Children in need census 2023 to 2024 Guide for local authorities – version 1.0 October 2022 2 Contents Legislation 6 Contact details 6 Other children in need census documents 6 Data protection and data sharing 7 Version history 8 1. Introduction 9 1.0 Summary of main changes for 2023 to 2024 9 1.1 Background 10 1.2 Scope 10 1.2.1 Children who are referred to children’s social care services 10 1.2.2 Children who were referred but with no further action 10 1.2.3 Cases that were open between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 11 1.2.4 Children awaiting services, children that are the subject of statutory orders and privately fostered children 12 1.2.5 Disabled children 12 1.2.6 Children from another local authority 12 1.2.7 Adopted children 13 1.2.8 Formerly looked after children 13 1.3 Rationale 13 1.4 Benefits of the children in need census to local authorities 14 1.5 Data structure 16 1.6 Children in need census data modules 17 1.7 Multiple entries of some types of data 18 1.7.1 Technical note 18 1.8 Submission 18 1.9 Validation checks 19 1.10 Year on year checks 21 1.11 General notes 24 1.11.1 Date fields 24 1.11.2 True/false fields 24 2. Data module 1: child identifiers 26 3 2.1 ‘LA child ID’ 26 2.2 Unique pupil number (UPN) 26 2.2.1 UPNs for children educated outside of a local authority 27 2.3 Pupil’s former UPN 27 2.4 UPN unknown reason 28 2.5 Date of birth 28 2.6 Expected date of birth 28 2.7 Gender 29 2.8 Date of death 29 3. Data module 2: child characteristics 31 3.1 Child ethnicity 31 3.2 Type of disability 32 4. Data module 3: children in need 34 4.1 Information required for referrals 34 4.1.1 Information required for transfer in cases 35 4.2 Referral date 36 4.3 Referral no further action 36 4.4 Source of referral 37 4.5 Primary need code 38 4.6 ‘CIN’ closure dat