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04 Data Management> Unique Pupil Number>

Unique Pupil Numbers (UPNs): Frequently asked questions (May 2005)

1. What are UPNs used for?

UPNs were introduced in the maintained schools sector in the autumn term of 1999. All learners attending a maintained school should now be in possession of a UPN. UPNs facilitate the tracking of learners' progress through the school system, yielding better information (for schools, LAs and central Government) on learner performance and related factors. This information strengthens procedures for target setting and monitoring, and so contributes to raising standards. Within the DCSF and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) learner-level information will be used solely for statistical purposes.

2. Are schools statutorily required to allocate UPNs to their learners?

Yes, for schools in the maintained sector. Section 537A of the Education Act 1996 enables the Secretary of State to require maintained schools to provide certain information to LAs including Key Stage assessment information and Pupil Level Census returns (which contain UPNs). Section 408 of the same Act enables the secretary of state to require the transfer from school to school of learner records with UPNs.

There is a statutory duty on schools to provide UPNs with Key Stage assessment information, Pupil Level Census returns, and learner records transferred to other schools using the Common Transfer File (CTF).

3. Which types of school are required to allocate UPNs to their learners?

The table below shows the types of school which are required by DCSF to allocate UPNs to their learners:

The table above is a guide to those schools required by DCSF to allocate UPNs, it is permissible for any school ticked 'No' to allocate UPNs if they have the ability or desire to do so. Maintained schools should consult with their LAs for any possible local variations.

4. What should independent schools do with UPNs?

When a learner joins an independent school from a maintained school the learner's UPN may be provided. Independent schools may wish to keep a record of the UPN, but are not otherwise required to do anything with it. Likewise when a learner leaves an independent school and joins a maintained school, the maintained school may ask for a UPN. If independent schools do not have a UPN for the learner, it is sufficient for them to say that, as an independent school, they are not required to hold UPNs for learners, and so do not have one.

5. Can nursery schools issue UPNs?

Nursery schools can generate UPNs: if they have a DCSF Establishment Number then there is no problem; if they don't then they can be allocated a dummy one, by the LA, from a range set aside for this purpose. 

6. Do schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland allocate UPNs?

Schools in both Scotland and Wales have the ability to issue UPNs, based on the same algorithm used to create English UPNs, via their schools' MIS.

Due to the different codes used to represent LAs or their regional equivalents, UPNs issued by Scottish schools cannot be fully integrated into the current system operating in England for two reasons:

(i) There is a duplication of LA codes between England and Scotland. This duplication creates a situation where UPNs coming into the English schools system have been created using pre-existing English LA codes and possibly school numbers. As generation of the number is based on the same algorithm it is possible that duplicate UPNs will be created by the use of the same LA code and school number.

(ii) There are additional problems caused by some of the LA codes used in Scotland, which are invalid LA codes in the scope of the English UPN system. UPNs with invalid English LA codes cannot be transferred into English schools software systems.

UPNs issued by Welsh schools can be fully integrated into the English system.

It is understood that Northern Ireland do not issue UPNs.

7.  For whom do LAs have the responsibility of allocating UPNs?

LAs have the responsibility for allocating and maintaining UPNs for learners not educated in a maintained school and fall into one of the following categories:

i) learners with statements of special educational need who are in non-maintained or independent education;

ii) home-educated learners; and

iii) permanently excluded learners not attached to a maintained school.

8. When are UPNs allocated?

UPNs are usually allocated during a learner's first entry into the maintained schools sector. This is usually when a learner first joins a primary school (including joining nursery classes in a primary school), but can be another date if entry to the maintained sector is later in a learner's school career. If a learner transfers to a maintained school from an independent school which issues UPNs, the UPN from the independent school should be retained. 

9. How are UPNs generated?

In schools with access to a school management information system (MIS) UPNs may be produced automatically using routines programmed into this MIS software (for more information please consult your software supplier). All school MIS software can now produce UPNs.

