Completing ACE data return (2022/23) – Guides

This guide will show you how you can use Lists to help complete your annual ACE data return. This guide supports our webinar on the same topic, which you can view below.

ACE report templates (Lists > List Library > ACE data return)

We have created several list templates which you can use as the basis for creating your own data return reports. These are all found in the List Library:

IMPORTANT! - The current templates are based on the Arts Council criteria for the academic year 2022/23. The SpeedAdmin Support team will continue to monitor the reporting criteria and update these each year.

The following explains how to use each template to respond to each question on the data return, which list content you need to use, and which questions we are currently unable to report on in SpeedAdmin.

Top tip - These lists have ‘equal to current school year’ filters applied, so make sure your school year is set to 22/23 before you start working!

B – Workforce & Governance

B1 – Permanent and non-permanent staff numbers

Use Teacher list content.
Be aware that there are more hard-coded fields available for teachers than other internal staff e.g. admin etc.
Filters added to show all teachers whose employed has not ended, or ended after 1/9/22, i.e. have been employed in 22/23
Date of Employment – this is only used for salary calculation, so some services may not yet have this information in the system.
Grouped by Salary type, could also do Job Title.
Unique count then added on Teacher ID
You can add additional fields for additional employment info if used in the system e.g. teacher pay grade etc. (if entered as resource fields for managers/other admin staff)

B2-B4 – Permanent Staff – Diversity Data

For non-teaching staff, you could use a Teacher & Users report, but users don’t have employment details so this would be dependent on each service having their own resource fields set up. This would be similar for fields such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation etc. – but we would expect this information to be held centrally within services’ HR systems etc.

B6 - Partner Organisation Staff

B7-B17 – Organisational Profile

Data relating to these questions is unlikely to be held in SpeedAdmin.

C – Learning Provision

Top tip – how you manage these lists will be based on your own service’s set up of categories/course/course types etc. This could even include venues (e.g. Online Music Centre).

It is quite difficult to show ALL data at breakdowns at the same time, so use different filters and switch these on/off as needed to obtain each area of data needed. Alternatively, you can simply create several more reports by copying your initial one and then adding additional filters.

C1 – Individual Singing / Instrumental lessons

Use Active Students list content.
Charge end date filters have been removed – this will then show ALL students who had any lessons throughout 22/23 (in the template lists, we have included charge end date field to confirm that discontinued students are definitely being pulled into the list.)
Add filters to show only tuition. Most services have Tuition as a category or categories so you can filter that way.
Add filters to narrow down to individual course types and face to face lessons – this could be by course type or course school (e.g. online music centre); again this will be based on your own service’s naming/set up.
Ensure Keystage is an added field – this is automatically calculated by the student’s DOB. In the templates, we have added year group and DOB to demonstrate how Keystage is calculated – hence some are shown as empty
Adult lessons can also be filtered out; equally, you could add filters for specific year groups/DOB parameters.
Group by Keystage, then gender, and unique counts added on student ID, so that they are only counted once regardless of how many lessons they are receiving/instruments they are learning. You can change this to just ‘count’ if each one should be counted individually.
Then, go through each filter and record the necessary data – switch on the PP filter for those numbers, then SEND for those, and then both on for both. Some services use their own resource fields for this info, in which case you would simply filter against those fields instead.
It can become quite complicated to include discount scheme info on top of the PP and SEND info, so we have shown this in a separate list (REMISSIONS ONLY) You can do this by copying the list and then adding the relevant discount fields and filters. It is easiest to just use the hard-coded discount scheme filters (at this stage in the reporting, we are not referring to ensembles, so it is unlikely that multi-course and sibling discounts are being used.)
You may need to use date filters for your discount schemes – this will be dependent on how each service set up their discounts e.g. if they run over multiple years.
The same process can then used for reporting against ‘Blend of face to face and digital’, and ‘Digital only’ – copy the reports and edit filters as needed.

C2 – Small group Singing / Instrumental lessons

Follow exactly the same process as C1, but use course types to only show small groups/pairs. Again, this will be dependent on service setup – for example, in our templates, we have only included ‘group’, but you may also need to add filters to include ‘pair’ course types.

