Detailed guide: Early years census: guide to submitting data

How local authorities should collect and submit data about providers of early years education to complete the annual early years census.

The early years census is a statutory census that takes place every January. You must complete statutory censuses by law unless there’s a good reason not to.

All local authorities must submit data for this census.

The census collects information about early years providers who receive direct government funding for 2-, 3- or 4-year-olds, including:

• all private, voluntary or independent nurseries and providers of early years education
• schools that provide day care for full days or in shorter sessions
• childminders and childminding networks

Important dates

The 2020 census deadlines for:

• census day: Thursday 16 January 2020
• local authorities to submit their data: Friday 6 March 2020
• final submission date: Friday 10 April 2020

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

• register and log in with DfE Sign-in
• use COLLECT to submit your school census data

Please contact your school or local authority approver, if:

• you want to request a DfE Sign-in username or password so you can access COLLECT
• ‘school census’ is not on the list of collections you can see in COLLECT

Get help using DfE Sign-in

If you do not know who your approver is, please use the DfE Sign-in request form.

If you’ve forgotten your password, use DfE Sign-in to reset it. You will need to click ‘Start now’ and then the ‘I’ve forgotten my password’ link.

Note that we’ll only be able to change the status of your data submission to ‘authorised’ once you’ve cleared all errors in the data in COLLECT.

Census documents

The following guidance documents will help you complete the 2019 census:

• early years census 2020 guide
• COLLECT guides

The following technical document is available for local authorities and software suppliers:

• Early years census 2020: technical specification and validation rules

If you are looking for guides from past early years census collections, visit the ‘Early years census: closed collections’ page.

Do you need help?

Submitting data

For complex questions, please use the service request form. We aim to answer your question within 5 working days.

Feedback

Please use the feedback form if you have any comments about our data collection service, including COLLECT and the helpdesk service.

Published 25 March 2014
Last updated 25 July 2019 + show all updates

1. 25 July 2019 Added Early years census 2020 guide
2. 18 June 2019 Updated census dates for 2020. Added links to the 2020 technical specification and validation rules.
3. 29 January 2019 Updated ‘Submit your data section’ and DfE Sign-in help links.
4. 10 December 2018 Updated COLLECT link from secure access to DfE sign in.
5. 4 December 2018 Added final submission date to important dates
6. 29 May 2018 Updated census dates for 2019. Added links to the 2019 guide for local authorities and the 2017 technical specification and validation rules.
7. 6 July 2017 Updated census documents and important dates for 2018.
8. 22 December 2016 Added link to new generic COLLECT guides for schools and local authorities.
9. 12 August 2016 Updated census dates for 2017. Added links to the 2017 guide for local authorities and the 2017 technical specification and validation rules.
10. 1 September 2015 Added important dates for the 2016 collection and links to the 2016 guide and technical specification.
11. 2 January 2015 Added a link to the ‘Early years census 2015: local authority COLLECT guide’ document.
12. 2 December 2014 Added a link to the ‘Early years census 2015: XML spreadsheet generator’.
13. 14 November 2014 Added a link to ‘Early years census 2015: guide’.
14. 20 October 2014 Added a link to ‘Early years census 2015: XML schema files’.
15. 24 June 2014 Changed important dates and added a link to ‘Early years census 2015: technical specification’.
16. 25 March 2014 First published.

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