Guidance notes for creating the census in Integris are now available on the Information Management SIP page, along with links to full DfE guidance, COLLECT guidance and approved notepad entries.

To summarise, the main collection items are:

  • Pupil basic data – including latest SEN stage and FSM eligibility

Wherever possible, please avoid temporary UPNs and make sure pupils have their correct permanent UPN assigned to them, particularly new arrivals to your school who will have a permanent UPN issued by their previous school. 

Failure to use the correct UPN could result in loss of funding to schools.

  • Attendance data (for the summer term 2024)
  • Exclusions data (for the spring term 2024 and summer term 2024)
  • Take up of Universal Free School Meals (Infant pupils only)
  • Hours at setting/Funded hours/Extended hours (Nursery pupils only)
  • Top-up funding indicator
  • Post looked-after indicator

*NEW for autumn 2024 census:

  • Pupil SEN type code has been updated to include Down Syndrome.
  • Expanded hours has been extended to record up to 15 hours for children from 9 months old with working parents.
  • For early years pupil premium receipt, the frequency of collection has been increased to termly and extended to children from 9 months old.
  • For early years pupil premium basis for funding, the frequency of collection has been increased to termly and extended to children from 9 months old.
  • The disability access fund indicator has been extended to children from 9 months old.
  • References to T Level transition programme have been changed to T Level foundation year.  

This term the DfE have introduced 2 new validation checks regarding to the reports area of COLLECT.  The ‘report query’ will trigger if the relevant reports for your school phase or type have not been run, the query will trigger until all relevant reports have been run, however this will not prevent the return from being ‘authorised’.  The ‘DupUPNRprt Error’ will trigger if the return has unresolved duplicates which impact funding allocations. The return will not be authorised until the error has been resolved. Please note if the return has been previously authorised and a duplicate UPN is introduced at any point during the ‘live’ collection the return status will revert to ‘approved’.  Please note as these reports run overnight, the validation will also be run overnight and therefore the errors will not be apparent until the following day.

As the majority of census data is already held within school systems, we are asking for electronic returns to initially reach the Authority by Friday 4 October 2024.  This will allow schools and LAs time to resolve all queries/duplicates before the database closes.  Academies and Free Schools will have their own deadline from the DfE, but an early return would still be appreciated to aid the duplicate pupil checking.

For any census queries, please contact me on the number below.

01332642710

Sending the Census to the Local Authority

Schools should use the DfE website called COLLECT (Collections On Line for Learning, Education, Children and Teachers), for the submission of their Census – this is accessed through the DfE sign-in website, link below:

DfE Sign-in (education.gov.uk)

Census - Schools' Information Portal (derby.gov.uk)

For more information contact Debbie Peters

Email: debbie.peters@derby.gov.uk 

Telephone Number: 01332642710