ISB Standards Development Business Analysis Report - Identifiers

Transcription

1 ISB ISB Standards Development Business Analysis Report - Identifiers ISB Publication ISB ISB Standards Development Business Analysis Report - Identifiers Version: 0.7 Issued: 11/06/2015

2 Document Version History Version Status Date Modified by Description 0.1 Draft 23/04/2015 TSS First draft 0.2 Draft 30/04/2015 TSS For initial internal reviews by TSS 0.3 Draft 12/05/2015 TSS Following TSS meeting 0.4 Draft 14/05/2015 TSS For consultation following second internal review 0.5 Draft 18/05/2015 ISB Secretariat For consultation 0.6 Draft 10/06/2015 TSS Updates following consultation 0.7 Draft 11/06/2015 TSS Updates following ID Management SIG Meeting Page 2 of 48 Version: 0.7

3 Contents 1 Introduction Purpose Background Content Business Analysis Person-Learner/Child Early Years Compulsory Education Further Education Higher Education Awarding Bodies Looked After Children and Children In Need Raising the Participation Age / Young People at Risk of Being NEET Troubled Families Health Convergence of Identifiers School Census Changes Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) Award to Centre (A2C) Project The Higher Education Data and Information Improvement Programme (HEDIIP) Child Protection Information Sharing project (CP-IS) Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Act Emerging Islands Identity Matching Identity Verification Legal Gateways Working towards a strategy Stakeholder Analysis Standards Development Work Plan Page 3 of 48 Version: 0.7

4 5.1 Schedule Page 4 of 48 Version: 0.7

5 1 Introduction 1.1 Purpose This document builds on the Standards Development Scoping Definition Document for Identifiers following detailed business analysis. Its purpose is look at the range of identifiers used within education skills and children s services (ESCS) for people, primarily learners and children, to identify issues in the application and coverage of those identifiers in use and to suggest a direction of travel to make significant improvements. Any suggestions in this analysis document do not necessarily reflect current policy or legislation. Instead, they are intended to stimulate discussion about changes that might be considered in future. The focus of this analysis has been on identifiers for persons receiving services within the ESCS domain, not identifiers for those employed within the domain. We also look at the identifiers in use where data is exchanged with organisations outside of ESCS (eg HMRC, NHS) and between the four nations of the UK (although our main remit remains England). We are not concerned with the format of the identifiers in use but rather the coverage and quality of identifiers, particularly where this prevents the efficient exchange of information. We have not, to date, investigated identifiers for organisations as the main interest and business need is for common identifiers for people and this should be addressed first. 1.2 Background The drivers for this investigation have come jointly from the Department for Education and a number of other organisations who recognise that there is a proliferation of identifiers, particularly for people and organisations, within the ESCS domain. This creates inefficiency and lack of effectiveness in linking records about a person between multiple systems in those many circumstances where such linking is necessary to provide effective service. A large number of identifiers are currently in use within ESCS with different identifiers being used in different parts of the domain. This leads to islands of identity where one part of the domain struggles to exchange information with another part because the data is identified by a different primary key. Failure to have a common primary key leads to the need for data matching where records are matched on a number of different data items to confirm whether the identity of two records is the same. The purpose of this document is to analyse the current landscape and also current and ongoing changes to the use of identifiers. From this analysis we will seek to find Page 5 of 48 Version: 0.7

6 ways of improving the situation to make it easier to exchange data between different islands of identity, which will be presented in a subsequent and separate document. It is already recognised that it is not feasible to consider broad approaches, such as allocating any new universal identifier to all learners. Identifiers, and particularly the registers of personal information that can support their implementation, can be highly sensitive. The larger the register, the more sensitive the issue, hence the need to understand in more detail the existing situation and finer issues. 1.3 Content The document below includes: Analysis of existing identifiers in use and known issues Analysis of existing programmes of change and direction of travel Suggestions for how a strategy can be developed further Page 6 of 48 Version: 0.7

7 2 Business Analysis 2.1 Person-Learner/Child Historically the allocation of identifiers to learners and children has been the responsibility of the sector of education that wishes to identify the person. Learners moving between different sectors of education have often needed a new identifier to be assigned. For example, children moving from one local authority (LA) area to another will be assigned a new LA number. Therefore the following analysis is divided into the main sectors of education, skills and children s service, including health. The table below attempts to illustrate the person Common Identifiers in use for data exchanges between different sectors and organisations. This is to show the lack of standardisation and the number of different identifiers in use in just one sector. However, this table cannot reflect the finer detail and complexity that might also exist whereby one organisation, such as a local authority, may actually be using a number of local and/or common identifiers to exchange data depending on the systems in use or the context of the data. The table shows the interactions between different sectors within ESCS and where common identifiers are shared. - indicates there is no common data exchanged. N/A indicates that data is exchanged but that no common identifier exists, which means that data exchanges often rely on matching other demographic data to positively identify the learner. The acronyms and exchanges shown below are described further in the following sections. Page 7 of 48 Version: 0.7

