GovWire

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 2022 to 31 March 2023.

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, well 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.