Children looked after return 2026 to 2027: technical specifications

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 2026 to 31 March 2027.

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

A guide for local authorities, with detailed explanations of what information to include for each data item, is also available.