Absence: 01/09/2022 – 31/08/2023

Continuous contracts: 01/09/2022 – 02/11/2023*¹

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 01/11/2023
  • Absences in the period 01/09/2022 – 31/08/2023

*¹ 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.