Guidance

Early years census 2017: technical specification

Technical specification and validation rules for local authorities and software suppliers preparing for the early years census 2017.

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These documents are for the 2017 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 2017: validation rules, version 1.2

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Early years census 2017: validation rules, version 1.2

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 2017.

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.

Published 12 August 2016
Last updated 14 December 2016 + show all updates
  1. Added updated 'Early years census 2017 specification' (version 1.4) and validation rules (version 1.2).

  2. First published.