Guidance

Parental responsibility measures attendance census

How local authorities should collect and submit data for the annual attendance measures census.

From:
Department for Education
Published
25 March 2014
Last updated
15 August 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

Local authorities must complete the parental responsibility measures attendance census each September or October.

You must submit details of the controls you put in place in the previous academic year to help parents make sure their children attend school, including:

  • parenting contracts
  • parenting orders
  • penalty notices for unauthorised absence
  • number of cases you’ve entered into the attendance case management system

Important dates

Dates for the 2023 census:

  • census opens: 6 September 2023
  • deadline for submitting data: 20 October 2023

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

  • register and log in with DfE Sign-in
  • use COLLECT to submit your data

Please contact your school or local authority approver, if:

  • you want to request a DfE Sign-in username or password so you can access COLLECT
  • ‘parental responsibility measures attendance’ 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, please use the DfE Sign-in request form.

If you’ve forgotten your password, use DfE Sign-in to reset it. You will need to click ‘Start now’ and then the ‘I’ve forgotten my password’ link.

Note that we’ll only be able to change the status of your data submission to ‘authorised’ once you’ve cleared all errors in the data in COLLECT.

Census documents

The following documents will help you complete the census:

Do you need help?

Submitting data

Please use the service request form if you have any questions about your data. We aim to answer your question within 5 working days.

Feedback

Please use the feedback form if you have any comments about our data collection service, including COLLECT and the helpdesk service.

Published 25 March 2014
Last updated 15 August 2023 + show all updates

  1. Updated with dates for 2023 census and a link to the guidance.

  2. Updated the 'Important dates' section for the 2022 census and added a link to the 2022 guide for local authorities.

  3. Added 'Important dates' for the 2021 census and a link to the 2021 guide for local authorities.

  4. Added information about the Department for Education not collecting parental responsibility measures attendance data in 2020.

  5. Dates for the 2019 annual attendance measures census added.

  6. Updated 'Submit your data section' and DfE Sign-in help links.

  7. Updated COLLECT link from secure access to DfE sign in.

  8. Updated the guide for local authorities link in census documents.

  9. Added the 2018 dates.

  10. Added 2017 census guide for local authorities and submission dates.

  11. Added a link to the 2016 census COLLECT guide.

  12. Added information about the 2016 census.

  13. Added COLLECT guide for the 2015 parental responsibility measures attendance census.

  14. Added link to the 2015 census guide for local authorities.

  15. Added dates for the 2015 census.

  16. Added census and COLLECT guide links to the parental responsibility measures attendance census 2014.

  17. First published.

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