Skip to main content
Guidance

Children’s social work workforce census: guide to submitting data

How local authorities should collect and submit data to complete the children’s social work workforce census.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
17 October 2017
Last updated:
10 December 2025
Show all updates

  1. Updated to include important 2025 to 2026 census dates.

  2. Updated 'acceptable notepad entries' to version 1.1 for 2025. We have added extra lines for validation rules 235Q, 245Q and 255Q, and updated the entry for rule 230Q.

  3. Updated 'acceptable notepad entries' for 2025.

  4. Updated to include important 2024 to 2025 census dates.

  5. Added 'acceptable notepad entries' to the 'census documents' section.

  6. Updated for 2024 and removed acceptable notepad entries.

  7. Updated 'acceptable notepad entries' to version 1.1.

  8. The census business and technical specification linked to in 'Census documents' now also contains the 2023 to 2024 version.

  9. Added a link to the spreadsheet 'Acceptable notepad entries'.

  10. Updated important dates for the 2022 to 2023 census.

  11. Updated links and 'Important dates' for the 2021 to 2022 census.

  12. Added link to 'census guide' in the section 'Census documents'.

  13. Updated the database closure date to Friday 26 November 2021.

  14. Updated important dates and added a link to the business and technical specification for 2020 to 2021.

  15. Dates for 2019 to 2020 census added.

  16. Added link to 'Children’s social work workforce census 2019: XML converter and guide' under census documents.

  17. Dates for 2018 to 2019 census added. Links to census documents updated.

  18. Added link to 'COLLECT report specifications' under census documents.

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

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

  21. Dates for 2017 to 2018 census added. Outdated links to COLLECT report specifications and validation rules removed. These links will be reinstated when updated documents are available.

  22. First published.

Applies to England

The children’s social work workforce census is an annual statutory census for all local authorities. You must complete statutory censuses by law unless there’s a good reason not to.

The census covers the year from 1 October to 30 September.

It collects data on all children and family social worker staff employed during the census year. This includes staff:

  • who were employed on or before 30 September
  • who left employment during the census year
  • who were employed through an agency on or before 30 September

Local authorities should issue privacy notices to all members of staff. Privacy notices tell staff members about the details of the census and their rights under the Data Protection Act.

Important dates

2025 to 2026 census dates:

  • the census opens on Thursday 1 October 2026
  • return census submissions by Friday 30 October 2026
  • the database closure date is Friday 4 December 2026

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

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

You should contact your school or local authority approver if:

  • you want to request a DfE Sign-in username or password so you can access COLLECT
  • ‘children’s social work workforce census’ 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, you should 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 guidance documents will help you complete the census:

If you need help submitting data

For complex questions, you can use the service request form. We aim to answer your question within 5 working days.

Feedback

You can use the feedback form if you have any comments about our data collection service, including COLLECT and the service desk.

Sign up for emails or print this page

Contents