Schools without access to these types of software can use the Department's Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This spreadsheet will generate UPNs for learners on the basis of a school's DCSF LA and establishment number. The spreadsheet is available for download on the main UPN page. The spreadsheet may also be obtained electronically by emailing DSC.helpdesk@dfes.gsi.gov.uk, or by telephoning 01325 392626. A new spreadsheet is required each new academic year.

10. What are temporary UPNs and when are they allocated?

Temporary UPNs are allocated when a school receives a learner who is already likely to have a UPN, but the receiving school does not yet know the UPN. The formula for temporary UPNs is identical to that for permanent UPNs, except that characters 11-13 are a two-digit serial number plus a letter (rather than a three-digit serial number), for example, G80120000101A. Temporary UPNs should be replaced immediately when the valid UPN is known.

11. How do LAs generate UPNs?

LAs can make use of the DCSF-produced spreadsheet to generate UPNs for these learners. There is also provision in the UPN system to use dummy school numbers between 3950 and 3999 and these numbers should be used in place of a DCSF establishment number in the generation of UPNs. If, and when, a learner is subsequently admitted to a maintained school the LA is responsible for notifying schools of any UPN it has allocated.

12. What is a valid UPN?

In order to be valid a UPN must:

(a)   be 13 characters long;

(b)   have a recognised LA(or pseudo-LA, e.g. the Service Children's Education Authority) code for characters 2-4;

(c)   have digits for characters 5-12;

(d)   have a digit or an upper case letter other than I, O or S for character 13;

(e)   have the correct upper case 'check letter' at character 1 derived by a specified formula from characters 2-13, as detailed in question 12.

13. How are UPNs formulated?

A UPN has 13 characters and is allocated according to a national formula.

A UPN is made up from the following formula components:

• Character 1: Check Letter. This verifies that the UPN is valid and is calculated from the other 12 characters (character 2 to 13).
• Characters 2-4: LA number of the school allocating the UPN.
• Characters 5-8: DCSF establishment number of the school.
• Characters 9-10: The last two digits of the year in which the UPN is allocated.
• Characters 11-13: A serial number of three digits for UPNs allocated by the school in that year.

UPNs are generated by school software or alternatively by an Excel spreadsheet. They should not be calculated manually. To see a breakdown of how the UPN is constructed please refer to Annex 1 at the end of this document.

14. What if the UPN received from a previous school is invalid?

When a school enters a UPN that it has received from a learner's previous school, the software will check the validity of that UPN. If the UPN is invalid, then the school should (1) check that it has keyed it in correctly, and (2) check with the previous school that it has provided it correctly.

If it transpires that there has been no error in the transmission or keying of the UPN (i.e. that the UPN as held by the previous school was already invalid), then the school should ignore the invalid UPN, and allocate a new permanent UPN to the learner instead.

15. What action should be taken if a learner from overseas joins an English school?

Usually a learner from overseas including Scotland and Northern Ireland will not have been allocated a UPN and should therefore be issued a UPN by the first maintained school they attend. Learners from British Forces schools or British overseas establishments may have already been issued with a UPN and if this is the case their original UPN should be kept. Even if the learner is only entering the English education system for a limited amount of time, he or she should still be issued a permanent UPN and not a temporary UPN. Temporary UPNs are not used for this purpose (see Section 10). 

16. What should be done if a learner has more than one UPN?

Unless another UPN has been used to register for Key Stage assessments the first UPN allocated to a learner should be retained and should replace any other numbers.

If a UPN has been used for registering a learner for Key Stage assessments, that UPN should be kept for data continuity purposes. Any previous UPNs should be recorded as a 'Former UPN'.

17. How should UPNs be allocated to dually registered learners?

Dually registered learners should be allocated with just one UPN; this UPN should come from their main school. A learner's main school should be the school in which a learner spends the greater proportion of time. For children under 5 attending morning and afternoon nursery classes, the child's morning school should be the main school. Learners from Traveller families should be issued UPNs by their winter-base school or the school they return to most frequently.

