How schools navigate around Collectand check return?

COLLECT (is an area inDfE’s ‘Secure Access’ site)is used totransfera SWF return file to LA & DfE and iswhereschoolmustcheckeach return fully,after uploading it.Collecthas a ‘status’.Once your return status is ‘loaded & validated’it is within COLLECT thatyou must open and check eachreturn andrun reports and (if all ok) add notes and‘submit’ it. COLLECT canshow errors/queriesyour MIS didn’t find(oncestatus includesthe word ‘validated’). Most Collectchecks can be done as soon asyou upload a return,but a fewneed Collect’sreports launched only onceyour latest return has been in Collect overnight.

After uploading your return (and once the status there says ‘…validated’) even if the error count and query count are zero, you should still use the ‘Open Return’ button.

In Collect, the parts of anopen return are viewed by navigating between various ‘modules’ in the return. Once return is opened, theseare listed on left of screen: see grey boxbelow.

COLLECT arranges return data into fields, known as‘data items’, in eachrecord, and therecords intotables, known as‘modules’,eachmodule having only one type of record.

There are 18 modules (now ‘CBDS’ is no longer included) in a SWF return (listed on grey background of COLLECT screenshotbelow) (e.g. Absence records,Role records, etc.), so each person willhave several records in most of thesedifferent Collect SWF modules.

Clickthe appropriate line on the grey left-hand side list toviewthat particular module…

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The top module(called “School Workforce Annual Collection”or similar)is automatically shown once you have clickedon “open return”, but this top module is onlya return “header” with notmuchmeaningful data...
Specificallyignore the ‘return level’ error/querycountshown here, in the top module of an open return,i.e. in the ‘School workforce annual collection’ module,sincethese return-level errors/queries arenot allthe errors/queries in your return – typically these are just a few ofyour SWF return’s errors/queries –those affecting the return ‘as a whole’– a return can have many other errors not in ‘return level’ counts here – because other errors/queries(not counted in this top module)are onesthat affecteither a specific record orspecific field(s)inthe data.
We will describe, below, how you should check all errors/queries, after you have checked the count of records is suitable in eachrelevant module(also see below).
The top module iswhereyou add noteslater.

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The module “Source” showswhichversion ofschool M.I.S.made thisreturn: this is only useful to LA & DfEsoignore ‘Source’.Schoolsmay also ignore the modules ‘CBDS…’ (if still visible), ‘Former Family Name’,just called ‘School’andbottom module called ‘LA’.

Starting with the “School Workforce Member” module and then also for each module circledabove (in dotted red in image)…Check the count of records seen in each module is a suitable number(as described below)…

What do you see inside a Module?

When you lookina‘module’, the view in COLLECT will display (near top of screen) a table of records (havingup to 10 records listed at a time) from onlythatparticular module.

You can onlysee data in 1 module at a time:toswitch between them, tofindrelated data, use “View All” buttonson-screen (seesection on this, below) or the grey list for all records.

Working with records in COLLECT: When viewing a module that has several records, one of the records in the top table will be highlighted; then below this top table (of records) will be the data items (fields) and their values, for only that one highlighted record (the data within that one particular record). The fields are shown (after the records table) in the lower table(s) on this screen; you may have to scroll down to see some of the fields on a record.

Clicking another record in the top table selects that recordinstead andchanges the view in the lower table to instead show values relevant tothe newly-selected record. You can only select 1 record at a time. Collect ‘times-out’if noactionfor 15mins, butgives noindication.

How to find the number of records in each module?

Just beneath the records table at the top(if you have 11 or more records in theparticular module you are viewing)thelowest row of that top(‘records’)table has a count of how many records are in that module and showshow many pages of records thismodule has.

If you have over 10 records, two tiny arrows and appear (at far right of that bottom line of the records table). Use these to browse to next/previous page of that module’s records.

The example, above, has 63 records in that module, spread over 7 pages,and is displaying (in the record table at top) page 7, havingthe last 3 records of that module.The top recordis‘selected’.

Acount of records is not shown if youhaveunder 11 records,because all records,in that module, are shown on onepage. To sort records click a column heading (once or twice).

You need to check mostof the modules (not only additional payments), but beware that each Additional Payment record from your MIS is seen in just one of the pair ofCollect modules for these: Collect has a module forthecontract/post-level set of these and another for arole-level set and which module the record isin dependson how yourMIS exports it. Ifthere are too fewAdditionalPayments in Collect, looking inboth modules, check a current one is inthe MISforrelevant contracts,note thatIntegris needsAdditional Payment to have current ‘Year’ as 2018.

