How many 'unique' identifiers do we need

[Ditto]

I see in the new Childrens and Wellbeing Act, which became law in April 2026, there is going to be a new unique identifier - the SUI. Ignoring internal ones I make that 5! Is your MIS provider going to be ready in time?

1. Unique Pupil Number (UPN)

• Issued age 4 (upon first entry to a state-funded primary school or nursery).
• A 13-character code that follows the child throughout their entire school career, regardless of whether they switch schools or move to a different local authority. It tracks them up to age 16 through the National Pupil Database.

 

2. Unique Learner Number (ULN)

• Issued age 14 (Year 10).
• A 10-digit number used to build their lifelong Personal Learning Record (PLR). Unlike the UPN, the ULN handles their transition out of compulsory secondary education into further education, sixth form, apprenticeships, and higher education.

3. Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI)

• Normally given around 14 to 16, when registering for their first public exams (GCSEs).
• A 13-character identifier is created by exam boards via the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). It links all examination entries and results together across different exam boards (like AQA, OCR, Pearson) and different exam seasons.

 

4. UCAS Personal ID - transcends Higher Education so...

• A unique 10-digit number typically formatted with hyphens (e.g., 123-456-7890).
• Issued when a student actively initializes an application on the UCAS Hub. It is not automatically generated by their school.
• It serves as the primary unique key to track university applications, check offers, and prove student status to third parties (like banks) before moving into higher education.

 

5. The Single Unique Identifier (SUI)

• Mandated from early childhood through the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
• The government has introduced using the child's lifelong NHS number as an overarching identifier within education. It acts as a bridge to link their school records directly with healthcare and local authority social services.

 

So my understanding of 'unique' is being challenged here! On the upside, MIS won't need to support until the cohort of Autumn 2028 comes around but it is part of census submission and others.

 

For my charity which overlaps schools and health care, it could actually prove really useful that schools have this, because following us being forced to use a NHS based system for half of our work, the other half does not mandate collecting NHS numbers. That makes unique counts of children and young people tricky to determine.

[andy_b]

Not national, but the Local Authority might issue an "impulse number" if they use Impulse Nexus.

[psydii]

This is getting silly.  I hereby propose that we group together and exert our power and influence to create one absolutely definitive ID number for every student. Then the rest of the industry can adopt that as The Standard going forward. This is a totally fool-proof plan that will definitely stop the proliferation of further unique identifiers.

[LeMarchand]

Seesaw wanted the Arbor user number rather that the UPN. After I'd set it using their stated "any unique number" as the UPN last year. Just realised they have yet to get back to be abut using Wonde.

[machy]

8 hours ago, psydii said:

This is getting silly.  I hereby propose that we group together and exert our power and influence to create one absolutely definitive ID number for every student. Then the rest of the industry can adopt that as The Standard going forward. This is a totally fool-proof plan that will definitely stop the proliferation of further unique identifiers.

 

[NegativeKillDeath]

11 minutes ago, machy said:

xkcd: Standards

 

Theres always an XKCD

[2ilent8cho]

May as well just give them their NI at birth and use that. 

[NetworkDirector]

2 hours ago, 2ilent8cho said:

May as well just give them their NI at birth and use that. 

That would be the Government thinking logically, oh wait they don't.

[jmak]

5 hours ago, NegativeKillDeath said:

 

Theres always an XKCD

Just one?

[BKGarry]

20 hours ago, Ditto said:

The government has introduced using the child's lifelong NHS number as an overarching identifier within education. It acts as a bridge to link their school records directly with healthcare and local authority social services.

 

Are we now going to have to go to another system to find the child's NHS number to enter soon!

[Devaleth]

Ehhhh. Not sure I'm a fan.

 

Sure, it's more of a burden administratively to maintain multiple unique references per identifiers per pupil, but at least the data is then compartmentalised to some degree. For example, an exam board doesn't need to know a child's NHS number, outside of specific edge cases (access arrangements, special consideration processes). 

 

This feels fertile ground for abuse and increases the risk posed by data breaches.