EP-2156

Task

API - Documentation for gateway updated

The documentation for submitting a gateway via the API now correctly states that the gateway_completion_date is a required field.

EP-1208

Feature

Gateway Specification - Allow for the phasing out of old specifications via start/end dates

We've improved how multiple gateway specifications can be managed, allowing for the phasing in/out of gateway specifications. They now have similar functionality to assessment schemas.

A start and end date can now be specified against a gateway specification. Similar to schemas, these two dates will be used to calculate which specification an apprentice is given at gateway. The calculation for this uses the apprentice's start date to find a matching specification for the standard and specialism the apprentice is on.

Due to a standard now having the ability for multiple gateway specifications, controlled via dates, the way these are linked together has been adjusted. A specification is no longer chosen when editing or creating a standard. Instead, standards and decisions can be configured on the edit gateway specification screen. We've also adjusted the menu to show the new requirement, standards are now shown above gateway components and specifications as the standards must now be created first.

We've migrated all of your existing standards and specifications over to this new format, setting a start date to today minus 20 years and end date of today plus 20 years, this will keep everything working as it is now and provide enough leeway to include older apprentices as also provide some time to review the dates and make adjustments as required.

Similar to assessment schemas when a gateway is submitted the calculated specification to use is stored against the gateway, this means should the gateway specifications have their dates or active states changed apprentices through gateway will not be affected. If the gateway is rejected this reference is cleared. We've also migrated existing apprentices who are pending gateway or who have passed gateway to include this reference, linking them up to the calculated specification.

The apprentice details and past programmes reports have both been updated to account for the changes in this ticket. The apprentice details report will now only show the gateway specification once the apprentice has been submitted for gateway, this is because until they have been submitted the gateway that will be used has not yet been calculated. If the apprentice has not been submitted and so has no gateway specification assigned to them the column will show as empty, this is different to how it was displayed previously. The past programmes report follows a similar direction except it uses the gateway specification of the apprentice's previous programme, if they were not submitted to gateway before starting a new programme then they will not have a gateway specification against their row on the report.

To account for these changes we have also made various behind the scenes adjustments and recommend testing:
-- The full gateway flow (both on-screen and via the single sign off API if it's being used)
-- Creating/editing gateway specifications with multiple date ranges
-- Creating new gateway components
-- Standard screens including creating new standards/specialisms and editing existing ones

As always we would also suggest testing the system as a whole to ensure it meets your needs and you do not have any side effects as a result of these changes.

EP-1942

Feature

EPA QA Standards and Specialisms

This introduces the functionality to allow QA standards and specialisms to be set against and EPA or EPAM, that will be completely separated out from their EPA standards and specialisms.

This will restrict the EPA/EPAMs view of the QA screen for both Component and Certification QA's. QA reports for EPA/EPAMs will now be based on the standards/specialisms assigned to them, and not their apprentices; this is a change in the behaviour for the following reports:

• Completed QA
  As an EPA (with QA permissions) looking at this report I can see components that have published results for apprentices that are either directly assigned to me, or I am the chosen EPA at the time of booking the component.

• Certification Pending QA
  As an EPA (with QA Permissions) looking at this report, I can see any outstanding certification QA's for apprentices that I am not in some way associated with (an EPA cannot QA assessments/certification for their own apprentices) that match the standards/specialisms that I am associated with determined by my QA Standards profile tab.

• Results Pending QA
  As an EPA (with QA Permissions) looking at this report, I can see any outstanding component QA's for apprentices that I am not in some way associated with that match the standards/specialisms that I am associated with determined by my QA Standards profile tab.

The view an EPA would have of this report (where they do not have QA permissions) has only been restricted by Standard/Specialism filtering determined by those selected on the EPA standards profile tab.

This will have no effect on their view of anything outside of the QA screens or QA reports.

EP-2006

Feature

API - Extending the Apprentice endpoint

The /apprentice endpoint for the EPAPro API has been changed to return 'pages' of apprentices rather than a simple list; this does not affect the format of the data but please see the API documentation for details. To aid in the use of this a new query parameter 'page' is available to select which number page you wish returned and the existing 'limit' parameter will be used to determine the maximum number of apprentices per page to return.

In addition a new parameter named 'provider_id' may be supplied to limit the apprentices returned to a specific provider.

Please see the API documentation and the appropriate version for more details.

EP-2023

Feature

Gateway Specification - Add ability for optional uploads at gateway

We've updated the gateway specifications to allow for a component to allow uploads but not necessarily have these required.

The components tab for a specification will now show a new checkbox for each component 'Enable file upload' this will show the upload form but have it set as optional. If you would like this to also be mandatory then the existing 'Mandatory file upload or link' checkbox can be checked, this one works exactly as it did before with the exception of it no longer toggling the upload input on/off.

As part of this change we've migrated any existing gateway specifications that have the 'Mandatory file upload or link' checkbox ticked to also have the 'Enable file upload' box ticked, this will ensure all your existing gateway specifications should work as they did before.

As part of this change, it's recommended that the gateway process and gateway specification screens are tested to ensure they remain suitable for your business needs and this change doesn't highlight any potential issues for your process.

