Guidance

Unique pupil numbers

Guide for schools and local authorities on unique pupil numbers (UPNs) and a tool for generating them.

Published 13 September 2013
Last updated 7 June 2019 — see all updates

• From: Department for Education

• Applies to: England

Documents

UPNs: guide for schools and local authorities

Ref: DFE-00116-2020 PDF, 565KB, 20 pages

UPN generator

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 575KB

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Details

The unique pupil number (UPN) is a 13-character code that identifies each pupil in the local-authority-maintained school system.

The guide is for schools and local authorities, and provides information on UPNs, including:

• guidelines on maintaining UPNs
• data protection
• how to generate UPNs

The spreadsheet is a tool for generating UPNs.

The ‘UPN generator’ document is not accessible because it has missing alternative text and uses control buttons and complex macros. This means it does not meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines success criteria 1.1.1 non-text content and 2.1.1 keyboard. Our teams are working to fix it by December 2020.

Published 13 September 2013
Last updated 7 June 2019 + show all updates

1. 7 June 2019

   Replaced the UPN guide with an updated version.

2. 1 April 2019

   Updated 'UPNs: guide for schools and local authorities' and UPN generator.

3. 15 December 2017

   Reviewed and updated the unique pupil numbers guide, this includes data protection changes needed in 2018.

4. 29 September 2017

   Updated the UPN (unique pupil number) generator.

5. 23 August 2017

   Updated the UPN (unique pupil number) generator.

6. 25 September 2015

   Updated the UPN (unique pupil number) generator for the 2015 to 2016 academic year.

7. 3 September 2014

   Updated UPN generator for 2014 to 2015 academic year.

8. 13 September 2013

   First published.