How to manage submission deadlines

Every cohort has an audit-wide submission deadline (the second Tuesday of January after the data collection year ends). Occasionally an organisation needs more time — for example because of staffing shortages or EPR problems — and the audit team can grant that organisation its own deadline extension from the organisation dashboard.

This can only be done by members of the RCPCH audit team.

Granting an extension

1. Navigate to the organisation's dashboard (Organisation → select the organisation).
2. The three cohort cards at the top show the cohort dates. On the currently submitting (or grace) cohort card, click Extend deadline.
3. Enter the number of days to extend by and, optionally, a reason.
4. Click Save extension.

The card now shows the audit-wide deadline with a pink Extended to … badge underneath. The lead clinician(s) at the organisation and the audit team mailbox receive an email confirming the new deadline.

Note

Extensions are given in days added to the organisation's current deadline. If an organisation already has an extension and you grant more time, the new days are added to the extended date, not the original audit-wide date — the button reads Extend further in this case.

Closing submission early

If an organisation tells you it has finished entering data before its deadline, you can close its submission immediately:

1. On the cohort card, click Close submission (this button only appears when the organisation has an extension).
2. Confirm in the dialog.

Submission for that organisation closes at the end of today. The card shows a pink Closed early: … badge, and the lead clinician(s) and audit team are emailed.

Removing an extension

If an extension was granted in error:

1. On the cohort card, click Remove extension (only visible when an extension exists).
2. Confirm in the dialog.

The organisation's deadline reverts to the audit-wide date and the lead clinician(s) and audit team are emailed.

Warning

Extensions cannot be removed once the audit-wide deadline has passed — at that point the extension is part of the audit record of what the organisation submitted against.

What organisations see

Organisation users see the same cohort cards (without the action buttons), including any Extended to … or Closed early: … badge and the countdown of days remaining, which always reflects their own effective deadline.

Chasing late submissions

Once the audit-wide deadline has passed, any organisations still able to submit are doing so only because they hold an extension. To see them:

1. Open the Django admin and go to Audit Period site extensions.
2. Filter by cohort using the Audit period filter on the right.
3. Use the Open past audit-wide deadline filter and choose Yes.

The list shows each organisation still open past the audit-wide deadline, with the audit-wide date, their extended date, and the number of days remaining — the list of sites to chase before their extensions expire. Extensions whose own date has already passed drop off the list automatically.