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).