EP-2111

Feature

Cohort Booking - Add a way for providers to provisionally book assessments

We have extended the cohort booking functionality to include the ability for providers to provisionally book assessments.

This extension is optional, and by default is not enabled for any providers. This is all controlled via the 'Cohort Booking' permission and when given to providers will allow them to access the cohort booking screen and book (or bulk book) assessments for one or more apprentices. When providers use this screen they are given enforced restrictions compared to an AO user using the screen.

The key changes include:
-- The cohort booking permissions has been separated out into its own permission, this is to enable it to be selectively given to provider users. Please note that as part of this change the migration will give permission to any user or role that currently has 'create-assessment' or 'update-assessment'. If you have custom roles or user permissions who you do not wish to give this permission to then they will need to be adjusted after this is deployed.

-- Providers, if they have permission, can now access the cohort booking screen and book one or more apprentices as AOs can currently. The popup they receive is very similar to what an AO will receive, with the exception of the component details tab, this is something the AO will enter when approving the booking. The calendar portion also introduces additional restrictions which AO users do not receive. This includes:

-- A new screen has been added called 'Manage Cohort Bookings'. This new screen will show any apprentices that have elements that are in a 'Pending' state, this means the provider has booked these apprentices via the Cohort Booking screen. Until a decision has been made for the apprentices on this screen results cannot be added to the element and on assessment progress, a warning will be shown. The screen supports processing single apprentices using the 'Process' button on each row, or by processing an entire batch by using the bulk button at the bottom. It's important to note that bulk processing only works on this screen if you have apprentices with the same batch number selected, this ensures that all of those apprentices have a matching schema, standard and components when approving/rejecting the booking. This screen also has a batch filter at the top where you can easily filter the results to a single batch. The component info, for example, location type, will be entered by the Awarding Organisation at this stage. Bookings can also be rejected on this screen by clicking 'Reject Apprentices' on the last tab, this will prompt a reason which will be shown within a notification the provider receives. If rejected then the elements are removed and the plan is cancelled allowing the provider to reprocess via Cohort Booking if they wish. There is no persistent logging of the reason as this process is not intended to have an audit history.

Other changes of note:
-- Assessment centres popup on the Cohort Booking calendar now has an 'Assessment Centres' heading
-- The assessment menu has been split up into 'Planning' and 'Assessment' - the permissions still remain under 'create-assessment' (excluding Cohort)
-- The Assessment Plan will now show the pending elements under a different colour, please note, that a user with permission can still edit pending elements and this will automatically approve the booking if the edits are saved, a warning is shown about this on the popup
-- Notifications will be sent out to providers if a booking is approved or rejected

EP-2128

Feature

Reporting - Engine improvements

We've made multiple improvements to our reporting engine to allow greater ease of development in future. In addition to this we have also made changes to how the search and sorting works for a majority of the reports currently available in order to bring them into line with each other so that all reports behave in a similar, more predictable fashion.

Below are the list of reports and the changes made to each (grouped by category):

Completed Gateway Billing - No addition changes.
Registered Apprentice Billing - The default sort order is now by Apprentice Id. You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Assessment Resits - The default sort order is now by Apprentice Id. You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Late Registrations - The default sort order is now by Apprentice Id. You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Result Outcome Actions - You can now search using the apprentice ULN.

Apprentice Details - The default sort order is now by Apprentice Id. You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Change of Circumstance - The default sort order is now by the creation datetime of the record. You can now search by the apprentice ULN or provider/employer name.
Past Programmes - The default sort order is now by Apprentice Id. You can now search using the apprentice ULN.

EPA Allocation - No addition changes.
EPA Information - No addition changes.
EPA Conflicts of Interest - No addition changes.

Assessment Before Gateway Completed - You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Planning Meeting Details - The default sort order is now by Apprentice Id. You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Assessment Elements - You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Certification Overview - You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Result Tracking - You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Completed QA - You can now search by the apprentice ULN.
Certification Pending QA - You can now search by the apprentice ULN.
Results Pending QA - You can now search by the apprentice ULN.
Assessment Required Uploads - You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Ready for Certification - No addition changes.
ESFA Submissions - You can now search using the apprentice ULN.
Result Adjustment - No addition changes.
EQAO - No addition changes.
QA Audit - No addition changes.

Support Materials - The default sort order is now the creation datetime.
User Details - The default sort order is now the user id.
Employer Details - The default sort order is now the employer id.

SLA Overview - The default sort order is now by Apprentice Id. You can now search by the apprentice ULN or provider/employer name.
SLA Detailed - The default sort order is now by Apprentice Id. You can now search by the apprentice ULN or provider/employer name.

EP-2137

Feature

API - Get apprentice endpoint field 'provider_external_ao_id'

We have undertaken work to add the external provider id to the get apprentice end point.
This will not affect how the API works, it is just an extra field being returned from the end point.

EP-2061

Bug

Employer filter for providers on apprentice index

This fixes a bug where it was not possible for providers to filter the apprentice index page by employers.

EP-2072

Bug

Gateway Specifications - Checkboxes sometimes could not be unchecked

We've fixed a bug on the Gateway Specifications screen where sometimes the checkboxes would not respond when being checked/unchecked when creating or editing a gateway specification.