SIMS Autumn Census 2022 guidance
Here’s our update on the latest guidance for the SIMS Autumn 2022 School Census, the first of the academic year!
Essential dates this year
- Census date 06/10/2022
- Attendance collected from 18/04/2022 to 31/07/2022
- Exclusions collected from 01/08/2021 to 17/04/2022
- Free School Meal Eligibility collected from 20/05/2022 to 06/10/2022
- Alternative Provision Placements collected from 19/05/2022 to 06/10/2022
- Funding and Monitoring collected from 01/08/2022 to 06/10/2022
- Learning Aims (6th forms only) collected from 01/08/2021 to 06/10/2022
Changes since last year:
Alternative Provision Placement
Please note: Not applicable to Nursery schools
Although Alternative Provision Placement (APP) details are still voluntary for the Autumn 2022 return, all APP data items will be collected on a mandatory basis in the Spring 2023 return onwards.
Post Looked After Arrangements
The following changes have been made to codes and descriptions:
The codeset for Post Looked After Arrangements (PLAA) has been extended to include ‘O’ (Adopted from state care outside of England and Wales). The code can be used from the start of the 2022/2023 academic year, for collection in the Autumn school census onwards.
The descriptions of all ceased to be looked after options have been revised:
- Adoption from England and Wales
- Adoption from state care outside of England and Wales
- Special guardianship order (SGO) from England and Wales
- Residence order (RO) from England and Wales
- Child arrangement order (CAO) from England and Wales.
Funding and Monitoring
Please note: Not applicable to Nursery schools
Tools | Statutory Return Tools | Update Funding and Monitoring
- Cumulative hours for the Autumn term are collected for the first time in the School Census Autumn 2022 return.
- To enable a school to record that a student is repeating a year of post-16 study (i.e Year Taught In 12 or above), the functionality and labelling of the previously named Repeating Year 13 column has been amended. The column header is now displayed as Repeating Post-16 Year.
- A new Starting New Programme column has been added to the Students panel. This column becomes active only when the Repeating Post-16 Year column is ticked for Year 12 students.
- For clarity, the labelling of the previously named School Led Tutoring column has been changed to Tutoring. The rules for this column have been expanded to include externally provided tutoring as well as school led tutoring.
- This change has also been made in the Funding and Monitoring census panel and the associated detail report.
- For clarity, the labelling of the previously name Total Hrs for the Acad Yr column has been changed to Cumulative Hrs at 31 Aug.
Exclusions Terminology
Please note: Not applicable to Nursery schools
Tools | Lookups | Maintain Because Fixed Term exclusion is no longer used the following changes have been made to Exclusion Type values:
- The Fixed Term exclusion type has been set to inactive.
- The description for Reinstated from Fixed Term/Suspension has been changed to Reinstated from Suspension.
The Errors and Solutions for School Census Autumn 2022 can be accessed by clicking here.
The latest Fileset (2203) will be here soon, and once here hit the download button and unzip the folder.
Then open SIMS and go to Tools | Setups | Import and click the yellow folder button to browse to the fileset, simply highlight it and choose Open then use the Import Fileset button.
Remember, you'll need to close and open SIMS again for it to take effect.
Have you subscribed for alerts?
Download the 'Producing the Autumn Census' guides from Capita
If you require any assistance or SIMS support please call us on 0345 222 1551 | Opt 3 or email misservicedesk@schoolbusinessservices.co.uk
Would you like us to do your Autumn Census for you?
Let us take it off your to-do list this month by contacting us. Looking ahead, we can do ALL of this year's returns for you - whether you are already an SBS customer or not!
