The School Workforce Census is a statutory collection of individual level data on teachers and support staff from local authorities, local authority-maintained schools and academies. The first full Census will take place in autumn 2010.

Data collected in the School Workforce Census will replace and improve upon that formerly collected from local authorities in Form 618g and schools in the Spring School Census.

How does it work?

The Census works by allowing schools and local authorities to extract data already held in their management information and HR/payroll systems, and sharing that data with the Department via its secure web-based collection tool, COLLECT.

Advice for local authorities, schools and academies on how they should complete the Census is provided in this section of the Department's website. Technical documents to support the development of systems to provide the required data are also provided. These will be useful for software suppliers and others who need to develop appropriate systems.

Why has it been introduced?

With all the information on the school workforce in one data source, the Department will be able to provide policymakers, analysts, local authorities and the public a clearer, more meaningful set of statistics that provide 'one version of the truth’.

Key facts on the school workforce will become more timely, comprehensive and accurate than in previous years and more complex analyses such as headteacher succession planning, teacher supply and pay bill modelling, demand for teachers, wastage/turnover rates, will be possible. The Census data will fill important gap such as age, gender and ethnicities of support staff, ethnicities of headteachers, and numbers of qualified mathematics teachers.

Data submitted by some local authorities in the spring 2010 collection has been published in the Statistical First Release, DfE: School workforce in England (including pupil/teacher ratios and pupil/adult ratios), January 2010 (Provisional), which can be accessed via the Department’s Research and Statistics Gateway.

For further information about the School Workforce Census please contact the DSG Helpdesk.

Contact details

Data and Statistics Division (DSD) Helpdesk
1st Floor Mowden Hall
Staindrop Road
Darlington
DL3 9BG
Telephone: 01325 392626
Email: dsd.helpdesk@education.gsi.gov.uk
Website: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/schooladmin/ims/datacollections/requestform