8 Sender/ Receiver Early Years Compulsory Education Further Education Higher Education Awarding Bodies LAC and CIN RPA/NEET Troubled Families Health Name, DoB, Gender/ Early Years UPN* Compulsory Education N/A UPN/ULN Further Education - ULN ULN HEI Student ID/ HUSID/ Higher Education - - ULN UCAS ID/ SSN UCI/ Awarding Bodies - UCI UCI UCI Candidate Number/ ULN LA Child ID/ LAC and CIN N/A UPN N/A - - UPN/ NHS Number RPA/NEET - UPN ULN Name, DoB, Address/ UPN/ ULN Troubled Families N/A UPN LA Child ID - LA Child ID/ UPN/ Name, BoB, Address / NHS Number Health N/A N/A N/A/ NHS Number - N/A/ NHS Number NHS Number *maintained nurseries only. TABLE 1: IDENTIFIERS CURRENTLY IN USE Page 8 of 48 Version: 0.7

9 2.1.1 Early Years This refers to the early education of 2, 3 and 4 year olds, which is not compulsory. In 2008 it became mandatory in England to collect data for the Early Years Census at an individual child level for those children with a funded Early Years place in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sectors. The collection of individual level data from PVI providers is a statutory requirement under Section 99 of the Childcare Act 2006 and The Education (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations This means that providers do not need to obtain consent for the provision of information from the child s parent(s). They must, however, meet their obligations to data subjects under the Data Protection Act This requirement means that it necessary for a child s record to be uniquely identified but no unique identifier currently exists in this sector. The Unique Pupil Number (UPN) is not used for children in PVI providers, only for maintained schools and LA maintained nurseries. The child s records are therefore identified and matched based on the child s name, date of birth, gender and home postcode. Issues exist because of this lack of a common identifier in this sector and, unless at an LA maintained nursery, the lack of a persistent identifier that continues with the pupil into compulsory education thereby making tracking of progression more difficult. Data collectors and aggregators have to rely on data matching to identify children but personal details can and do change, such as home addresses and even names, making data matching more difficult and prone to error. We must also consider interactions with other aspects of children s services. Occasionally a local authority may issue a UPN to a child before they commence compulsory education, or where they are not attending a maintained school, if they are in need of support for Special Educational Needs. In these circumstances the LA which has made this assessment will allocate a UPN to the child and will notify subsequent schools as appropriate. Since the introduction of Health and Social Care Act 2012, the provision of public health services have transferred from the NHS to local authorities. Therefore, within the Early Years age group local authorities often need to combine educational data with health data gained through formal data sharing agreements; for example, to compare records of births, or children receiving health care, to records of children receiving early years funding. However, having matched an NHS record to an LA record of a child receiving early years funding, it seems unclear whether the LA is able to continue to use the NHS Number to identify the child. This means that gaining a holistic view of all the interactions the Local Authority has, or other Local Page 9 of 48 Version: 0.7

10 Authorities have, with that child can be very difficult. Considerable effort can be expended by local authorities to join together a holistic view of the child s circumstances and their interactions with care providers. This lack of a common identifier and a consistent strategy may be to the detriment of the children concerned. Identifying those children who have not taken up the early years education entitlement may involve cross-referencing information relating to those children who are eligible with information about those who are actually attending an early years setting. Under section 99 of the Children s Act 2006, local authorities can obtain information about individual children who are receiving early years provision; and, under section 13A of the Childcare Act 2006, HMRC can share tax credit and benefit information with local authorities for the purpose of determining whether or not a particular family may have a child who is eligible for funded early years education. However, there is no common identifier in any of these data exchanges so data matching must be relied upon. This lack of a common identifier and common strategy then continues into compulsory education where the child may not be assigned a UPN until they start primary school. This means that there is no continuous, persistent identifier assigned to the child that can track their progression from early years, or ideally their birth record, into compulsory education. This might also make it more difficult for the Local Authority to show they have met their statutory duty to ensure that every child receives statutory education Compulsory Education UNIQUE PUPIL NUMBER (UPN) The Unique Pupil Number (UPN) is designed to uniquely identify each pupil in maintained education in England (this includes Academies, which remain publicly funded). A UPN is allocated to each pupil on their first entry to school, or nursery if it is maintained by the Local Authority, and is intended to remain with the pupil throughout their compulsory education regardless of any change in school or Local Authority. The UPN allows the tracking of pupils movements and progress within the maintained school system in England and supports the exchange of data with schools, Local Authorities, the DfE and its agencies. The UPN is also used as the primary identifier within the National Pupil Database (NPD), which combines data from the School Census with the results of Key Stage assessments, external examinations and other accredited qualifications. Page 10 of 48 Version: 0.7

