Guidance

Children looked after return 2021 to 2022: technical specifications

Data submission specifications for the children looked after (CLA) return for 2021 to 2022.

Applies to England

Documents

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 2021 to 31 March 2022.

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
  • XML schema files to format your 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 October 2020
Last updated 4 April 2022 + show all updates
  1. Updated 'Children looked after data collection 2021 to 2022 validation checks' with version 1.3. Changes are described in the document's version history.

  2. Added XML schema.

  3. Updated 'Children looked after data collection 2021 to 2022 validation checks' with version 1.2. Changes are described in the document's version history.

  4. Updated 'Children looked after data collection 2021 to 2022 validation checks'.

  5. Added 'Children looked after data collection 2021 to 2022 validation checks' document.

  6. First published.