Management Information Sheet

Important dates

• Familiarisation period for test files: Closes at 4pm Friday 1 October 2021
• Autumn school census day: Thursday 7 October 2021
• LA maintained submission deadline: Friday 8 October 2021

LA Maintained Schools must upload and submit to COLLECT no later than Friday 8 October 2021. Any LA Maintained school that cannot meet this deadline must email the Intelligence & Analytics Team (I&A) at i&a@norfolk.gov.uk.

Academies please note that the Local Authority (LA) is not able to see or assist with your school census. Academies with any questions relating to completing the school census should contact the DfE helpdesk via email edd.helpdesk@education.gsi.gov.uk.

Why is this census important?

The census is a key source of data used to calculate schools' funding. It is essential that all schools complete the census accurately and in a timely manner to ensure they are funded correctly. Failure to do so could result in a school missing out on funding to which it is entitled or receiving more funding than it is due and having to repay any overpayment.

Changes since the last census

New data items

Learner funding and monitoring (FAM) type:
This data item records the type of funding and monitoring. For all schools except nursery with applicable year groups or age-ranges. The first collection of this data will be in the autumn 2021 census. See the learner funding and monitoring section for full details.

Learner funding and monitoring (FAM) hours:
This data item, collected alongside learner FAM type, indicates the specific element of the category being recorded. For all schools except nursery with applicable year groups or age-ranges. The first collection of this will be in the autumn 2021 census. See the learner funding and monitoring section for full details.

Existing data items

Exclusions module:
From autumn 2021, in line with government advice, fixed term exclusions will be referred to as suspensions. This includes an update to all guidance, renaming of all data items, codesets and XML tags for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

See the suspensions and permanent exclusions data items for full details.

Programme aims:
From autumn 2021, programme aims will be collected for both on and off roll pupils.

See the programme aims data item for full details.

Maths and English prior attainment year group:
Data items relating to prior attainment at the end of year 11, 'maths GCSE prior attainment year group' and 'English GCSE prior attainment year group', have been renamed to 'maths GCSE prior attainment year 11' and 'English GCSE prior attainment year 11' to improve clarity.

Deleted data items

There are no deleted data items for the 2021 to 2022 school census.

Important information - Early Years funding

The approach to funding local authorities (LAs) for the early years entitlements this financial year is being temporarily varied to give LAs and providers more certainty over their funding income, and LAs will be funded on a termly attendance count basis in 2021 to 2022.

For maintained settings, the DfE intend to use the termly data from the 2021 summer term and the 2021 autumn term school census to determine the early years block funding allocation for three and four year olds in school nurseries, maintained nursery schools and academies.

As they don't normally use the summer or autumn term school census for early years funding allocation purposes, these censuses do not have the additional marker for 'reason for funding' for two year olds, or for children eligible for the early years pupil premium (EYPP), which is normally provided through the spring school census. Therefore, they cannot identify from the summer or autumn school census which children qualify for the national entitlements for the two year old entitlement or the EYPP. LAs have been advised to submit a termly data count in order to provide this information, which will also include a termly data count for children accessing the early years entitlements in non-maintained settings, such as private, voluntary and independent childcare providers.

As the autumn term data will be used to determine the funding allocation for the early years entitlements, it is important to make sure your census information is accurately submitted and any additional data is provided to your early years contact at the local authority. The technical guidance for local authorities setting out the early years funding approach for 2021 to 2022 is now available.

DfE sign-in

Please remember to check you can log in to COLLECT before census day, using this DfE Sign-in link.

Census checklist

For an extended checklist see the separate document called Census Preparation Checklist on the schools website.

Before census day

Task	Done
Check you can log into COLLECT using DfE Sign-In	Y / N
Check your entry in GIAS is correct	Y / N
Ensure that all relevant pupil data is correct on your MIS	Y / N
Upload a file into COLLECT during the familiarisation period This will enable you to check for any unexpected errors and queries that may not necessarily show up in your Management Information System (MIS). Please note this familiarisation period closes 4pm on Friday 1 October 2021, and the census will not show up when you log in to COLLECT. The blade will return on census day ready for you to upload and submit your return.	Y / N

Census day

Task	Done
Upload to COLLECT via Secure Access Once you have had your return approved by your Head/ Data manager then: Log in to COLLECT via the DfE Sign-in https://services.signin.education.gov.uk/ and upload your xml file.	Y / N
Check for Errors & Queries Open your return and check for errors and queries within COLLECT. To clear errors, amendments may need to be made within your MI system and a new file uploaded. Queries need checking and either data amending within COLLECT along with an appropriate note. Please see notepad guidance notes for acceptable wording.	Y / N
Submit your file Once you've cleared all errors and attached all notes to queries within COLLECT you can submit your file.	Y / N

After census day

Task	Done
Approval and Authorisation If you are an LA Maintained School, NCC will check through your census looking for additional errors. We may contact you if we have any questions regarding this. Once we are happy with your census file we will approve it and send it to the DfE to authorise. If there is a problem with the data, the DfE will not approve the file and we will be in touch.	Y / N
Post Approval Checking NCC will continue to run checks on the census data and may still get in touch with you with queries even after the DfE have approved your file.	Y / N

Guidance

Further guidance on submitting your school census can be found at Norfolk schools website or on the DfE website at www.gov.uk/guidance/complete-the-school-census.