11 It is a statutory requirement for schools to provide the UPN in returns for Key Stage assessments and the School Census under Section 537A of the Education Act Section 408 of the same Act also requires the transfer of pupil records with UPNs from school to school (Common Transfer File) and allows this to be done on a statutory basis. This means that schools are legally entitled to transfer such data and do not need pupil or parental consent. When the UPN was introduced in 1999 discussions were held between the DfE (then DfEE) and the Information Commissioner s Office (then the Data Protection Registrar). The following measures were agreed in order to minimise the risks to the privacy of individual pupils and to ensure UPNs were used only within the education sector (reference DfE, Unique Pupil Numbers (UPN) - A guide for schools and local authorities, September 2013): i. the UPN must lapse when pupils leave compulsory education (at sixteen years old unless the pupils attend a maintained school providing post-16 education); ii. the UPN must be a blind number, held on the pupil's electronic record, and only output when required to provide information to the LA, central government, or to another school/academy to which the pupil is transferring; iii. the UPN is designated a "general identifier" under the Data Protection Act 1998, making its use by any organisation for any purpose unrelated to education illegal; iv. Pupils have the right to receive, on request, a copy of any information the school/academy holds about them (including their UPN), but schools/academies should not take any positive steps to inform pupils or their parents of the presence of the UPN system or give out details of a pupil s UPN unless specifically requested. Regarding the third of these measures, the Data Protection Act 1998 contains an order-making power which allows the Secretary of State for Justice to prescribe certain data as a general identifier which, once prescribed, are not to be treated as processed fairly or lawfully unless they are processed in compliance with prescribed conditions. The measures above suggest that the UPN should have been prescribed as a general identifier and that legislation should set out what it can and cannot be used for. However, at present the UPN has not been prescribed as a general identifier and there is nothing set out in data protection legislation which specifies how the UPN should be used other than the usual provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 that apply to all personal information. Issues arise in this sector because of the limitations in the coverage of the UPN and the perceived limitations in its use. It is suggested that the measures put in place were sensible precautions in 1999, but that since these are not thought to exist in Page 11 of 48 Version: 0.7

12 legislation there may be opportunities to review and revise these whilst still adhering to the Data Protection Act. The current measures mean that the public facing pupil identifier used by schools will generally be the school s local Admission or Enrolment Number. However, these numbers are not generally designed to be persistent identifiers for an individual outside of the admissions or enrolment processes. Further issues arise from the quality of the UPN; since the UPN is issued by a school rather than a central registry, it is possible for a pupil to be assigned an additional UPN if the school is unable to locate an existing UPN, thereby leading to cases where one pupil has two different UPNs. There is also the facility to assign a temporary UPN to a pupil. Temporary UPNs are allocated when a school receives a new pupil who they believe already has a UPN, but who s UPN is not yet known. Temporary UPNs should be replaced as soon as an existing UPN is obtained. However, both situations lead to recording the Former UPN in school systems to allow reference to be made to the former UPN should records need to be reconciled at a later date. Independent schools are not required to assign a UPN to pupils but are encouraged to do so voluntarily. The primary identifier for a pupil at an independent school will be that school s own admission/enrolment number. The lack of a statutory basis for assigning a UPN at independent schools makes tracking of pupils who move between the maintained and independent sectors more difficult. This can mean that when a pupil transfers, the receiving school will need to spend time identifying the pupil and establishing the pupil s educational needs. Independent schools are able to use the Common Transfer File (CTF) to transfer pupil records in or out of their school but they are not required to include a UPN. UPNs issued by Welsh schools conform to the English system and can therefore continue to be used as that pupil s UPN if they transfer to an English school. However, Scottish Candidate Numbers (SCNs) issued by Scottish schools and UPNs issued by schools in Northern Ireland do not conform to the English system; therefore English schools must allocate new UPNs to pupils transferring from Scotland or Northern Ireland. Importantly, a pupil transferring from England to Scotland or Northern Ireland and then back to England may lose their original English UPN and may be issued a new one. The SCN is the unique identifier for pupils within the Scottish education system and which has become very well established. Children are assigned a SCN when they start primary school in Scotland and it is used throughout their education and for examination entries. Children might not have a Scottish Candidate Number if they have not yet started primary school or are educated at home or in an independent school. The SCN is issued by the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA). Page 12 of 48 Version: 0.7

