User Group Meeting notes 25/02/2020

Review of previous meeting actions

@Ian Jarvis

• SLAs- Functionality in Development for launch in March

  • Will be live in UAT accounts on the v3.41.0 release

• Back Into Learning - Functionality scheduled in late February

  • Will be live in UAT accounts in the v3.41.0 release

• Gateway - Additional stage now live

  • There were questions around extending this functionality to encapsulate reporting, and this will be looked at

• Caseload - This has been fundamentally reimagined and will be available to almost all user types. Development due to start in March

  • This has been developed into an 'Action List', which was very loosely demoed and is being scoped to be available for all user types. There is a significant change to be expected as the action list will now replace some notifications – full list TBD.

• Action & Outcomes - Scheduled for release in March

  • Will be live in UAT accounts in the v3.41.0 release

• Scaling up

  • Teams - scheduled to commence mid February

  • Skip Planning meeting - scheduled to commence mid March

  • EPA Availability - Live

  • Preferred Dates - Is there still an appetite- low priority in preferences

  • Calendar functionality

    • Subscription Calendar - Live

    • Event attachments - part of email overhaul

    • Provisional / Confirmed dates - part of preferred dates work

  • Block Booking - To be scheduled

  • Online/Physical flag - Live

Extending the QA function

@Ian Jarvis

We are looking to extend the QA functionality in EPAPro to offer additional features and help to improve the workflow and process management.

Some of the areas under consideration are:

• Issue Management - to track appeals and re grades

• Post QA result adjustment with audit trail

• QA risk ratings by standard & specialism

  • Feedback required on this as the forward view is difficult

• Extend QA users to have same standards, specialisms and COI info as EPA user types

• When results should be published, especially with automated QAs

  • Feedback required as this process can vary from AO to AO

The feedback during the session was that it would be very useful to have a Risk Rating by general assessment methods and types, ie. MCQs. There are also multiple occurrences where the EPAs are carrying out QA, we may need to look at separate settings. Access for IQAs to carry out specific assessments is to be enabled. There was a request for building in a flag for QA percentages based on timings and tenure so that the QA Percentages can be reviewed on a semi-regular basis. This is something for Skilltech to consider.

We would really appreciate your thoughts on the above and any other areas we have missed as always if you can rate your feedback as to how important it is to your business that would be very helpful.

Action Lists

@Ian Jarvis

In the last user group meeting we discussed the idea of a revised caseload screen. This was proving a difficult thing to achieve and was also restricted to EPAs & EPAMs. Instead we are looking to add an Action List function. This will be a to do list for everything you need to complete in EPAPro and will be linked into SLAs to ensure you meet targets. The Action list will be available to almost every user type and will prompt users to complete tasks in order of priority. In terms of look and feel this will be similar to the notification slide out.

We will pick most of the key workflow items for the initial release;

• Review gateway

• Allocate EPA

• Accept apprentice

• Add result

• update QA etc.

It was queried if the EPAO receives a notification when required documents are uploaded for an Apprentice. While this wasn’t part of the original scoping, it is something for Skilltech to consider however very aware of notification fatigue.

There was a request for this to be created as a dashboard widget or report which was confirmed that Skilltech can look at and provide. There was also another request to include the Schedule Planning Meeting reminder/notification.

If there are any other areas you feel we should consider as part of this work please get in touch and let us know.

ROA for Certification

@Ian Jarvis

We are looking to introduce a Record of Achievement for certifications. This would allow you to supply a branded document to celebrate the apprentice successfully completing their assessment journey. We are also looking to add a function to produce and distribute as a bulk process rather than individually.

There was a request that there would be a date field and retrospective date added, which was accepted by Skilltech.

Managing Expected Gateway Dates

@Ian Jarvis

Predicting workload is obviously very important to EPAOs, the main trigger for this would be the expected gateway date. Unfortunately this leaves the EPAO largely in the hands of the Providers. There is of course a minimum requirement of 60 days notice for a provider to inform an EPAO of an apprentice gateway. We are looking at a development to prompt providers to ensure that they have updated the gateway date. This could perhaps be backed up with warnings or functions to tie down the gateway date within this timeframe. It could also be extended out further to prompt regular reviews.

It was discussed that we could add in a disclaimer before submission. This was flagged as a beneficial feature for AOs. There was a question surrounding whether this feature could support being set by standard.
It was requested that the original date, scheduled date and number of revised dates are captured for reporting purposes. It was confirmed that this feature could also produce a new billing report for processes around late revisions to dates.

The need for this to be as simple and as straightforward as possible was highlighted. The Provider could be presented with a dashboard widget, rather than notifications. Skilltech confirmed that this is something to consider and look at.

Forecasting

@Ian Jarvis

Somewhat linked to the above, we are considering some tools to help EPAOs forecast workload. This might be based on estimates from a provider which could then be compared to actuals at a later date but might assist in predicting demand for services across the year. We would be keen to hear your thoughts and ideas on this area one any things you might like to see in this area?

The importance of giving fuller visibility of the expectation vs. reality was emphasised and this feature was widely accepted as being useful. There was a request that this could be added as a widget to the dashboard, or have it’s own dashboard, and reporting on a monthly basis.

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