Change of https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-level-annual-school-census

Change description : 2025-11-07 09:37:00: Added the census dates for 2026. [Guidance and regulation]

Showing diff : 2025-02-11 14:11:29.365989721 +00:00..2025-11-07 16:19:53.889283482 +00:00

Guidance

School-level annual school census: guide to submitting data

How independent schools must collect and submit data for the school-level annual school census (SLASC).

From:
Department for Education
Published
25 March 2014
Last updated
117 FebruaryNovember 2025 — See all updates

Applies to England

SLASC is an annual, statutory census that takes place every January. You must complete statutory censuses by law unless there’s a good reason not to.

SLASC collects the following information about registered independent schools:

  • their contact details
  • the number of pupils on the attendance register
  • the number of teaching staff
  • the courses of study
  • the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN)
  • the number of pupils in local authority care
  • annual fees
  • details of accommodation
  • the number of staff members who have joined or left since the last census
  • the school’s proprietors

Do not confuse SLASC with the Independent Schools Council annual census, which also takes place in January each year.

Important dates

20252026 census dates:

  • census day: Thursday 1615 January 20252026
  • deadline for submitting your data: Sunday 1615 February 20252026

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

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

Contact your school or local authority approver if:

  • you want to request a DfE Sign-in username or password so you can access COLLECT
  • SLASC 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, use the DfE Sign-in request form.

If you’ve forgotten your password, use DfE Sign-in to reset it. You’ll need to click ‘Start now’ and then ‘Forgotten your password?’.

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 technical document is available for software suppliers:

Do you need help?

Submitting data

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

Feedback

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

Updates to this page

Published 25 March 2014

Last updated 117 FebruaryNovember 2025 + show href="#full-history">+ show all updates

    3. We have corrected the deadline date for submitting your SLASC data to Sunday 16 February 2025.

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Contents

Update history

2025-11-07 09:37
Added the census dates for 2026.

2025-02-11 14:11
We have corrected the deadline date for submitting your SLASC data to Sunday 16 February 2025.

2024-10-21 11:14
Updated important dates for 2025.

2023-10-16 16:07
Updated the important dates to show dates for the 2024 census.

2022-11-29 16:54
Updated SLASC 2022 guide is available.

2022-10-14 10:41
Updated the important dates to show dates for 2023 census. Updated a link to the 2023 version of the business and technical specification.