13 These issues of coverage add some degree of uncertainty to the use of the UPN regarding whether every pupil that should have a UPN does have one, or whether they might have more than one. In some cases this will add to the effort of checking and matching data for one pupil held against different UPNs Further Education UNIQUE LEARNER NUMBER (ULN) The Unique Learner Number (ULN) was introduced in 2007 to improve services to learners and to enable more effective sharing of post-14 learner participation and achievement data. A ULN is now allocated to every learner in publicly funded schools in England prior to their 14th birthday. The allocation of the ULN is managed as a shared service (the Learning Records Service), which is owned by the Skills Funding Agency (an agency of BIS), and links the learner to their Personal Learning Record (PLR). Where a ULN has not previously been allocated, a learner is registered with the LRS by a Learner Registering Body (LRB) ie college, school, private training provider, awarding organisation, etc. The ULN is mandatory for all further education data collections in England. This means that individual level FE data can be effectively collected, matched, and shared. It is also mandatory for an examination centre to submit a learner s ULN at the time of registration for any publicly-funded further education examination. This is to support qualification credit accumulation and transfer. As a primary identifier of Learners, the ULN also avoids the need for the development of multiple learner registers. The use of the ULN is subject to the Data Protection Act and is subject to the Learner receiving a data privacy notice from the LRB whereby individual level personal data is shared via the Personal Learning Record unless the Learner chooses to opt out. This does not, however, constrain the sharing of data in aggregate or for funding and statistical purposes and does not allow the Learner to opt out from being allocated a ULN. To comply with data protection legislation a number of requirements have been placed upon the use of the ULN: the ULN may be allocated from the age of 12 for use in post-14 education and skills across the UK; individual level personal data may be shared, with the learner s consent, with registered bodies; the ULN should be maintained and operated in line with the Data Protection Act and processed in compliance with both the DPA and ICO codes of practice and guidance. Page 13 of 48 Version: 0.7

14 The ULN has evolved over 10 years since the DfES-led Managing Information Across Partners MIAP programme, which sought to identify and address the issues preventing the secure, cost effective and efficient sharing of data across the further education sector. In Wales, colleges and training providers already collect the ULN and the Welsh Assembly is committed to collecting the ULN in its secondary maintained schools in order to support administration of the Welsh Baccalaureate and Careers Wales Online. In Northern Ireland, DELNI mandates the ULN in its colleges and training providers, and is reviewing extending its use into schools. Scotland already uses the Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) in further education as described previously rather than the ULN. However, the ULN has been designed to link to the SCN when Scotland needs to access data from the LRS, and when UK agencies and providers (such as HESA and UCAS) need to access Scottish qualifications. Issues exist in the coverage of the ULN, particularly for overseas students since a ULN cannot be allocated without a UK postcode to link and verify the person s identify. The ULN is also not widely used in independent schools Higher Education Within higher education there has been a range of different identifiers used by different agencies, although this landscape is changing as discussed later (see HEDIIP). Higher Education in the UK is less affected by differences between the four nations and generally operates on a UK-wide basis. However, a number of identifiers are still in use and the following examples may not be wholly exhaustive: HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION STUDENT ID (HEI ID) This is the institutions own internal identifier for the student. Although primarily an internal identifier, it is still collected by organisations such as HESA to assist in identifying and matching students HESA UNIQUE STUDENT IDENTIFIER (HUSID) This is assigned by HESA to students studying at publicly funded UK higher education institutions to uniquely identify each student and maintain a student record for each student. It is intended that the identifier will be transferred with the student to each higher education institution they attend. The aim is to track students throughout their education within the HE sector. HESA maintain a register of Page 14 of 48 Version: 0.7

