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Note in Release 5.10.0 we have added new work that means that we have incorporated working days/non-working days into the planning meeting booking screen availability calculations.
See EP-3780 outlined here:-
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New Feature - EP-3780 Planning meeting booking - working days
Separately we have also added a new field in relation to this work below, also in release 5.10.0 for:-
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This work |
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outline below was loaded as part of Release |
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New permissions have been introduced for this functionality. Details can be found below under the “Permissions” heading. |
Validation Windows
We have introduced optional booking window settings, within which planning meetings are booked. These can be found in the System Management → Configuration screen, on the Availability tab.
The purpose of this work is, as AO users you can configure validation windows for when a planning meeting can be booked by a Provider based on the EPA/Audit Submitted Date.
As an AO user you will have no such restrictions.
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Configuration Options
Booking Notice Additional Info
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This is to define any extra information that you wish to provide relating to your bookings process, when users are booking planning meetings.
Booking Notice Period
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This is the number of days notice needed to undertake the planning meeting. So, a planning meeting cannot be booked for a date before today, plus the number of days defined in this setting.
🆕 In release 5.10.0 we have made a change so that the Booking Notice Period uses Working Days.
Estimated Gateway Processing Period
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This is the estimated number of days required to completely process a gateway.
🆕 In release 5.10.0 we have made a change so that the Estimated Gateway Processing Period uses Working Days.
Booking Period Maximum
- This is the maximum number of days after the apprentice’s EPA date, gateway submitted date or audit submitted date, depending on the status of the apprentice, that a planning meeting can be booked. The EPA date is included in this calculation.
🆕 In release 5.10.0 we have made a change so that the Booking Period Maximum uses Working Days.
🆕 Epa Date Booking Period
-this is the maximum number of calendar days allowed, before a provider can booking a planning meeting (relative to the EPA date). Outlined in more detail here:- New Feature - EP-3779 Planning Meeting Booking changes -Setting for the earliest date a provider could book
Therefore a provider is able to use the screen, if the apprentice's Estimated EPA Date is between now 
the new Epa Date Booking Period setting
The last available booking date is calculated from the booking period maximum.
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If a user is Pre-Gateway, we look at both notice periods, once the gateway is all approved, there are fixed stamped dates to calculate from e.g. The earliest booking is calculated as follows:
The latest a booking can be made, is calculated as follows:
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Where these configuration options have not been set, the slots will be calculated based on the user group, or EPA's availability depending on what is set against the Standard in the Planning Meeting Availability Source field - no notice periods will be taken into account, however, a one year restriction will be placed on when a booking can be made. |
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These optional settings will not be used in the slot availability calculations for AO users and will not change the functionality of the Manage Planning Meetings screen. |
Booking Capacity Management
We have added a new screen to allow for a central place to manage planning meeting bookings (both provisional and approved) for the available resource.
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Do note that when saving a booking, notifications will be sent for each one as described in the notifications heading above, and based on the communication configuration.
Permissions
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A new permission has been added called “Manage Planning Capacity” this new permission has been given to the owner and awardingorganisation roles by default. A user that has this permission will be able to view and use the new booking management screen. |
Show source of the availability
We have added a new dropdown field to the standard screen - Planning Meeting Availability Source, allowing for the source that the planning meeting booking screen will use for availability calculations.
There are three options:
Default - This will cause this standard to behave as the system does currently. The system default group “Planning Meeting Bookings” will be used, and if that group has not been configured it will fallback to the apprentice’s assigned EPA if they have one
Apprentice’s EPA - This will force the calculations to always use the apprentice’s assigned EPA, if they have not had an EPA assigned then there will be no availability
Group - Currently only the system default “Planning Meeting Bookings” can be selected, this will force the calculations to always use the group selected. If the group has not been configured, then there will be no availability
Notification for Provisional Bookings
We have introduced a new notification for provisional bookings of planning meetings, found on the Planning tab of the Notification Management Screen (the Configuration menu item).
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Please note: that some of the above users cannot yet be added as attendees, until some further development is undertaken.
Therefore currently notifications will only apply to the Apprentice, AO or EPA (if they are selected by the capacity engine). |
The notification has been set to dispatch an email by default, but can also be set to send In-App Notifications or SMS (where configured).
Notifications
We have added and tweaked the handling of planning meeting notifications to make them much more consistent between the various planning meeting screens/processes and to add more configurable options when a planning meeting changes.
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When a planning meeting is updated, we will now handle triggering the relevant notifications, these differ slightly between a provisional and confirmed booking. Below is a list of the actions and details of what happened, do note that the majority of these were already being sent, but this is to clarify the processes following the new addition and tweaks:
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Provisional Bookings | |
Booked | when a provisional booking has been booked via the slot-based booking screen the new provisional booking invite notification will be triggered |
Updated | when a provisional booking has been updated the new meeting updated notification will be triggered |
Attendee removed | when an attendee has been removed from a provisional booking that attendee will receive a meeting cancelled notification |
Attendee added | when an attendee has been added to a provisional booking that attendee will receive a provisional booking invite notification |
Approved | when a booking is approved the meeting invite notification will be sent |
Rejected | when a booking is rejected the meeting rejected notification will be sent |
Confirmed Bookings | |
Booked | when a new meeting is booked that is not provisional the meeting invite notification will be sent |
Updated | when a meeting has been updated the new meeting updated notification will be sent |
Rescheduled | when a meeting has been rescheduled the meeting rescheduled notification will be sent |
Cancelled | when a meeting has been cancelled the meeting cancelled notification will be sent |
Attendee removed | when an attendee is removed they will receive a meeting cancelled notification |
Attendee added | when a new attendee is added they will receive a meeting invite notification |
Note that all of the above is based on the default configuration of communications and may differ on customer environments.
Workplace Mentor as an attendee for planning meetings
We have extended the Schedule Planning Meeting screen’s Add Other Attendees popup to include shortcut entries for adding the Workplace Mentor and/or On Programme Assessor as a guest user.
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