C3 – Large group Singing / Instrumental lessons

Follow exactly the same process as C1 and C2, again using course types to filter the necessary lessons. Remember, this question is still only referring to tuition, not ensembles!

C4 – Online performances

Most services tend not to record this data in SpeedAdmin. If you have recorded this information, it was most likely as a one-off ensemble or concert, so could be established using the Booking or Ensembles list contents.

C5 – Ensemble opportunities and provision (including choirs)

Use Ensemble list content.
The data will be dependent on your Department/Category setup; you should be able to easily filter out whole class ensembles using categories; if not, you can also do this with course/course type. You may want to filter out additional ‘one-off’ provisions such as tours and workshop days.
The important field to include here is Course code – this is the same setup as the ACE categories and pulls directly from the course that each ensemble is created from.
Group by course code and then add a count against ensemble ID or title.
The information in this list will most likely only provide the data needed for C5c and C5d – but, if you have any school ensembles delivered in partnership that are scheduled into teacher timetables, these could also be included (probably identifiable by category, course or course type).

C6 – Ensemble Pupils

Use Active Students list content
Add the ‘Is ensemble – true’ filter – you will also need to filter out Tours, one-day events and whole class/school provision, most likely through category or course type.
Group by Keystage, then gender, and unique count added to student ID – you can change this to just ‘count’ if you want to include every ensemble they attended.
You need to filter out students who attended the ensemble(s) for less than a minimum of half a term – you could add a filter to only show where there is a de-registration reason and then count weeks between start and end dates. Any students who attended for less than half a term can then be removed from your totals.
As with C1-3, now follow the same process re pupil premium and SEND., and then use a separate report for remissions.

C7 – Continuation

This data is currently very difficult to report on via SpeedAdmin, as most whole class is not recorded against specific students, and you therefore can’t then track their progress/continuation over different years. Some services have a resource field asking ‘did you previously receive WCIT tuition’ – if you do record this data, you could use the Active Students list and then filter with that resource field as ‘yes’.

C8 – Standards achieved

Use Active Students list content
Grades/standards can only be recorded against courses which are in the system i.e. if they’re from an external provider, the grades are most likely not recorded in SpeedAdmin.
You could use one report for formal grades and then a separate one for assessment level (e.g. ‘informal’ assessments by the teacher, rather than formal examinations)
Add date filters to show only those grades that have been recorded within the last year. Only showing students WITH grades.
Group by grade and add student unique ID count

D – CPD, Instruments & Digital

D1 – Did you deliver CPD for teachers in this academic year?

This is a simple yes/no field and does not require the use of SpeedAdmin.

D2 – Number of Teachers Benefitting

Use Booking list content.
Reporting on this data will be entirely dependent on whether or not this has been recorded in the database!
Filter by booking type
If you have linked school users to your CPD sessions, you can then count accordingly against the User ID.
The same process can be used for internal teachers, just use Teacher/resource teacher fields instead of User (resource teacher will show ALL booked teachers, Teacher will just show booking owner)

D3 – Teacher and/or curriculum resources & materials created during this period

This data is currently not recorded in SpeedAdmin.

D4 – Number of Hours Delivered

Use Booking list content.
This is a similar report to D2, however the teacher/user information is removed and the ‘Lesson duration (Hours)’ field added.
Group by Title or resource field ‘CPD topic’ and add a sum on the Hours field.

D5 – Do you operate an instrument loan service?

This is a simple yes/no field and does not require the use of SpeedAdmin.

D6 – Number of instruments

This information can be easily found under Search > Instruments, but if you want to specifically report on instruments owned at start of 2022/23, then you will need to create a list.
Use Instrument list content
Add Sold fields and a ‘Date of selling’ filter set to after 2/9/22.
Some services additionally have their own resource fields which could be helpful to add here e.g., ‘disposed of’ etc.
You may wish to add the ‘Date of purchase’ field as well, and filter to this to only show instruments purchased before 1/9/22. Again, this all depends on the data in your database!