15 students who have a student record and provides a lookup service so that institutions can find students with an existing HUSID STUDENT LOANS COMPANY STUDENT SUPPORT NUMBER (SSN) AND CUSTOMER REFERENCE NUMBER (CRN) The Student Support Number (SSN) has been assigned by student support awarding agencies, including Student Finance England via the Student Loans Company (SLC). It is the student identifier that is used in student finance communications between the Student Support Award Agencies, HE institutions, the SLC and other agencies. Students in receipt of SLC funding will have both a Student Support Number and a Customer Reference Number allocated by the SLC. The Customer Reference Number (CRN) is generated for each student when an application to the SLC for financial support is made. The SSN is generated when confirmation of support notification is received. A student should only have one SSN and one CRN. England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have separate policies on student finance. In Scotland, the awarding agency is the Student Awards Agency For Scotland (SAAS) who issue a SAAS Reference Number. When a Scottish domiciled student who studies in Scotland and is assigned a number by the (SAAS), then moves to England and studies in England, their SAAS number is converted to an SSN and therefore this may appear as though the student has two numbers. Note also that data sharing occurs with a number of other organisations, but specifically HMRC and DWP in order to confirm student loan eligibility and to arrange loan repayments. For these reasons the student s National Insurance Number is also collected as part of the loan application process UCAS PERSONAL IDENTIFIER (UCAS ID) This is issued by UCAS to all students who entered higher education from 2007 onwards via a UCAS scheme. It is the number given to learners when they register an application with UCAS to enable the progress of their application to be tracked. It is also shared with Higher Education Institutions during the application process to uniquely identify the applicant. In higher education the proliferation of identifiers has been typical in nature of the wider problem being addressed here. However, there are now moves to rationalise the number of identifiers in use by standardising on the ULN, which are described later in this document. Page 15 of 48 Version: 0.7

16 2.1.5 Awarding Bodies CANDIDATE NUMBER A candidate number is allocated to a candidate (learner) by a centre on behalf of an awarding organisation. This identifier is not an attribute of a person, but of the relationship between learner, centre and awarding organisation. It is used to provide a link between the learner, an assessment and an attendance record at that centre. The number is kept short (for example 4 digits) so that learners are easily able to remember it but it is only unique within the centre. Each awarding organisation may assign its own identifier to a learner, which may change from year to year. However in some larger FE colleges the number of candidates undergoing assessments each year can exceed 1000 (ie 4 digits), so the candidate number may be re-used for different candidates where it is certain they will never sit the same assessment UNIVERSAL CANDIDATE NUMBER (UCI) The Universal Candidate Number (UCI) is used by all awarding organisations to uniquely identify a learner regardless of examination year or centre. Each candidate sitting GCE A/AS, GCSE Modular and Key Skills examinations will be allocated a Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI) number, which is used to identify individuals throughout modular courses. Modular courses often include results from more than one examination session so it is necessary to be able to track individual candidates' modular results to ensure that the correct grade is awarded. A UCI is intended to remain with the individual learner for the duration of their course, even if the candidate moves to a different school or college. However, in practice many centres allocate new UCIs when learners move between school and college. In 2002, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) agreed that the UCI would be mandatory in all data submitted to awarding bodies. If a candidate transfers to a different examination centre, their existing UCI should continue to be used. New candidates are issued a new UCI, which is generated by a centre using a standard algorithm published by the JCQ. In Scotland, candidates are not issued a UCI. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) uses the Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) to uniquely identify the candidate. During registration of the candidate the SQA will check whether a SCN has already been assigned to the candidate and, if none is found, then a new SCN will be assigned Looked After Children and Children In Need Page 16 of 48 Version: 0.7

17 LA CHILD ID Looked After Children are those who are in local authority care either by a voluntary arrangement or a compulsory measure. Children In Need refers to a child or young person under the age of 18 who needs local authority services to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development, or to prevent harm to their health or development. The local authority therefore assigns the child a local identifier, an LA Child ID, for the purpose of identifying the child, including unborn children, within its own systems. Data on Looked After Children is collected by the DfE in a return known as SSDA903 and data on Children In Need by the Children In Need Census. Both contain a number of identifiers (LA Child ID, UPN, DOB and gender). The UPN is provided as well as the LA Child ID to provide a primary and secondary key (as the UPN will not be available for some children). The LA Child ID is as defined as being unique for each child within the return from one LA. It is generated by the LAs own systems (no longer than 10 characters but otherwise the format is not prescribed) and should be retained from year to year. The DfE recognises that LA s may change computer systems and therefore may, from time to time, assign different identifiers locally and therefore they request that LAs advise them if this is to happen. This is an acknowledgement that the LA child ID may not be persistent in all cases. To ensure uniqueness across different LAs, this number can be prefixed with the LA (3 digit) code since it is not allocated by a central register. The Children Act 1989 was amended by the Children Act 2004 and was brought into force on 1 March 2005 requiring particulars to be transmitted to the DFE relating to and identifying individual children. Local authorities have the responsibility for allocating and maintaining UPNs for pupils not educated in a maintained school. However, a UPN is not required for children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements. A UPN is expected, however, for all other children of compulsory school age. LAs are advised that the UPN can be included in their children services systems for the purpose of being able to complete the SSDA903 return (and the Children In Need Census) but the UPN must not be used for operational activities within the LA s children s services or for other purposes. However, local authorities are expected to be able to draw data relating to children who need help from their own children services systems, using local system identifiers. Some of this information can be shared with other departments or organisations by the implied powers to share information under section 17 of the Page 17 of 48 Version: 0.7

