The purpose of this note is to provide school census contacts with important information in readiness for the 2024 autumn school census.
Funding update and COLLECT funding reports
This is a reminder that the data collected via the 2024 autumn school census will be used in the calculation of the schools block, early years block and high needs block of the dedicated schools grant, pupil premium allocations for mainstream and special schools, early years pupil premium allocations and also the universal infant free school meals funding therefore it is vitally important that the census data for your schools’ are submitted promptly and accurately. Post 16 data collected via the autumn school census will be used by the education and skills funding agency (ESFA) to calculate post 16 funding allocations for schools with sixth forms.
Reports showing information which will feed into the calculations for the dedicated schools grant, pupil premium, early years pupil premium, the universal infant free school meal and post 16 will be available via the reports section in COLLECT. It is essential that these reports are checked in advance of the autumn school census database closing to amendments from schools and local authorities. Amendments to the database will not be possible after closure and, consequently, this will be your only opportunity to contest your funding pupil numbers. To assist with using and interpreting the funding reports, funding report user guides are available below.
16-19 funding reports
The ESFA school census autumn 2024: 16 to 19 reports will be available throughout the live collection, via the ‘launch reports’ button in COLLECT.
The report suite comprises eight reports: four reporting on student data for the current year and four on student data for the previous year, both of which are used in 16 to 19 funding allocations. They contain information on how your funding may be affected next year.
The DfE have developed the reports to help schools and academies quality assure their post-16 data and make more accurate census returns. Post-16 funding allocations are based on census data from individual schools and academies, so returning accurate data is a key factor in ensuring the allocation is right.
Information on the reports is available below. It gives information about the reports’ contents and sets out some of the common data issues.
COLLECT duplicate reports
There are 2 different duplicate reports which are available for schools to run in COLLECT and a separate guidance document is available here for each report. These reports are:
(i) duplicate report – Same UPN
(ii) duplicate report – Same Person Different UPN
New reports validation
It has always been expected that schools run these reports to check the accuracy of their data. For those schools that have been using these reports to ensure their return is accurate and complete, this query will therefore have no impact. However, unfortunately, there has been an increase in the number of schools making errors in their census return which has in turn significantly impacted their funding allocations. These errors could have been easily identified if these relevant reports had been checked and made the necessary changes to their census prior to the database closing.
This query was therefore introduced to highlight to the school and, for maintained schools, the local authority where this has not been done. The local authority will be able to check the accuracy on behalf of a maintained school and will add a notepad entry if necessary. The query will remain, but the Department will still ‘authorise’ the return. Where there is a duplicate between two academies/free schools, the duplicate will not appear on the LA’s version of these reports. It will be up to the academies/free schools to liaise with each other to resolve the query.
Known issues
These are issues which have been identified in the XSLT file sent to software providers, please note a further XSLT file has been issued, however it may be too late for your school software supplier to implement these changes in time for the autumn census:
E1763
The XSLT has the incorrect FSM end date range of 2024-05-16 to 2024-10-03. The correct date range is 2024-05-17 to 2024-10-03, therefore this will not trigger in the MIS for pupil’s who have a FSM end date of 2024-05-16. However, the error will trigger correctly when the return is loaded onto COLLECT.
E2002
NC year X has been excluded from this check in the XSLT, however the error will trigger where relevant when loaded onto COLLECT.
4008q
This query did not include learner FAM tuition code 01 for students 16-19. At this late stage we recognise that suppliers may not have been able to implement in their software. Therefore if there are no 16-19 students receiving tuition this query will not trigger in the school’s MIS, however it will trigger when the return has been loaded onto COLLECT.
Error 3036
This error will trigger correctly, however it will display an incorrect error message in XSLT which only refers to 2 year olds. The correct error message relating to pupils aged 9 months to 2 year olds will display in COLLECT.
For more information contact Debbie Peters.
Email: debbie.peters@derby.gov.uk
Telephone Number: 01332642710
DfE Sign-in (education.gov.uk)
Census - Schools' Information Portal (derby.gov.uk)
Complete the school census - Check your data - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)