Peter (DfE)

Further education (FE) workforce data collection

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Last year we launched the FE workforce data collection to:

  • provide a better understanding of the implications of government policy reforms and their impact on the composition of staff and their specialisms, for example the impact of the introduction of T Levels
  • provide a greater understanding of pay in the sector, such as the impact of pay on staff recruitment, gender pay gap, underfunding in the sector compared with other education sectors
  • reveal skills gaps in the sector and model skills gaps and their impacts.

In its first year, participation in the collection was voluntary, but from September 2022, submitting a return is mandatory for all eligible providers. This collection will allow us to build reliable data sets to help design effective and impactful policy to support the sector going forwards.

We will be publishing outcomes in spring 2023, for the benefit of providers and key stakeholders, such as Ofsted and sector representatives.

The collection for the 2021 to 2022 academic year will open on 12 September 2022 and will close on 25 November 2022.

There are a few changes for this year:

  • we will collect a Sub Role under the existing Senior Leader, Manager, Teacher, Support and Administration Roles for each staff member
  • a new data item to capture whether the staff member had a pay rise during the 2021 to 2022 academic year.
  • a new data item to capture whether the staff member has benefitted from participating in DfE programmes during the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

Revised documents have been published on GOV.UK:

  • FE workforce staff record specification 2021 to 2022
  • Schema for the FE workforce data collection
  • Example of staff data

Other documents that require updating will be published later.

Replies

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Steve Hewitt

Hi Peter

I note the fifth document down on the page linked to is titled 21/22 but is a 20/21 file.

Also, as a provider that is part of a larger organisation, I'm confused about how I deal with HR/IT/Marketing etc where they are cross-organisation functions without defined members of staff who work purely for our education arm?

Also also, I can't find any mention of subcontractors, can you confirm they're not in scope?

Peter (DfE)

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the reply, the title of the fifth document down has now been amended.

The FE workforce data collection: support manual 2020 to 2021 document addresses the 2 points you raise:

Section 6.1:

If education or training provision is a small part of the organisation's activities, only return data for staff members who are directly supporting and delivering education or training and meet the criteria for the types of roles specified.

Section 6.6:

You do not need to complete a staff record for an individual for the following types of staff:

  • Agency staff
  • Self-employed or freelance staff
  • Staff working for a provider through an intermediary, such as a personal service company

Note the support manual will be updated for 2021 to 2022 but these two points will not change.

Steve Hewitt

Thanks Peter, I think that's clear.

Bit worried that, in the overall state of things, this will skew some of the stats quite significantly, that providers like ourselves will look a lot more "profitable"/have a lower %age of staff costs to ESFA income (which must be a key metric coming out of this, right?) than, eg, a college including "everyone", particularly given there's nowhere I can see for us to tell you that we're part of a larger organisation?

I don't think 6.6 is explicit enough about subcontractors, I'd quite like a line that *says* subbies are not to be included.

Emma Jones

Hi Peter,

Peter

Will the ESFA Workforce Desktop Application & Template be updated the reflect the recent changes to the Specification?

Thanks

Angela Wilson

Hi, was SteveH's query ever answered please regarding sub-contractors?   I don't think 6.6 is explicit enough about subcontractors, I'd quite like a line that *says* subbies are not to be included.

We are well on our way with our data return for our own staff, would hate to be told at this late stage that we somehow have to collect the data for our sub-contractors for AEB too?

Peter (DfE)

Emma Jones apologies that this has not been replied to before but the desktop application and template have now been updated.

Peter (DfE)

Angela Wilson the manual has not been updated for the point Steve Hewitt raised. I will look to get this done but sub-contractors do not need to be included. 

Victoria Connors-Lord

Hi all 

I have a question on what staff are in scope for the FE workforce data collection. We are a small training provider and generally all our staff support our learners education and training but do not directly teach. When completing the application, we have completed the job role column and also the sub role column but it errors on "main subject taught". 

Has anyone else come across this? It makes me think we should only include the main teachers on the application but for instance our Programme Managers dont directly teach but do support. Also our administrators, they support our education department but do not teach. 

