Children鈥檚 social work workforce census: guide to submitting data
How local authorities should collect and submit data to complete the children鈥檚 social work workforce census.
Applies to England
The children鈥檚 social work workforce census is an annual statutory census for all local authorities. You must complete statutory censuses by law unless there鈥檚 a good reason not to.
The census covers the year from 1 October to 30 September.
It collects data on all children and family social worker staff employed during the census year. This includes staff:
- who were employed on or before 30 September
- who left employment during the census year
- who were employed through an agency on or before 30 September
Local authorities should issue privacy notices to all members of staff. Privacy notices tell staff members about the details of the census and their rights under the .
Important dates
2023 to 2024 census dates:
- the census opens on Tuesday 1 October 2024
- return census submissions by Thursday 31 October 2024
- the database closure date is Friday 29 November 2024
Submit your data
You鈥檒l need to:
- register and log in with
- use COLLECT to submit your data
You should contact your school or local authority approver if:
- you want to request a DfE Sign-in username or password so you can access COLLECT
- 鈥榗hildren鈥檚 social work workforce census鈥� is not on the list of collections you can see in COLLECT
Get help using DfE Sign-in
If you do not know who your approver is, you should use the .
If you鈥檝e forgotten your password, use to reset it. You will need to click 鈥楽tart now鈥� and then the 鈥業鈥檝e forgotten my password鈥� link.
Note that we鈥檒l only be able to change the status of your data submission to 鈥榓uthorised鈥� once you鈥檝e cleared all errors in the data in COLLECT.
Census documents
The following guidance documents will help you complete the census:
- census guide
- census business and technical specification
- COLLECT reports specifications
- COLLECT guides
If you need help submitting data
For complex questions, you can use the . We aim to answer your question within 5 working days.
Feedback
You can use the if you have any comments about our data collection service, including COLLECT and the service desk.
Updates to this page
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Added 'acceptable notepad entries' to the 'census documents' section.
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Updated for 2024 and removed acceptable notepad entries.
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Updated 'acceptable notepad entries' to version 1.1.
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The census business and technical specification linked to in 'Census documents' now also contains the 2023 to 2024 version.
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Added a link to the spreadsheet 'Acceptable notepad entries'.
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Updated important dates for the 2022 to 2023 census.
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Updated links and 'Important dates' for the 2021 to 2022 census.
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Added link to 'census guide' in the section 'Census documents'.
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Updated the database closure date to Friday 26 November 2021.
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Updated important dates and added a link to the business and technical specification for 2020 to 2021.
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Dates for 2019 to 2020 census added.
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Added link to 'Children鈥檚 social work workforce census 2019: XML converter and guide' under census documents.
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Dates for 2018 to 2019 census added. Links to census documents updated.
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Added link to 'COLLECT report specifications' under census documents.
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Updated 'Submit your data section' and DfE Sign-in help links.
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Updated COLLECT link from secure access to DfE sign in.
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Dates for 2017 to 2018 census added. Outdated links to COLLECT report specifications and validation rules removed. These links will be reinstated when updated documents are available.
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First published.