This page contains the following guidance for completing the 2025 School Workforce Census SWF. It will be updated as and when we receive updates from the DfE.
- Important Dates
- Known Issues
- Resolved Issues
- Read DfE Guidance
- Book onto a SWF Census Webinar
- Read the Bromcom Guidance
- Watch Webinar Recordings
- Additional Guidance
IMPORTANT To remove any resolved errors or queries, a new Census file must be generated and validated using the Save & Validate button.
Access: The permissions required to run and troubleshoot the SWF Census are found in the Census Module of Config>Setup>Roles and Permissions. Each tick box on the right determines which functions are visible/available on the page for users with the selected Role.
See also: How to get started with Roles & Permissions
Important Dates
- Census Date – Thursday 6th November 2025
- Return Date – Friday 5th December 2025
Known Issues
01.12.2025
- CAS-449213-S9Y8L4 – Additional Payments duplicated in census file. This seems to be causing it to show twice on COLLECT and affects contracts with more than one active role.
- CAS-449838-X8M6W1 – Error 4540 when staff member is paid by daily rate. Member is staff of marked as being paid by Daily Rate, but still getting error 4540
28.11.2025
- CAS-450046-X0M7J3 – When editing the staff days of absence in the census panel ‘Absences’, if these are integers, they saved on format 999 instead of 999.9; triggering error 4980
- CAS-450454-F8G8Y2 – Staff Missing From ‘Absences’ Area in SWF. Site specific. Workaround is to add the absence in the Staff Profiles > Absences & Leave Requests
26.11.2025
- CAS-448709-V9S5R9 – SWFC curriculum details not appearing in the Staff Curriculum Allocation Report if staff member has multiple first names/has a space, e.g. First Name = “David John” due to it not finding the staff member in the census file, as the census file only returns all the text before the space, i.e. “David”.
25.11.2025
- There is currently an issue with the School Workforce Census that results in the incorrect Arrival Date being returned for staff within the census file if the staff member has previously worked at the school, left the school, and then returned, such that their initial start date is returned as their Arrival Date in the census file, due to the way that start dates can be recorded on staff records in Bromcom. This is incorrect as the DfE require that a staff member’s most recent start date be returned in the census file instead.
- In order to rectify this you can edit the affected staff members’ arrival dates on the COLLECT website when submitting your School Workforce Census. Please note that this is unlikely to affect a vast majority of your staff, only those that have worked at your school during multiple separate periods.
- Our software team are working on restructuring the Staff Records in Bromcom to allow for this to be handled seamlessly in the future, however this is a long term development and will not be ready in time for the current School Workforce Census . Thank you for your understanding.
19.11.2025:
- CAS-448450-Y1T7W0 -SWFC – Curriculum Details for Teachers and Teaching Assistants table not showing for Middle Deemed Secondaries
18.11.2025:
- CAS-447901-V6Y5T8 – 4517Q – some contract info selected for exclusion from the SWFC return – no contract data is in the return.
17.10.2025;
Reports > Census > School Workforce
- The data fields for Sex and NI (National Insurance Number) are not populating.
Resolved Issues
CAS-443598-Y3R6W7 – The School Workforce Summary is incorrectly displaying that there are 0 errors and 0 queries, when there are errors/queries displaying on the School Workforce Census Screen and in the View Errors Page.
CAS-444409-K6R7X7 – If staff members have multiple, contradicting disability records on their Staff Record, the SWF Census is picking up the most recently created record instead of the one with the most recent Advised Date.
CAS-446134-X5T0M9 – SWFC 7070 triggering incorrectly for a vacancy you cannot see
CAS-446553-H2J9G1 – Query 4521Q is being triggered by the <PayFramework> tags missing from the census file, despite Pay Framework existing on the corresponding Base Pay Structures for these staff members
22.10..2025:
Curriculum Details for Teachers and Teaching Assistants
This panel is showing for Nursery and Primary schools when the data is not required for these school types. This will not prevent schools preparing their release and checking validations, please ignore the panel and do not complete any data here.k in this area for Resolved Issues
Read DfE Guidance
DfE guidance about the SWF Census is published here
IMPORTANT: It is the school’s responsibility to review the DfE guidance to ensure all
required information is submitted as part of the School Workforce Census Return.
Book onto a SWF Census Webinar
*If using our new training platform, eFront, the course can be found in the Course Catalogue under the ‘Statutory’ category.*
You can book onto one of our free SWF Census Webinars below, there are several dates available for each session. Click on the links below;
- Wednesday 15th October : 9.30am – 10.30am
- Thursday 23rd October: 1.30pm – 2.30pm
- Tuesday 4th November: 9.30am – 10.30am
Book onto How to Generate a Census
- Wednesday 15th October: 11.00am – 12.00pm
- Thursday 23rd October: 3.00pm – 4.00pm
- Tuesday 4th November: 11.00am – 12.00pm
Read the Bromcom Guidance
Click on the link below for Bromcom SWF Census 2025 guidance.
England 2025 School Workforce Census Guide
England 2025 School Workforce Census Error Resolutions Guide
In addition to the above guidance you can now search for detailed guidance on resolving the most common errors or queries in our Help Centre.
Simply type in the Error or Query Number into the Search box
Watch Webinar Recordings
Click the links below to watch a recording of the SWF Census 2025 sessions. You will need to enter your name and email address to view the recording.
Additional Guidance
- How to resolve Error 4100
- How to resolve Query 4470Q
- How to resolve Error 4516
- How to resolve Query 4521Q
- How to resolve Error 4540
- How to resolve Error 4740
- How to resolve Error 6000
- How to resolve Query 6260Q
- How to locate items in the Staff Profile
- How to Add NASENCO Qualification for SENCO Staff
- How to Add a New Member of Staff
- How to Add Supply Staff
- How to Add a Staff Contract and Role
- How to Make a Member of Staff a Leaver
- How to Reinstate Staff Leaver Records
- How to Create a New Base Pay Structure
- How to Merge Duplicate Staff Records
- How to Record Staff Absence