As we approach this year's School Workforce Census, we're here to help you prepare for a smooth and successful submission. In this edition you'll find important deadlines, guidance resources, support information, and a new feature designed to help streamline your communications within Access Education People.

The School Workforce Census (SWC) 2026 is fast approaching, so we've gathered everything you need to help you prepare, validate your data and submit with confidence using Access Education People.

To ensure we have enough time to investigate and resolve any issues, we recommend running a test submission and raising any support queries by 26 November.

For guidance on submitting your census return through COLLECT:

Government SWC Submission Guidance
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All changes to this year's data sets are detailed in the government guidance and can be found on page 6:

Access our SWC webinar and guidance notes for practical support, step-by-step instructions, and key information to help you complete your submission.

SWC Webinar
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Guidance Notes
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Our Help Centre contains a wide range of SWC resources, including:

Access our Help Centre SWC Collection:
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Before submitting your SWC, we recommend reviewing the available summary and error reports to identify and resolve any data issues.

You can access the Error List and School Summary Presentation via:

Import / Export → School Workforce Census → View Summaries

For full instructions and best practice, read our School Workforce Census Guide

A valid Pay Range must be recorded for staff in regular service who are not paid by a daily rate. Missing Pay Range information remains a common cause of SWC validation errors.

Check your records before submission

To help identify missing information before uploading to COLLECT, the SWC Data Collection report can now be run at both:

This makes it easier to share responsibility across schools and teams.

Standard Reports → SWC Data Collection

Required permission: Report SWC Data Collection Standard Report

This report is a great way to identify missing data before creating your census file.

Learn more in our webinar
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We've created a dedicated School Workforce Census resource hub containing:

Watch the SWC Webinar:
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Browse the School Workforce Census Resource Collection
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To ensure a smooth submission, please run your checks early and log any queries with our Support Team by 26 November 2026.

We wish you a successful School Workforce Census submission.

You can now send a test version of any saved email template before using it in a live process.

This allows administrators to:

Test emails can be sent to an employee or any email address, making it easier to verify your communications before they're delivered to staff.

View the full release notes and bug fixes

More than 1,000 people joined us live to discover the launch of Access Evo for Education, and now you can experience it on demand.

Missed the event, or want to revisit the highlights? Catch up on the full session whenever it suits you and discover how Access Evo is set to transform the way schools, academies and trusts work, bringing powerful agentic AI into education.

Watch the on-demand event and see what's possible with Access Evo
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