SWF Bullet Points

							SWF Census ‘to do’ list
You will need to undertake the following steps to ensure your school is ready for
the School Workforce Census return:


   1. Ensure that your school staff data is up to date
      Ensure that all your current staff in scope and recent leavers (since the 1st January
      2009) are recorded in your database. Please see the Staff Included in Census
      handout for an explanation of those in scope.

   2. Update your school staff contract and payroll data
      An HR payroll extract for your school was sent to you via AVCO/Anycomms in May
      – this detailed the payroll information for your staff as at April 2009 and will provide
      most of the contract data items you require. An update will be issued as soon as
      possible. The data is in an excel spreadsheet format – for ease of entry, if you
      would prefer to print off the data in Word format with one sheet per person, please
      click here for guidance. Essentially you will need to manually enter this data into
      your school MI system. Please see the Data Items Expected handout for a full list
      of the data items to be collected.

   3. Qualifications and curriculum data
      You will need to record post A-level qualifications for all teachers (i.e. any
      qualification at level 4 or higher on the National Qualifications Framework). You
      may wish to collect this data via your data checking sheets (see step 5 below).
      Curriculum data is only required from Secondary schools and only those with
      computerised timetable systems that interface to their MI systems. Please see
      section 2.2.4 of the DCSF guidance notes for further information. If your timetable
      is separate from your MIS there may be some interface requirements – please
      ensure you read the instructions from your software supplier.

   4. Data protection
      You will need to send a Fair Processing Notice (FPN) to each of the staff included
      in your census return. This informs staff of the purposes for which their personal
      data may be held and used by the school, LA, the DCSF and other organisations.
      A copy of both the FPN and a covering letter can be found by clicking here. It is
      suggested you issue these at the same time as issuing any data checking sheets to
      staff (see step 5 below).

   5. Staff data checking sheets
      All school MI systems should have the facility to print off a staff data
      checking/collection sheet for each member of staff (this will enable staff to
      check/edit data held and add in any missing data items). For help with those
      available on e1 and Phoenix Gold, please see the ICT Solutions website. Schools
      using other MI systems will need to contact their software providers.

   6. Data updates/checks
      Update any errors or omissions from the returned staff data checking forms. Please
      use a copy of the SWF Census completion checklist to help ensure you have
      updated all the relevant data items. For those of you using e1 there are two reports
      available in Report Writer which you may find useful to check for omissions in your
      data – go to LEA Reports, School WorkForce Census, then Data Checking Sheets
      1 & 2 (for help with setting up Report Writer please click here).

   7. Staff absences
      Please ensure your staff absences are up to date within your MI system before
      running any returns.

   8. Dry runs
      If at all possible carry out a ‘dry run’ on your school MI system. This will highlight
      any errors or queries that you may need to resolve. If you wish, you can send these
      to us via the usual methods and will we check them for you.

   9. Statutory census return
      You must undertake the School Workforce Census on 1st October 2009. Please
      return to the IRC at County Hall by the 6th October. Those of you on e1 will need
      to make your returns available for us to collect; other MI systems will need to send
      your files via AVCO/Anycomms or s2s as usual.

   10. On-going – best practice
       Ensure that your staff records are updated as and when changes occur.


Further help:

For detailed guidance please refer to the School Workforce Census pages of the Norfolk
Schools website.

For help sheets relating to your school’s MI system contact your software support team.