School must check each of following modules to ensure that the count of the number of records seems suitable:

SWF Member Level modules (individual details):

  • School Workforce Member
    Record per person who is in scope: Staff member records for all teachersleadership plusall directly-employed support staff plus any long-term agency(/third party) teachersplusincluded leavers (leaver: if one of thesetypes andcontract ended after31/8/2017).
  • Given Namea record for each forename: forenames of each member of staff included.
  • Contract or Service Agreement(Contract/SA)(often referred to as simply ‘contracts’ and also known as ‘Posts’)a record for each contract or service agreement; (DfE expect at least onepost per person above:current +allcontracts/SA ending after31/08/2017).
  • Roleexpect one (or, if applicable and MIS allows,more)role record per contract/service agreement record (1+ role per contract/post). Must never be fewer roles than contracts.
  • Two ‘Additional Payments’ modules –ensure you have got ALL thoseexpected…
    DfE expect lotsbutas described above,they maybe a set ineither/both thesemodules.
    RM users: if some Add. Pay.data is missing (in neither module) check ‘Year’ is 2018 in RM records.
  • Absence:Expect absence records for teachers and for those support staff based in the classroom for purpose of pupil/learning support, for not just sickness, but for all absence except training. Loading absence for non-classroom-basedsupport staff ortraining is optional.
    Expectat leasttwice as many records as people in the return on average; and afteryou sort absencesin COLLECTby their start or end date, scroll page-by-page checking you have absences inall months:Sept.2017to July 2018(andperhapsother months:ifany long-term leave bridgedasummer holidaye.g. maternity/long-term sick/unpaid leave). One-form-intake schoolsmay find there isa month in spring with none (due to Easter); butin a larger schooleven that monthshould havesome data.Expectat least 3types: not just‘sick’ butalso usually ‘other paid authorised’and a few ‘maternity’ and‘unpaid authorised’ or ‘paid public duties’ (jury/electoralservice, etc.) and perhaps other types. An absence end date is needed on all absences that ended by census date (butmustbe blank if absence continued beyondcensus date:8/11/2018.[If very longabsence was still on-going on census dateyou will getan ‘acceptable’unresolvable query aboutit in Collect–and when reachingour Early Warning Letter’sstepto add a notein Collect, ‘open return’, use pencil/pad buttonto add a note with suitable explanation perunresolvable query, forongoing absence say:“4935qschoolchecked andconfirms personname> absence is on-going after census day”].
  • QualificationWe would expectqualifications to be shown for many of the staff (i.e. for almost all teachers and usually for at least some support staff)asthe DfE expect school toreturnall qualification‘higher than A Level’ of all staff (even if not relevant to the role): see our separate qualifications advice sheet for details on what data should be loaded.
  • CurriculumThis timetable data should not be loaded manually(just for SWF): instead DfE expectonlysecondary schools (not Special/PRU) to transfer it from within their electronictimetabling system into SWF return ifyour MIS allows. If including it, expect average of2 recordsper day worked,per teacher. TAcurriculum too: if TAs timetabled.

School Level modules (which are not individual detail but instead headcounts, etc.):

  • Vacancy:All Teacher vacancies (meeting criteria on page68to 70 of 2018DfE guide)
  • Occasionals(Occasional teachers** expected to work fewer than 4 weeks in that post).
  • Agency Support(not teachers) +Third Party(‘TP’)[External***]Support Countbeing
    Agency Teaching Assistants**+other supportstaff not directly-employed by school**
    **Only counted in these headcounts if they are in school on census day. ***Not LA staff.

‘View All’ does not showall records, it movesto another moduleandfilters to all of the selectedrecord’s related data:

Where there are lines, in lower half of most modules,saying“view all” followed by another module’s name: the‘view all’ link shows you therecords in the specifiedmodule which arerelated to the currentlyselected record:examples are all absences forthe selected person orall roles for the selected contract. ‘View all’will not show all records in a module, onlya certain few: thoserelatedto the record selected in themodulewhere ‘view all’ was clicked.

E.g. ‘view all’ allows you to movefrom viewing a person record in the ‘School Workforce Member’ module, toinstead see all of that person’s contracts in the ‘Contracts’ module.This willhave changed your screen from viewing the‘School Workforce Member’ module to instead viewing the ‘Contract’ module and will have filtered the contract records so that you are not seeing (the first page of) all contract records, but rather, you are seeing a filter of only the ‘contract’ records that are for that one previously-selected ‘person’ record.

To reverse the use of a ‘view all’ linktochangea filtered view of related records back to the higher module view (e.g. to show the person record again after you had used ‘view all’ to seetheir contracts): use the “Drill Up” button(seen in collect at top right of screen).
Note:In Internet Explorer 8 (or later): if Collect buttons don’t work,usecompatibility view/mode(link).

