This is a tst
Wandsworth Council
Department of Education & Social Services
Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street
London SW18 2PU
Headteachers, S.A.O, Bursars
Member of staff responsible for SIMS.net
(Personnel)
To:
Please ask for/reply to: Lewis Brunton
Telephone: 020 8871 7992
Fax: 020 8871 5806
Minicom: 020 8871 8275
Email:lrunton@wandsworth.gov.uk]
Web: www.wandsworth.gov.uk
Our ref: 20140912ESSHRlb
Website contributor: Lewis Brunton
Date: 12/09/2014
Dear Colleague,
Dear Colleague.
Circular letter
reference number
and title
Purpose of this
circular letter
20140912ESSHRlb – Schools Workforce Census
Update (Inc. PRUs)
Action required
Response required from all schools
19/09/2014
Response by
To update schools with the latest guidance for Schools
Workforce Census due in November 2014
The Schools Workforce Census is rapidly approaching, and you should all be preparing
in advance.
Census Date
This year the Census Day is Thursday 6th November and I would like all returns to be
submitted by Friday 21st November to facilitate the data cleaning that I need to do.
The DfE has also requested that returns be made as soon as possible after the census
date to facilitate the cleaning that they have to do.
Schools who have not bought into the Schools HR Traded Service
For those schools that have chosen not to buy back into the Schools HR Traded
Service support for the Schools Workforce Census is no longer free. Guidance notes
and updates will be made available to all, however email and phone support in resolving
errors or issues will be charged a one off fee (each year) of £100.
Preparation
Each school should nominate a contact who I will send further Workforce Census
updates to. Please send the name / email address / telephone number of the contact to:
Lewis Brunton
lbrunton@wandsworth.gov.uk
Contact details must be supplied by 24/09/2014
Director of Education & Social Services: Dawn Warwick
Assistant Director (Education, Performance & Planning): John Johnson
As with previous years I would advise that you start preparing your data now. Should
you wish to check your data in advance you will be able to run the SWC routine in
SIMS. You will then be able to test the upload with the familiarisation version of the
COLLECT site in advance of the main site being open on the 6th November.
The web address to submit your return (including test versions via the familiarisation
version of the site) is:
https://sa.education.gov.uk/idp/Authn/UserPassword
(You will need your Secure Access username and password. If you do not have it you
will need to contact the DfE)
Once you have logged in you choose the data collection system, in this case COLLECT.
Then once in COLLECT you choose the data collection you wish to return. You will find
that at present there is one with the status of familiarisation. When the main collection
goes live on November 6th at 7:30 the familiarisation collection will disappear.
Payscale Updates - This year has seen an increase in teaching staff pay. You will need
to make sure that you have updated the pay amounts in your MIS before running the
census to make sure that the correct rates are pulled through. A circular has recently
been published detailing the increases and how to update SIMS, and can be found
here: http://goo.gl/exVLfI
Privacy Notices - The privacy notice which should be provided to all school staff when
they are appointed has now been updated and can be found here:
http://goo.gl/emM1YW
Please make sure that this new version is supplied in future.
Data Checking
Prior to submitting your returns please make sure that you run and review the various
checking reports available from SIMS. These can be found on the main census screen
and will help you resolve any non-obvious errors.
Summary Report – This is the ‘Summary’ button which can be found alongside the main
‘Create & Validate’ button. Please use this report to make sure that the number of staff
and contracts matches your expectations. It also includes various totals such as missing
ethnicity etc.
Detail Reports – This is a collection or reports and the button can be found on the same
row as the summary report, on the right hand side. These reports show you the
individual level data included in your return, so you can use them to check your
individual level data such as to see if pay details are included for an individual, or
perhaps a teacher’s teacher number.
Used together they can highlight and resolve many of the errors which may later crop
up when the reports on the COLLECT website are run.
Director of Education & Social Services: Dawn Warwick
Assistant Director (Education, Performance & Planning): John Johnson
COLLECT reports
COLLECT has a number of built in checking reports for the data you submit - these are
the reports that I also run on your data. You are able to run these reports yourself once
you have uploaded your census file, which is something I suggest you do to resolve
errors before you finally submit the file for me.
Guidance Notes
The 2014 guidance notes can be found on my SWC webpage on Info 4 Schools:
http://goo.gl/BY3cSG
Changes - There are very few over last years return. The main change is with respect to
‘QTS route’ - the scope of the field ‘QTS route’ has been altered. Schools are now
asked to fill this in for all staff who have taken up their first position since qualifying as a
teacher.
Validation Queries and acceptable notes – these can now be found in the main DfE
guidance document on page 88
Availability
As ever if you have any queries please contact me, but please note this year I will be
not be available to answer queries between 4th – 22nd October
I recommend preparing early to avoid any unforeseen problems.
Yours sincerely
Lewis Brunton
School Support Manager
Director of Education & Social Services: Dawn Warwick
Assistant Director (Education, Performance & Planning): John Johnson