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 National Archives, including the specification for the 2025 census.