Sort/Filter to find a record (e.g. a person) quickly:To sort ascending/descending click column header once/twice. To finda person, go to the ‘school workforce member’ module type part of their name in ‘filter’ barat top,click‘Go’ (top right).

Resolving errors/queries (MIS), Adding Notes in Collect:

In any collect module press “All Errors” button at topto see alist (10 codes per page) of:

Errors ‘invalid’ datamust be resolved back in your MISthenupload a revised return (and when asked, overwrite previous data, providing you’ve gone to correct census:SWF2018).

Queries show something is probably wrong andalmost alwaysneed to be fixed – please resolve all queries (that can be resolved)back inMISin same way as errors. We publish a useful guide (on WebFronter): “Common (SWF) Errors with Solutions” (like a dictionary)

and call020 7364 4942, if you don’t understandwhat’s wrong (as it is not always obvious).

The queries usually indicate a mistake or missing piece of data in the MIS (e.g. if absence which ended before census date still hadno end date in MIS) however exceptionally, a few queries are sometimesfor genuinely correct data(e.g. asend date should not be given on absence that is genuinely still on-going on census date,a rare few of your absences might need to have blank end date)causing an unresolvable query (e.g. each ongoing absence).

Investigate each case of each error/query:finding who is affected and what is wrong byclicking “details”then clicking on ablue dataitem link(on right) (but if “reference date”link is seen,ignore it and clicka differentlink). Thisshows (one of) the affected person’s records (withtheirname seen near top, possibly faintly).After investigation, fix issuesback in your MIS, thenmake a revised return to Collect, fully re-checking it on Collect.

Only if aqueryis unresolvable (if data checked, correctand complete)you must lateradd a return-level note(at right time: see below), explaining, for each instance ofdata queried, why the data is genuinely correct (listing by query code,the reason per case, all in 1 note).Beware any note created iseithermoved to ‘Preserved’ or deleted if another return is later uploaded(to fixissues/missing data)if this occursthe schoolwill need toadd it again so…
Only add notesonceall thesecollect checks are ‘passed’:

School summary Nine Quick Checks (<link) done: can be done by anyone (willnot need Head).
> Return uploaded andrecord count in each module is suitable?each is what DfE & school expect.
Collect errors are all cured?(see errors above) suitably fix in MIS; repeatexport, upload & check.
All Collect’s(resolvable) queries are cured(in same way as for errors)? Continues over-page…
Next day:‘Missing Contracts’report emptyother Collect overnight reportsall checked and ok?
Head has then checkedlatestMIS SWF School Summary (all tables fully): happy allaccurate?

… and only then, when all steps of the process have been completed satisfactorily…

On COLLECT front page for SWF (where “open return” and “launch reports” buttons are seen):

The school needs to press the “SUBMIT RETURN” button in COLLECT

(to “sign off” that the school has finished and has checked everything and Head is happy)…

! LA can only work on a return (to approve it for the DfE) once school presses “Submit” in Collect!

To recap on some of the Essentials:

  • Use “All Errors” button at top in any module,to look atlist of Collect’s errors/queries
    (this list will be identical regardless of which module you are in when you press ‘All Errors’).
  • School must investigate each case, via ‘details’ link and fixsuitably in MIS (see pg4).
  • Errors (codes without‘Q’ or saying “invalid code”) must be resolved: nothave notes added.
  • Most queries are resolvable: if so, they must be resolved and not have any note added.
  • After investigating,ifqueried data is correct complete for that personthen, once all other checks are done and issues are resolved [including the 9 quick checks on the MIS School Summary, all errors, Collect resolvable queries, overnightmissing contractsreport (<link) and other Collect overnight report issues], then use pencilat ‘Return Level’(in the‘School Workforce Annual’moduleseen first asyou ‘open return’) to add suitably detailed reason for each irresolvable query,only whenreaching step 11of steps in“Early Warning Letter”:
  • Please followall the steps in our “Early Warning Letter”(e.g.version1on WebFronter since18/10/2018) for guidanceincludingall Collect checks school mustdo +when to add notes.
  • As well as errors/queries, schools must resolve issues seen in(overnight) Collect reports.
  • Press Submit button in COLLECT to “sign off”, as LA is only then able to Approve the return (once LA have checked it, after all support calls are closed and late returns are chased up).

Thank you for all your efforts on this complex return and for ensuring it is completed, checked and submitted by school deadline, seen with the 13 preparation steps in our Early Warning Letter.

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