18 Children Act 1989 in order to enable assessments to be undertaken as to whether services may be required by a child in need. Implied data sharing powers under section 10 of the Children Act 2004 may also provide a means of obtaining information in order to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children. In addition, local authorities may have to deal with children that need to be looked after because they are seeking asylum. Local Authorities in England and Wales have a duty under Sections 17 and 20 of the Children Act 1989 to provide support for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Section 17 places a general duty on every Local Authority to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need within their area by providing services appropriate to those children s needs. Section 20 requires every Local Authority to provide accommodation for children in need within their area who require accommodation if: there is no person who has parental responsibility for them; the children have been lost or abandoned; or the person who has been caring for them has not been able to provide them with suitable accommodation. This requires the local authority to share information with the Home Office (via UK Visas and Immigration previously UK Border Agency) who issue an Application Registration Card to the asylum seeker that contains the following identifiers: Immigration Fingerprint Bureau's Ref. Number Home Office Ref. Number National Asylum Support Service Ref. Number This link with Home Office data needs further analysis as part of a wider strategy that may involve agencies outside of ESCS. Similarly, local authorities dealing with Young Offenders will have to share information with a number of agencies within the Criminal Justice System including the Police, Crown Prosecution Service, Youth and Crown Courts. Again, further analysis is required to understand what identifiers are used when sharing information with these agencies even though they are outside of ESCS. Issues here are that there is no single persistent identifier that can be guaranteed to be available to identify every child in need or looked after. By relying on the locally assigned LA Child ID the DfE recognises that extra effort may be required to manage the identification of children where local systems change from time to time. However, despite these known issues the UPN is not mandated for all children either. This means that before identifying a child it is necessary to first review which identifiers have been made available for a particular child, adding to the identifier Page 18 of 48 Version: 0.7

19 management problems. There also seems to be a lack of a single strategy that clearly defines when certain information can or cannot be shared. This is likely to lead to uncertainty amongst users who will often prefer not to share data in case it should breach regulations Raising the Participation Age / Young People at Risk of Being NEET The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) created a new legal gateway under the Welfare Reform Act This allows the DWP to share data with local authorities, without informed consent, to provide a means for identifying young people and adults in receipt of out of work benefits. Local authorities have a statutory duty to encourage and assist young people to participate in education or training. This stems from sections 68 and 70 of the Education and Skills Act As part of this duty local authorities collect information on the participation of 16 to 19 year olds. To identify young people who are at risk of being, or are already, not in education, training or employment, local authorities may also draw on information held in their local systems. Under Clauses 254 and 255 of the Apprenticeships, Schools, Children and Learners Act (2009) in England, the DWP provides a monthly bulk transfer of data to the DfE consisting of: name address date of birth This includes records of young people aged 18 or 19 who have made a new claim for Jobseeker s Allowance, Income Support, Incapacity Benefit or Employment Support Allowance and have received their first payment in the past month. An overarching Memorandum of Understanding (DHP001) and Privacy Impact Assessment have been completed to allow this bulk transfer to happen. There may also be occasions where local authorities find that they need more information from the DWP in order to support the young person s participation. For example: additional information about an individual listed on the bulk data transfer, such as their telephone number information about the current stage of the individual s claim information in order to survey a young person whose current activity is not known DWP, via Jobcentre Plus, is able to exchange such information where it can be justified on the grounds that it will help the local authority to fulfil its duties. To share Page 19 of 48 Version: 0.7