D7 – How frequently were you able to meet the exact requirements of instrument loans requested?

D7b – Where you couldn’t meet exact requirements, how frequently did you complete a loan request with adjustments?

Reporting against these questions will depend on how/if you’ve recorded this in the system. You can use the Instrument Hire Application overview to look at rejected numbers etc.
You can also use school provision requests to look at where instruments were requested/needed to be changed

D8 – Pupils who loaned an instrument

Use Active Students list content as you will need to report on PP and SEND info (which is not available in the Instrument list content).
Remove the pre-set filters
Use date filters to include hire data for 22/23 – use date filters. For new hires within 22/23, filter to show hire dates of 1/8/22 and after, or whenever you’d usually start hiring out for new academic year.
Group by Keystage and add a unique count on Student ID.
Use PP and SEND filters as you did with C1 etc. These can be switched on/off for each data set you need to report on.

D9 – What is the total number of instrument loans to individuals this academic year?

This is essentially the same list as for D8, but without the PP/SEND info – you don’t need to group by Keystage, just take the total number of rows as this will show EVERY hire.

D10 – Instrument Loan Costs

You will probably know whether students are eligible for specific subsidies for instrument hire etc., but you can always check this by looking at the Discounts tab on Instrument hire tuition fees to confirm which discount schemes are available:

D11 – How many, and what type of schools, has the Hub loaned instruments to this academic year?

You will first need to create lists of different school types – use the School list content for this.
You will need one list for each school type. These will need to include school ID field. For ‘other’ school types, this will need to be based on each service’s own types
For the instrument loans data, use the Instrument list content.
Filter the Payer type to School and group to allow count on school numbers
Add a hire date filter – from start of year or first hire date
You will then need to connect the School ID to these lists, which you can do by using the ‘is in this list’ filter – you can do just change filter to show each relevant list (the school types lists you created earlier), or create separate lists for each type.

D12 – How many instruments has the Hub loaned to schools this academic year?

Copy the D11 list, but this time just include all schools. You can group by school then add a unique count on instrument ID.

D13 – Supporting arts and cultural education

D14-D16 – Level of Challenge in the Year

Data relating to these questions is unlikely to be held in SpeedAdmin.

E – Partners & Finance

E1 – Hub Partners

Data relating to this question is unlikely to be held in SpeedAdmin.

E2 – Finance (2022/23) financial year

Use Charges list content.
For school contributions, filter the upper charge category to include ‘School’ (i.e. NOT ‘parent billed’ tuition being paid by school)
In our example, we have added a filter to show the payer as school – this shouldn’t be needed, as you would expect all School billed charges to have schools as a payer, but it is worth adding to double check that all payers have been set correctly!
Add date filters to show only charges for 22/23 financial year.
You could also group by ledger code if this is more helpful (as in our example)
You want to show only what been invoiced AND paid – for this, you MUST include invoice ID and then link this to the ‘All Payments Received’ (in the List Library) using the ‘is in this list’ filter.
You could also copy the ‘All Payments Received’ list first, add date filters and THEN link your charges report to your copied list.
Follow the same process for parent contributions billed, by changing the upper charge category filter to ‘Do not contain’ School.

E6 – Finance (April to August 2023 Extension Period)

Copy the lists used in E2, but change the date filters to April-August 2023.

For the remaining questions regarding expenditure, you can use the salary calculator for teacher expenditure but this is unlikely to cover ALL outgoings. Any income from partners etc., including investments, is also unlikely to be recorded in SA.

Data reporting for 2023/24

SpeedAdmin is working with Music Mark to improve the data return from our side. We will continue developing this in the future, alongside Music Mark. Music Mark is aware of the need to help Music Hubs more easily collect and collate data and is keen to work with both ACE/DfE and the software companies such as SpeedAdmin. We are also aware that this is a great moment to be doing this as we move to a new Plan and begin the process of creating the new Music Hub network. Music Mark have started their work on this – including interrogating the current process and what ‘good/useful data’ is and will update everyone further in due course. SpeedAdmin will continue working with them to help support our services.