Guide to supplying data

The OfS portal provides a means to securely transfer data between the OfS and providers.

Portal account

If you need to submit data to or download data from the OfS portal, you need to have a portal account. Each provider will have one portal administrator who can add colleagues as users and grant them access to different areas of the portal. Portal administrators will also be able to delegate this responsibility to delegated portal administrators. 

If you need a portal account to be created for you, contact your portal administrator or delegated portal administrators. If you do not know who this is at your organisation, please contact us at [email protected].

After signing into their portal account, a portal administrator or delegated portal administrator will be able to see the areas each user has access to under the ‘User management’ button at the top of the page.

Navigating the portal

If you have access to any data returns, these will appear under ‘Your data returns’. If you have been given access to a data collection type, you will see all future data collections. For example, if you are given access to the Annual Financial Return data collection for Annual Financial Return 2026, you will be able to see Annual Financial Return 2027 once it is released. This same principle is also used for access to other areas of the portal, such as reportable events, registration and provider audit. 

Further guidance on how to navigate each process on the portal can be found in the ‘Useful links’ section of the relevant portal area.

Please note: We expect providers to keep their own copies of files submitted to us. You will not be able to download copies of files submitted to us through our portal.