Any help appreciated

 

 

Peter (DfE)

Victoria Connors-Lord You should include all staff members that support ESFA funded learners whether they teach or not. If you have a small number of staff you may find it easier to use the online form rather than the desktop application to complete your staff collection. Note if using the desktop application all the columns left to right from Main Subject Taught to Current Industry Experience must only be populated for teaching staff. If you populate any of these teaching staff columns for a member of staff without a teaching sub role selected then you will generate errors on the row. 

Jo Hodgson

What are others doing where we can't get the data from staff? Is it acceptable to return the data that we have?

Steve Hewitt

There's "not known" for pretty much every answer if you're desperate...

Jo Hodgson

Are providers including Exam Invigilators in their return? 

 

Steve Hewitt

Yes? Can use the Exam Admin category for them.

Jo Hodgson

Thank you Steve, that's what we are currently doing - just mindful it wildly skews things as it looks like we have LOTS of Exams Admin !

Nellie Fakudze

Quick question- the question of annual salary. A member of the teaching staff holds a management position, do we submit their basic teacher salary only or do we include the TLR or responsibility allowance in that?

Peter (DfE)

Nellie Fakudze please include the TLR or responsibility allowance in that. 

Martyn Wright

Hey, quick question; our college supports residential learners and thus we end up with a strange situation when using the sub-roles prefacing all of the Care Support Workers as Learning Support Assistants (SEN). 

We've done this because the Care Support Workers join learners in class (those that are funded through ESFA.) My concern is that this may be incorrect and look like we staff twice as many LSAs as we should but I cannot find an appropriate role that fits this niche within our organisation. Would the general guidance be to make it fit and make notes if we were asked to justify the amount of support assistants?

(Edited)

Peter (DfE)

Martyn Wright what you have done is fine. I will endeavour to get Care Support Worker added as a sub role value for the 22/23 collection. 

David Lacey

Looking at Peter's reply 

Victoria Connors-Lord You should include all staff members that support ESFA funded learners whether they teach or not. If you have a small number of staff you may find it easier to use the online form rather than the desktop application to complete your staff collection. Note if using the desktop application all the columns left to right from Main Subject Taught to Current Industry Experience must only be populated for teaching staff. If you populate any of these teaching staff columns for a member of staff without a teaching sub role selected then you will generate errors on the row. 

How does this tie in with the record specification for the xml output. Main Subject Taught is specified as mandatory 

 

 

David Lacey

I should add we are generating the xml output from our own payroll software

Steve Hewitt

Hi David

You only include the TeacherData entity for staff whose main role is Teacher, so it's mandatory as part of that entity but only for those that you have to return it for, if you see what I mean? So anyone who is a Manager, Support, Admin etc wouldn't have the entity as part of their record.

David Lacey

Thanks Steven.  That's really appreciated. I think the penny was beginning to drop with me

So it only applies to those with a Teaching Role?

(Edited)

Peter (DfE)

David Lacey That is correct.The desktop application will derive the Teaching role (code 3) from the teaching sub roles which are:

 

Steve Hewitt

Should point out it took me about a week to realise it was deriving main from sub and that's why main and sub 1 have to be the same value  for everyone in the spreadsheet. Feels like it would genuinely be easier to put 1 to 5 in the main field... Not least because I would have realised earlier that Assessors aren't, for some reason "teachers"...

Joseph Rowell

I have a question for several colleges I'm working with, related to grouping of invigilators 

  • I haven’t excluded invigilators as I feel they support learning, but I cant group their job role into the provided categories, and there is no ‘other option’, do you have any suggestions for this? 

Steve Hewitt

We just put them as 53 Exam Admin...

Joseph Rowell

Hi have a query concerning data missing from either ex employees or those on LTS/maternity leave that we are unable to gather information from.  - if they full with in the teacher role, what alternative option can be chosen if the college is unable to obtain the information  - remaining validation errors refer to the above issue 

Peter (DfE)

Joseph Rowell If you cannot obtain the data to complete a staff record for a leaver and also cannot complete the record by using the not known response that is available for some questions then please remove the leaver from you staff data collection. 

David Lacey

Just noticed a small inconsistency in the record spec against the schema. Looks like a typo.

Presumably, the schema is correct

 

 

Peter (DfE)

David Lacey I am looking at the V6.0 of the Staff record specification and the entity name (ParticpatedInDfEProgrammes) is consistent between the documentation on page 47 and the schema in section 18. However the diagram on page 11 is inconsistent and states: ParticpatedInDfEProgramme. Is this what you are referring to?