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Estates management record 2020/21 - Data collection schedule

Back to C20042

Version 1.2 Produced 2022-05-18

This document is designed to guide higher education providers (HEPs) through the stages of data submission for the Estates management record.

As previously communicated to providers, the approach to deadlines will be different this year.

Return, commit and final commit deadlines - these deadlines are not statutory deadlines for this year and no written confirmation is required if they are not met. We strongly recommend that providers follow the normal timeline to progress through this year's data collection as achieving these milestones ensures that providers and HESA are well placed to achieve signed off data by the sign-off deadline. HESA and Statutory Customers will still use these as progress points and contact you to check on your progress.

Sign-off deadline - this deadline remains in place. Providers are required to have committed a final file, resolved all data quality queries in the Issue Management System, and returned a completed sign-off form to [email protected] by 17:00 on the day of the deadline. Please be aware that it can take up to five working days for HESA to check your file once committed and raise any necessary data quality queries. You should therefore aim to commit your final file in good time ahead of the sign-off deadline to ensure your file is checked and any quality queries resolved in time for the sign-off deadline.

At a glance

From October 2021 Data capture and collation
January 2022 C20042 Data Collection system opens
Late April 2022 Static Finance data incorporated
05 May 2022 Commit
05 May 2022 Nil return confirmation
05 May 2022 to 27 May 2022 Data quality checking period
10 June 2022 Final Commit
20 June 2022 Sign-off

Missed Deadlines

HESA is required to report any providers who miss any of the deadlines detailed in the schedule to the relevant statutory customer. These are the commit, nil-return confirmation, final commit and sign-off deadlines.

Providers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are required to complete an extension form if they anticipate that the commit deadline will be missed. The reason for the extension will be shared with your primary regulator or funder.

Providers are reminded to make use of the HESA Liaison team and to make them aware of any issues that could impact on your provider's ability to meet these deadlines.

From October 2021: DATA CAPTURE AND COLLATION

Providers should read the C20042 Coding Manual and associated documentation for details of the requirements for the return.

January 2022: C20042 DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM OPENS

The C20042 collection is available on the HESA Data Collection system giving providers the opportunity to submit and validate their submission against quality rules ahead of the commit deadline.

The entire collection is optional for providers in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Please see the Coverage Statement for further details. The Scottish Funding Council strongly encourages providers to compete the Estates management record, including those fields which are mandatory in the other regions. These fields are listed in the Mandatory data items web page. Providers in Scotland who choose to make an Estates management record return will need to complete Residential space total (SRESPT).

The static data from the Student record will be included when the collection opens. This data will be used to auto-populate the HESA supplied fields in the Student Headcount and Student FTE entities.

It is a provider's responsibility to ensure that they are progressing reasonably towards the commit deadline; if any issues become apparent or you require assistance with the submission process then please contact Liaison. HESA does monitor provider interactions to feed into their own risk assessments and this information may be shared with the primary regulator or funder of a provider.

Late April 2022: STATIC FINANCE DATA INCORPORATED

Static data from the Finance record will be added to the Estates management record following closure of the HESA Finance collection for providers in W, NI and S, and the OfS Finance collection for providers in England. This data will be used to auto-populate the HESA supplied fields in the Finance Income, Finance Expenditure, Finance Repairs and maintenance Costs and Finance Capital Expenditure Buildings entities.

At this point the Estates management record will be populated with all the relevant static data from the Student record and the Finance record and providers will be able to commit their data. Before this time you can make use of the test commit functionality to validate you submission.

05 May 2022: Commit

Providers are required to submit complete data that has no remaining errors and have committed the data on the Data Collection system by 23:59 on 5 May 2022. This schedule allows the maximum amount of available time for data quality checking.

Where errors are triggering for genuine data, a switch will need to be requested. This request should be sent to Liaison by email detailing the rule and an explanation for why this data is genuine, in good time prior to the commit deadline.

Where a provider requests that their file is decommitted before HESA data quality analysts have been able to check the file then this will count as a missed deadline.

For providers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, all mandatory data items are required to be completed for the data to successfully pass validation. These fields are listed in the Mandatory data items page on the coding manual.

05 May 2022: NIL RETURN CONFIRMATION

Providers in Scotland that opt not to participate are required to submit a Nil return form to indicate that their provider will not be returning Estates management record data. The completed form needs to be emailed to Liaison before 17:00 on 5 May to guarantee this will be actioned on the deadline. The form is available from the coding manual and needs to be signed by the provider's Head of Provider.

05 May 2022 to 27 May 2022: DATA QUALITY CHECKING PERIOD

This is an iterative process during which providers may need to submit, commit, review and decommit their data several times to ensure the final submission is credible. The suite of web reports available on the Data Collection system should be reviewed by the provider to ensure that the data submitted is a credible representation of your organisation.

During this period HESA data quality analysts will examine data committed by all providers. If any anomalies are found queries will be raised through the Issue Management system. Nevertheless, providers are in a better position to recognise more detailed anomalies within their data, using local knowledge of the intricacies of their own organisation. As a consequence, providers are required to either resubmit their data to amend these anomalies or provide an explanation in the Issue Management system as to why these apparent anomalies are genuine.

HESA analysts aim to check files within 5 working days following a provider committing their file and responses to data quality queries raised by HESA will be reviewed within 2 working days. However, during busy periods i.e. around the commit deadline please be aware that this may take slightly longer.

Upon satisfactory completion of this process data will be set to credible.

10 June 2022: FINAL COMMIT

Providers are required to commit their final data on the Data Collection system by 23:59 on 10 June 2022.

Once the file has been committed, it will be checked by a data quality analyst and this can result in additional data quality queries that require a response. Providers should be aware that data quality checking can take up to 5 working days and should therefore ensure that they have sufficient time to make any required changes based on these queries and/or respond to these queries ahead of the sign off deadline. All data quality queries need to be resolved before the data can be set to credible.

20 June 2022: SIGN-OFF

Providers are required to have their data marked as signed off on the Data Collection system by 20 June 2022. The sign off form needs to be emailed to Liaison before 17:00 on 20 June to guarantee sign-off on the deadline.

Once a provider's data has been set to credible on the Data Collection system, the 'sign off' button can be selected which allows the sign-off form to be downloaded for completion. The sign-off form must be completed by the provider's Accountable Officer (England) or the Head of Provider. Once completed, the form should be emailed to [email protected]. Please note that the transaction number on the sign-off form must correspond to that of the data being signed-off.

Sign-off completes the data collection process. Timely sign-off ensures that your data is included in any data deliveries to statutory customers, as well as onward uses of the data for publications and analysis.

Post Collection Information

Providers should download and keep copies of all relevant reports that they are likely to need during the year. This will be necessary as access to the site will be restricted after the collection has closed.

Targets that were set during the collection will be sent to providers and should be reviewed. The record contact will be notified by email once targets have been assigned in the Issue Management system and providers should ensure that processes are put in place to implement any changes to data collection required.

If a provider is aware of any errors in their data, then they should inform their primary funder or regulator. This may result in a request for the provider to go through fixed database. Providers should also notify HESA so a data intelligence note can be created.


Need help?

Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531.