Guidance
Children in need census 2026 to 2027: specification
Specification and validation rules for local authorities and software suppliers preparing for the 2026 to 2027 children in need census.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This is technical information about submitting data for the children in need census for the period 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.
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 child level
- how to structure the data in XML
- how to check the data against the validation rules
Updates to this page
Published 18 November 2025
Last updated -
Updated 'business and technical specification' and 'validation rules'. Amendments are noted in the version history.
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Updated the 'Children in need census 2026 to 2027: business and technical specification'. Changes are described in the document's version history.
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Published the validation rules.
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First published.