18. What are the data-protection issues surrounding UPNs?

To comply with data-protection legislation a number of measures have been placed on the use of UPNs:

• The UPN to lapse when learners leave school, at the age of 16 or older.
• The UPN to be as far as possible a blind number held by schools on the learner's electronic record, and only output when required to provide information to the LA, to the DCSF or QCA, or to another school to which the learner is transferring. The UPN should not be regarded as an automatic adjunct to the learner's name routinely appearing on any record or document relating to them.

19. What are the implications for schools?

The Data Protection Act  has the following implications for schools:

• Pupils have the right under the Data Protection Act to receive on request a copy of any information the school holds about them (including their UPN), but schools should not give out details of learners' UPNs unless specifically requested.
• UPNs should be stored electronically and schools should not enter UPNs on their admission register, or on learners' paper files, and should continue to use the admission number, rather than the UPN, as a general learner reference number within the school.
• Schools should always consider carefully any requests for information that include the UPN and should only give out this information in accordance with paragraph 20 below.

20. What are the implications for the use of UPNs by other local agencies and for research purposes?

There have been a number of requests from local agencies, such as Social Services, for permission to use UPNs to enable data matching. However, the UPN is individual learner information and as such may only be passed to other persons in accordance with the Regulations governing this: the Education (Individual Pupil Information) (Prescribed Persons) Regulations 1999 as amended by the Education (Individual Pupil Information) (Prescribed Persons) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2004. This latter amendment provides, in the case of looked-after children, for UPNs to be transferred to LA Social Service departments. There are certain prescribed bodies to whom the UPN may (but does not necessarily have to) be provided and they include the relevant LA, Ofsted, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and the Teacher Training Agency (TTA). There are also circumstances in which the UPN may be provided to persons carrying out research into the educational achievements of learners and who require individual learner information for that purpose. Any transfer of such information will also need to comply with the Data Protection Act.

UPNs should not be used as a replacement for learner identifications systems already in place in local non-educational departments or in research programmes. The use of UPNs in this nature could undermine the commissioner's wish that UPNs are not widely and openly displayed in a manner that could compromise their confidentiality.

Transfer of UPNs to the Connexions service

There are specific provisions governing the passing of information to Connexions and the Connexions Card service. Although schools will normally be under a duty to pass on a learner's name and address when requested by Connexions they must only pass on other information (including the UPN) where a parent (or a student if over 16) has not instructed the school to withhold it.

21.  What are the implications for the use of UPNs by national agencies that are not directly involved in education?

There have been requests for the use of UPNs by other Government departments (OGDs) for data-matching purposes, as a method for identifying learners. There have also been proposals for the use of UPNs in the post-16 sector to create a lifelong Unique Learner Number (ULN).

In the interests of effective service delivery, the DCSF wishes to share appropriate information with colleagues in OGDs. This information sharing, however, has to be carried out under the terms of the Data Protection Act and guidance from the Information Commissioner.

Full guidance on these issues will be issued in due course.

22. What should happen to a learner's UPN who is on witness protection or has had a change of identity?

Issue a new UPN and delete all previous UPNs. In these cases, previous UPNs must not be recorded as a 'Former UPN'.

23. Should children who have been adopted be issued a new UPN?

In all cases the school should consult the responsible authorities to ensure that it is correctly recording the learner's details and is not compromising the learner's safety and confidentiality. When a learner already at a school is adopted the school should usually issue a new UPN, and should discard the old UPN and should not record the old UPN in the 'Former UPN' field of the MIS record for that learner. 

There may be cases where a new UPN need not be issued but the school must seek guidance from the appropriate adoption authority before taking this course.

Annex 1: Constructing UPNs

Example of UPN format

Calculating the Check Letter

1. Remember that the first digit of the 12 numbers after the check letter is in fact the second character of the UPN, the check letter being the first.
   
2. To calculate the check letter:
   
   (a) Multiply the individual digits by their character number (shown on above table) as follows:

(b) Sum the individual results, divide the total by 23, and take the remainder.

(c) Calculate the check letter from the result as follows:

If the remainder is 0, for example, then the check letter is A. The following lists all remainder/check letter possibilities:

(Note that the check letter cannot be I, O or S).

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^{Page updated 23 June 2008}

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