Areas to be covered. Background New Process. Approval Page How are the checks generated? Check types How are the responses used?

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2 Areas to be covered Background New Process Approval Page How are the checks generated? Check types How are the responses used?

3 Background WDF data passes through a number of levels from data entry to publication. Since the outset of WDF, once data has reached L30 it is assigned to one of the validation team and tested against a number of standard checks. To start with these checks were made offline. Then for the past few years you have been able to view them directly via the validation summary sheet.

4 Background Being able to download the sheet allowed LA users to take greater control of the validation process and see the checks straight away, rather than waiting for an from their validator. However it did have its limitations: A separate sheet to be downloaded and navigated, leaving the WDF website. Any responses you wanted to give had to be ed in separately. Responses then had to be tallied with the queries by the validator. If responses weren t sent in as part of the process of approving a return to L30 you would be sent an at a later date.

5 Background Therefore a new system has been developed to: Place the queries, generated by the validation summary sheet, online as part of the submission/approval process Queries are raised at a time when you have just been entering the data and have resources to hand, rather than as an a number of days later. Responses are recorded directly to the validation summary sheet for both the LA users and Validators to see Allows data entry users to inform Data admin users of proposed query responses So how does it work?...

6 An amended approval page Previous Approval page (used up to Apr-Jun 2016):

7 An amended approval page New Approval page (used from Jul-Sept 2016):

8 The new approval page Direct link to the validation guidance documents: All the generated validation queries are displayed ready for review (no more waiting for an ):

9 Validation Queries a closer look Query ID Each query is now given a fixed ID number that can be tracked though the process of rolling data up and down numerous times rather than a changing number based on the order of the queries at that time. Query Response You can respond to each query raised. The response can be used to provide a reason for the query (e.g. if there is a reason why a tonnage has increased or decreased since last year) or simply to ask for some support regarding the query. This is a free text box with a 2,000- character limit. All response boxes will need to be populated before you will be able to approve your return. Query Category For Response or For Notification. Query - The query being asked. Generated from the Validation summary report Points to Check sheet. Query Acknowledgement For queries categorised as For Notification, it may not be necessary to enter a bespoke response. In these situations you can respond by simply clicking the Acknowledgement button, to place [Acknowledged] in to the response, or add a more detailed response as appropriate.

10 The new Approval page Various options at the bottom of the page: Summary It may be that you need a bit of background to the queries. Clicking the Summary button downloads the validation summary sheet without the need to navigate back to the Data Authorisation page. Cancel If you need to cancel the Approval process, press the Cancel button to be taken back to the Data Authorisation page. Approve Once each of the response cells has been populated, the Approve button will become live and you will be able to approve your data (until then it appears greyed out). Reopen It may be that in reviewing the queries you notice that one or more of them requires the data in your return to be amended. To do this, you could click Cancel to be returned to the Data Authorisation page and roll the return down as normal, before navigating back to the Data Entry page. However, you can also take the quicker option of clicking the Reopen button to put the data back to level 0. If you have data entry rights for the LA you are re-opening the return for, you will also be taken straight to the Data Entry page, all in one click. N.B. If, for example, you are a WDA user and have data authorisation rights to your WCAs, but not data entry rights, clicking the Reopen button will put the return back to level 0, but take you to the Data Authorisation page.

11 What happens to my responses? Once you have entered your responses and clicked Approve, you will be taken back to the Data Authorisation page. If you are a Data Entry user the return will now be at L20 and will require further approval from a Data Authorisation user. When they go in to approve the return, clicking the green tick will open up the new Approvals page prepopulated with the responses you have given, ready for their review. If you are a Data Admin user completing the Approval page will mean the return will be at L30 and will be submitted to WDF for validation.

12 What happens to my responses? For all users with data authorisation rights, the current responses will be available via the Validation Summary sheet (i.e. those responses given the last time someone approved the data for that LA). This is how the validation summary report will look when a return is rolled to L10 for the first time. The approval page has yet to be completed, so no responses are provided. Once the approval page has been completed, the responses will appear within the validation summary report when next downloaded.

13 What happens to my responses? This approach has the benefit that: Queries are raised and available online at the point the data is being submitted not via a separate spreadsheet or an a few days later once you have moved on to a new piece of work (therefore more efficient). Allows you to see straight away the queries which may mean you need to update your data, so the return can be re-opened and amendments made prior to the data being approved to L30. Anyone else with data authorisation rights to your LA, (e.g. WDA users that need to review WCA data) will be able to pick up the responses and reasons for any changes, right within WDF. If a member of your LA s WDF team is unavailable at any point, a record of their responses will be available via the summary sheet, making it easier for others to pick the return up if needed. Once the data reaches L30 and is submitted to WDF for validation, responses will already be there, right on the sheet, removing the need for responses to be ed to WDF as some LAs currently do. This also reduces the number of follow-up queries WDF send to you.

14 What if I need to make amendments after approving my return, do I need to enter all the responses again? No! Once entered and approved, responses are retained in one of two ways: If the query doesn t change as a result of your amendment to the data, e.g. if the query relates to Qu23 and your change was to Qu100, then your previous response will be automatically populated in the response cell next time you go to the Approval page. If the query changes as a result of the change you make to the data in the return e.g. a 50t discrepancy changes to 5t, the previous response will not be shown automatically. This is to allow you to add a completely new one if required; but if you wish to amend your previous response you will be able to reload it by using the Previous button, which will display next to the response cell for all queries which have been answered previously, but for which the data have changed.

15 Other Guidance In addition to these training slides we also have some guidance documents covering the following: How to use the validation spreadsheet Query-by-query guidance (Validating data for English LAs) Both of these documents are available here: If you need any further help, please contact the helpdesk: Telephone: