Alternative provision census: technical specification

This is technical information about submitting data for the alternative provision census.

It is for:

• suppliers of software for school and local authority management information systems (MIS)
• local authority users of MIS software

The specification describes:

• what data local authorities should supply
• how to structure the data in XML

You should also read the common basic data set. This defines common data items that schools use in MIS software and we use in our data collections.

Previous specifications are available on the UK Government Web Archive:

• 2024 alternative provision census: technical specification and validation rules
• 2023 alternative provision census: technical specification and validation rules
• 2022 alternative provision census: technical specification and validation rules