Collection Portal guidance

The Collection Portal is the SDCS dashboard used by collection owners to enable them to have an overview of their collections.

To access the collection portal, you need a single sign-on account. Clicking on the link to the portal will take you to the homepage.

You will need to click “Sign in” which is located in the top right-hand corner. You will then need to click “Register” to create a single sign-on account.

To register you will need to complete the following form:

Once this form is complete, you will be able to access the Collection Portal.

This will contain a list of all the collections your email address (same one as used to create your single sign-on account) has been associated with, that are currently live.

You should see the five tabs above.

This screen will show a list of collections with a live collection period – currently open.

Each listed collection will display the following details:

• Collection - Name
• Reporting Period - Name
• Proforma Downloads - Number downloaded/number available to download
• Submission Deadline - Deadline date and time. This is the information that is communicated to submitters (often referred to as the ‘soft deadline’)
• Submission Close Date - This is the hard deadline that is not visible to submitters. This is when the collection formally closes
• Submissions - Number of successful submissions received / number of submissions expected. This is a link and will take you to a new screen displaying the Org Code, Organisation Name, Name, Email address and Phone number of all the data submitters who have not yet made a valid submission. If you wish to download a list of those who have not submitted, for example, to send out a communication, please select the ‘Download non-submitters’ button in the top right of the screen
• % Submissions - A percentage of the submissions received calculated from the number of successful submissions received / number of submissions expected
• Extensions - This shows the number of active extensions. These being characterised by submitting organisations who have been granted an extension past the deadline

This is accessed by selecting Collections > All.

This screen will show all the collections your single sign-on account has been associated with, not just the ones with a live reporting period.

This screen shows three columns including the Name of the collection, the Submission Site on which the collection is located and Actions, which is an accessible link.

Clicking on View in the Actions column takes you to a new screen showing three options specific to the collection. The below example shows the options available:

The Reporting periods screen contains the name of the data collection at the top of the screen and the following fields/columns and can be filtered on all columns.

• Name - Reporting Period Name
• Data Start Date - This date applies to the start of the period to which the data relates
• Data End Date - This date applies to the end of the period to which the data relates
• Submission Start Date - This date applies to the start date of the reporting period often referred to as collection window
• Submission End Date - This date applies to the end date of the reporting period
• Submission Status - This shows if the collection is currently open or closed
• Submissions - Number of successful submissions received / number of submissions expected. This is a link and will take you to a new screen displaying the Org Code, Organisation Name, Name, Email address and Phone number of all the data submitters who have not yet made a valid submission
• Extensions - This shows the number of active extensions. These being characterised by submitting organisations who have been granted an extension past the deadline
• % Submissions - A percentage of the submissions received calculated from the number of successful submissions received / number of submissions expected
• Actions - If the collection you are viewing involves a proforma upload then the individual proforma attached to each reporting period can be downloaded here. If the collection you are viewing does not involve a proforma upload, then this column will be blank

This page shows the full list of users for the collection selected in the following format:

• User – Forename - Surname - Email
• Organisation – Organisation Name – Organisation Code

There is also a button to download this information into an Excel spreadsheet: 

This screen shows a list of all organisations associated with the data collection from which a return is expected.

A filter can be applied to search for Organisation Name or Code.

This is accessed by selecting Submissions > All.

This page shows submission activity as it is happening:

You will be able to add Submission Filters to narrow down the results. The results are displayed in the following columns:

• Submitted - This shows the date and time stamp when the data was submitted
• Collection - The Name of the collection    
• Org Code - The Organisation code as stated on ODS
• Organisation - The Organisation name as stated on ODS
• Period - The name of the reporting period which will usually identify the name of the collection and the period to which the data related (e.g. Collection Name-Data Period)
• Submitted By - The email address of the registered data submitter that submitted the data
• Current Stage - This status signifies the status of the submission:

Created
In Progress
File Validation
Test Complete
Complete with Errors
Validation Breaches
Failed
Complete
Errored

• Test - A tick will be present on-screen if this data was submitted as test data
• Actions - A clickable link is present at the end of each submission, named Detail. This takes you to another screen which contains two categories:

Details

This is a list of the following:

• Collection - Name of Collection
• Organisation - Code of Organisation
• Organisation Name - Name of Organisation
• Reporting Period - Name of Reporting Period
• Submitted By - Registered data submitter email address
• Data Submitted - Date and Time of submission in DD/MM/YYY HH:MM:SS Format
• Current Stage - This will be the same as the current stage on the previous Submission screen
• Input File(s) - These are the files uploaded by the registered data submitter and this is a link to download the input file
• Output File(s) - These are the names of the files that have landed in the output file location that will be used to create the outputs

History

This shows the processing of the submission and the stages it went through before it finalised:

Additionally, some collections will also have the following visible on this screen.

Structure summary

This shows the number of rows of data contained in the submitted file.

Validation summary

This shows the details of the rows containing data that has failed the validation criteria.

The validation errors/warnings can be downloaded from here from a shaded box labelled ‘Download all Validations’. They will be in csv format.

For some collections, the Field or Area name will be a clickable link which will open a Validation Messages box. 

Download all validations

Selecting this feature will open up a spreadsheet containing all the validation errors/warnings and will contain the following columns:

• Structure    
• Field or Area Name    
• Location    
• Level    
• Message

View Breach Reasons

If the collection includes validation breaches and a breach reason has been submitted, it can be viewed here by selecting this feature. The submitted breach reason will be displayed on screen.

Validation Messages

This box contains details of the error/warning and the cell reference in the submitted file where the error/warning is present. If the collection involves the submission of breach reasons to accompany validation breaches, then they will be shown in this section also.

This feature appears at the top of the Submissions screen. It enables you to download the notes submitters have entered in the notes box at the time of submitting their file.

All the collections you are associated with will be available for selection from a drop-down list, as will the collection period. Collection periods follow a naming convention, so they clearly identify the collection period. i.e. they will contain the name of the collection and Q1,Q2 or January, February references.

Clicking Continue will prompt you to open a spreadsheet containing the following fields:

• Submitter
• Organisation Code
• Organisation Name  
• Collection    
• Reporting Period  
• Submission Date    
• Status    
• Notes

This tab allows you to download the Submission Status Report.

Clicking Generate will produce a pop up with the following options:

• Collection
• Reporting Period
• All Submissions

Once you make the appropriate selections and click download you will receive a CSV Excel document with the latest submission information.

The headers of the report are:

• Collection Name    
• Reporting Period Name    
• Organisation Name    
• Organisation Code    
• Status of Submission  
• Submitted On    
• Is Test

The report is the latest status of each organisation’s submission, this includes both complete and failed submissions.

This function is only available to collection owners who have requested this feature as part of their requirements. For more information, please contact the Data Collections Service. 

Once logged into the portal, select Collections > All

Click on the collection you want to set the status for, then click on the View button next to Reporting Periods.

Once you click Make Public the Data Status will change. You will need to click Yes to confirm.

Reviews of this document are carried out by the NHS Digital Data Collection Team. 

Feedback received from Collection Portal users will be fed into the review process and may influence changes to or developments of the SDCS system.