20 this additional information a Memorandum of Understanding is signed by the DWP District Manager and the Senior Responsible Officer at the local authority. The Welfare, Reform and Pensions Act 1999 together with the Social Security (Claims and Information) Regulations 1999 allows relevant employment and training information to be shared between the organisations in order to assist claimants with employment and training needs without obtaining the subject s consent. In particular, these regulations state that a relevant authority (which includes DWP and local authorities) that holds employment or training information about a person may supply that information to another relevant authority for use in connection with providing advice, support and assistance which the person may need in order to acquire or enhance their skills and qualifications with a view to improving their prospects of finding and retaining employment. No unique identifier is sent with this information, so the data will be matched to the following demographics: First Name Last Name Date of birth Main Address Correspondence Address Postcode/s So the predominant issue here is that despite all the correct legislation and data sharing agreements being in place, no common unique identifier is used and the usefulness of this data ultimately relies on the matching of demographic data, which, it is known, can be recorded incorrectly and may change over time NATIONAL INSURANCE NUMBER (NINO) Although not exchanged in the scenarios described above, the National Insurance Number is the primary person identifier for HMRC and the DWP. The National Insurance number is used in the administration of the National Insurance, or social security, and tax systems. Because this is its primary purpose it is not intended to be used as an identifier within education or social care. People born and resident in the UK are assigned a NINO shortly before their 16th birthday. However, allocation of this number can actually occur a long time before this with payment of Child Benefits. People from overseas who wish to work in the UK, or those to whom a number was not initially allocated as a child, may apply for a number through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Organisation who may need, or may share, an individual s NINO are: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Page 20 of 48 Version: 0.7

21 employers the Department for Work and Pensions, which includes Jobcentre Plus and the Pension, Disability and Carers Service local authorities, if you claim Housing Benefit Electoral Registration Officers, to check identity when you register to vote the Student Loan Company, if you apply for a student loan Individual Savings Account (ISA) providers, if you open an ISA Troubled Families There are a number of ways that data might need to be shared between agencies to support Troubled Families. For example, it may be in regard to a child who has not been attending school regularly or is missing. Most of the relevant education data would already be collected by a local authority on a termly basis using the Unique Pupil Number, as part the School and Alternative Provision Census. However, there are a number of limited cases where the information may be required from other providers: for example, attendance and exclusion data is not always collected for children in alternative provision, independent schools or non-maintained alternative provision providers. A local authority would have to identify these children within their own systems and through discussions with these providers since there is no formal strategy for identifying such children. The small number of children who are considered 'missing', because they are not on any school roll, are likely to be among the most vulnerable and, therefore, it is important that they are identified. Local authorities may collect and share attendance data under the school census regulations Education (Information about Individual Pupils) (England) Regulation which require maintained schools and pupil referral units to share information about pupil attendance but data sharing can become less clear where these regulations do not apply. Issues here mirror those for Children in Need and Looked After; that is, there is no single persistent identifier that can always be relied upon to be available for every child. However, this becomes particularly critical in these circumstances as identifying children from troubled families may require the local authority to build up a holistic view of the child s/family s circumstances across a range of agencies, departments and systems. Being able to do this quickly and efficiently may be critical to identifying the child and to their welfare Health The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced a broad range of reforms for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. It places new responsibilities on local authorities and other organisations to join up services Page 21 of 48 Version: 0.7

22 across education, health and care from birth to the age of 25. This new approach replaces statements of SEN and post 16 Learning Difficulty Assessments with individual education, health and care plans (EHC plans). An education, health and care plan is a legal document that identifies a child s needs and focusses on the support required to meet a set of agreed outcomes documented within the plan. EHC plans outline the child s educational needs as well as their health and social care needs, outcomes and support required from all of the agencies involved. Data is therefore drawn from, and exchanged with, schools, local authorities and health providers. Identifiers in use therefore include the child s UPN, LA Child ID or other system identifier from, for example, the LA s Safeguarded Children database as well as the child s NHS Number. All of these identifiers may need to be collected in preparation of an EHC plan NHS NUMBER The NHS Number is the national unique patient identifier. Everyone registered with the NHS in England and Wales has their own NHS Number. It was developed to support unique patient identification within the NHS. The current format was introduced in 1996 replacing a variety of previous formats. The following people will have an NHS number: anyone who is, or has ever been, registered with a GP practice in England, Wales or the Isle of Man anyone born in England, Wales or the Isle of Man since October 2002 Additionally, anyone who has received NHS treatment in England, Wales or the Isle of Man is likely to have an NHS number. There are very few people without an NHS Number. The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) published a Safer Practice Notice (SPN) for the NHS Number in 2008, which mandated that all NHS organisations use the NHS number as the national patient identifier. The NHS number is now widely used within health and social care organisations and should be present on all patient records. It must be used alongside other demographic information to link together the correct records for a particular patient or service user. The Personal Demographics Service (PDS) is a national database of NHS patient demographic details, including the NHS number, which can be used to find a patient record. If a health or social care organisation cannot find a person's NHS number it is more likely that they have not been properly identified (matched in PDS), rather than the person not having an NHS number. Page 22 of 48 Version: 0.7

