Guidance

CLA return 2017 to 2018: technical specification

Data submission specifications for the children looked after (CLA) return for 2017 to 2018.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 6 July 2017
• Last updated: 1 June 2018 — See all updates

This publication was withdrawn on 2 August 2019

This document is for the 2015 to 2016 children looked after return. For the current return, visit our guide to submitting data for the annual children looked after return.

Applies to England

Documents

Children looked after by local authorities in England: technical specification for the 2017 to 2018 data collection

Ref: DFE-00170-2017

PDF, 3.61 MB, 38 pages

Children looked after by local authorities return 2017 to 2018: XML schema

17.1 KB

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Children looked after data collection 2017 to 2018: validation checks

Ref: DFE-00292-2017

PDF, 713 KB, 137 pages

Details

This is technical information about submitting and validating data for the children looked after data return (also known as SSDA903) for the year 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

It is for:

• suppliers creating management information software (MIS) for local authorities
• users of local authority MIS software

The information includes:

• a summary of the data items we collect in the return
• an explanation of formats for submitting the data
• a list of validation checks applied to the data return

Software suppliers should use the XML schema file to make sure local authorities provide XML data correctly. Note that we will test this schema once we finish developing the children looked after data collection system. If we need to amend the schema after testing it, we’ll publish a new version here.

A guide for local authorities, with detailed explanations of what information to include for each data item, is also available.

Published 6 July 2017
Last updated 1 June 2018 + show all updates

1. 1 June 2018

   Updated the validation checks document (see version history for changes).

2. 13 February 2018

   Added CLA.XSD to page and amended details accordingly.

3. 23 October 2017

   Added a guide to validation checks.

4. 6 July 2017

   First published.