Guidance

Early years census 2018: technical specification

Technical specification and validation rules for local authorities and software suppliers preparing for the early years census 2018.

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These documents are for the 2018 early years census. For the current census, visit our guide to submitting data for the early years census.

Applies to England

Documents

Early years census 2018: validation rules, version 1.6

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Early years census 2018: validation rules, version 1.6

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email alternative.formats@education.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

This is technical information about submitting data for the early years census 2018.

It is for:

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

It explains:

  • changes to the previous year’s census collection
  • what data local authorities should supply at establishment level and child level
  • how to structure the data in XML or CSV format
  • how to check the data against the validation rules

The validation rules are available in Excel and OpenDocument formats.

Read more about submitting data for the early years census.

Updates to this page

Published 6 July 2017
Last updated 6 April 2018 + show all updates
  1. Updated the validation rules spreadsheet. The document's version history describes the updates.

  2. Updated the validation rules spreadsheet. The document's version history describes the updates.

  3. Updated the business and technical specification to correct minor discrepancies within the example XML structure.

  4. Updated the validation rules spreadsheet. The document's version history describes the updates.

  5. First published.

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