23 The following patient demographic details are used for matching a patient on the PDS: NHS number (whenever possible) Given name Family name Date of birth Gender Postcode Scotland's equivalent is called a Community Health Index (CHI) number; a similar system is also used in Northern Ireland with each nation using the same number format but with non-overlapping number blocks, thus preventing the issue of the same number by more than one system. If a patient moves out of the area of England, Wales and the Isle of Man to Northern Ireland or Scotland they will be allocated a number appropriate to one of those nations but if they return they will revert to their original number. The level of sensitivity around health information, on the part of both individual data subjects and health professionals, means that many may be reluctant to share such data with other organisations. It seems that clear guidance is needed to remove barriers to sharing data that is reasonable, necessary and proportionate. The issue here is that legislation is actively promoting new ways of working that integrate education, health and children s services, yet there is no commonly agreed way to identify the child, particularly between the NHS and the local authority. This is particularly important to be able to accurately and efficiently identify individuals who may be in need of care. Page 23 of 48 Version: 0.7

24 2.2 Convergence of Identifiers In recent years efforts have been made to investigate and rationalise the number of learner/child identifiers in use. The following is a summary of some of the main outcomes and ongoing changes. These signify the desire in many sectors to move towards a simpler landscape with a greater ability to exchange information. We wish to recognise these in this analysis and will look to whether they set the direction for further improvements to be made School Census Changes In 2011 the DfE and BIS proposed that there should be only one unique identifier for use across the two departments and their agencies. A key aim was that all learners at maintained schools should have access to a ULN from the age of 13, which would give them access to their Personal Learning Record (PLR). This would also enable better information sharing and help schools and other agencies to meet their duties. In 2012 the DfE Star Chamber recommended that the inclusion of the ULN within the school census collection should be made mandatory from January The accompanying business case recognised key structural reforms to develop a more coherent phase of learning across the age range, supported by key legislation: The Education Act 2008; The Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (ASCLA) and the Education Act This legislation implemented the polices of Raising the Participation Age (RPA) and supporting those Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) but in doing so changed the boundaries between schools, colleges, LAs and other agencies, requiring a greater degree of data sharing. In 2014 the collection of the ULN within the school census became mandatory for state funded schools in England and Wales - it is being mandated in state funded schools in Northern Ireland from September and since then has already improved access to information on awards and is beginning to be used to support the transition of learners between schools and FE sectors. The aims of these changes included: Reducing the burden of data sharing for schools by having fewer identifiers in use across Supporting Raising the Participation Age to enable better data sharing between schools, awarding organisations and funding agencies Allowing better services for learners and better efficiency by providing results online and verifying qualifications on entry to FE or HE/UCAS Supporting progression data for pupil monitoring and identifying young people who are NEET. Page 24 of 48 Version: 0.7

25 The legal gateways to allow the ULN to be used were already in place prior to making the ULN mandatory in The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 amended the Education (Information about Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2006 to require schools, where they hold it, to provide the Unique Learner Number (ULN) in the School Census. The provision by schools of individual pupil information is a statutory requirement under these regulations, which are made under section 537A of the Education Act Information collected under section 537A is generally passed by schools to local authorities and then to the DfE. The Education (Pupil Information) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 also requires schools, where they hold it, to include the pupil's Unique Learner Number as part of the information about a pupil which is sent to another school in the Common Transfer File (CTF) when a pupil moves between schools. Issues that have had to be overcome in this process have been: To allow LAs to issue UPNs on behalf of Alternative Provision providers. A ULN can only be issued to a learner linked to a learning provider which has a United Kingdom Provider Reference Number (UKPRN) provided by the UK Register of Learner Providers (UKRLP). Alternative Provision learning providers do not have a UKPRN and so local authorities now access the LRS system to issue and manage ULNs for pupils receiving Alternative Provision. To ensure a valid postcode is provided in the CTF file in order to retrieve a ULN. A CTF file sent to the S2S system will validate without the postcode field being populated, but it will not return a ULN without a postcode included. It is important to remember that these changes to the school census do not replace the use of the UPN. They do however provide a single identifier in maintained schools that spans the age group rather than managing the UPN from and ULN from Issues that remain are to ensure the ULN has complete coverage and ensure good data quality is maintained, particularly for pupil demographics. Using out of date or incorrect data will create the risk of incorrect ULN s being assigned. However, at present schools do not have the means to notify LRS when a pupils address changes after the initial upload of their data, so the demographic data held by LRS after the age of 13 up to the point when they move on to further or higher education may become out of date. These are data protection issues (under principles 3 and 4 of the DPA) and are very important for DPA compliance as well as for practical reasons. Page 25 of 48 Version: 0.7