Guidance

CLA return 2018 to 2019: technical specification

Data submission specifications for the children looked after (CLA) return for 2018 to 2019.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 23 October 2017
• Last updated: 15 April 2019 — See all updates

This publication was withdrawn on 15 October 2019

This document is for the 2018 to 2019 children looked after return. For the current return, visit our guide to submitting data for the annual children looked after return.

Documents

Children looked after by local authorities in England: technical specification for the 2018 to 2019 data collection

Ref: DFE-00295-2017

PDF, 1.17 MB, 51 pages

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Children looked after data collection 2018 to 2019: validation checks

Ref: DFE-00294-2017

PDF, 1010 KB, 123 pages

Children looked after data collection 2018 to 2019: XML schema

XSD, 17.1 KB

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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 2018 to 31 March 2019.

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 23 October 2017
Last updated 15 April 2019 + show all updates

1. 15 April 2019

   Updated guidance documents. The changes are listed in the version history.

2. 26 March 2019

   Updated schema.

3. 14 February 2019

   Added the XML schema file.

4. 10 October 2018

   Added updated versions of the technical specification and validation rules documents.

5. 23 October 2017

   First published.