NCER CLA Analysis - Unmatched Pupils (Primary)

Not every pupil contained in the Local Authority SSDA903 return (which defines the CLA cohort) can be matched to end of key stage assessment results already held in Nexus. The pupils who cannot be matched are referred to as the unmatched group.

For the primary phase we would expect the following pupils to be included within the unmatched group:

• Attending an independent school during the data collection period
• Attending an independent special school during the data collection period
• Electively home educated (EHE) during the data collection period
• Educated other than at school (EOTAS) during the data collection period
• Child missing education (CME) during the data collection period
• CLA in HM prison / young offenders institution during the data collection period
• CLA has moved abroad since the 31st March in the year of the return, not returning before the data collection period
• CLA is educated outside of England since the 31st March in the year of the return, not returning before the data collection period
• CLA has become deceased since the 31st March in the year of the return
• CLA was submitted without a UPN in the SSDA903 return

The list above outlines the general circumstances where we would expect Nexus not to match a pupil record, but this is not an absolute list due to the complex pathways some CLA take during their education. We believe this unmatched group and subsequent exclusion from the analysis replicates the DfE methodology for inclusion.

Although the DfE and NCER analyses are unlikely to include pupils within the categories above, the unmatched pupil lists in Nexus can be a useful aid to prompt your Virtual School about the pupils they may wish to take additional steps with regard to. This may include compiling local case studies or considering education outcomes collected within your PEP process in more detail due to missing end of key stage data.

The NCER match between the SSDA903 and end of key stage outcomes is completed using an exact match between UPN (unique pupil number), gender and date of birth (DOB). It is therefore possible for mismatched data to occur during at least four different points of the data submission process.

• LA Education MIS
• LA Social Care MIS
• School returning end of key stage result
• Virtual School records

There are examples where although LA Education and Social Care MIS hold the same UPN, gender and DOB, a match hasn’t been achieved because either an in-LA or out-of-LA school has submitted data using a different UPN, gender or DOB. If you believe a pupil should have been matched, it is worth checking that the school's end of key stage submission included the UPN, gender and DOB expected.

This can be investigated by either making direct contact with the school or completing an individual pupil manual search on the DfE Key to Success system.

The easiest way to update a record in Nexus that should have matched is to find the pupil within the CLA Header CSV file originally uploaded into Nexus and amend the file. Once you have made any required updates just re-import the file and Nexus will complete a new match process and overwrite the original submission.

If you notice a large number of records where the LA education MIS, LA social care MIS, educating school and Virtual School records don’t correlate it may be worth considering if any additional processes could improve data quality and consistency.

In each case you will wish to ensure that the discrepancy in data sources is corrected for future census and assessment result submissions. Locally we have found that the vast majority of these issues are eliminated where Virtual Schools work closely with  new schools ensuring that they have the correct UPN, DOB and gender, and Education and Social Care colleagues jointly review the SSDA903 UPN, DOB and gender columns.

Tackling this prior to data submission will also support the DfE matching process and should help ensure published data reflects internal Local Authority records.

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