The following changes were made as part of PICS 21.00.001.00, as released on the 8th October 2021.

New Features

• CRM and Applicants, eAssessor, eEmploy – There are new PICS Config settings to change the way Activity UDFs are validated. These can be used to delay validation until the activity is completed and / or at least one field in the UDF is filled in.

  There are now PICS Config options to specify validation rules which flag if the activity being completed has a follow up activity scheduled.

• CRM and Applicants, eEmploy – Activity Plans in eEmploy are now available from the Work Space section. It's intended use is for officers to schedule reoccurring appointment slots which can be allocated to participants at a later date.

• CRM and Applicants, eEmploy – Improved filter options for Pick Lists to make it easier to filter records based on their allocated site.

• CRM and Applicants, eEmploy, Desktop PICS – Added Wage Amount and Wage Type to the ITP job edit form with a new config setting to set the validation level.

  Wage Amount, Wage Type, Contract Type and Employer SIC now pull through to the PRaP Checkbox Report.

  Added CRM Config setting to create a pre-defined list of Working Hours for ITP jobs.

  Added the ability to capture SOC 2020 codes for ITP jobs (available on request).

• eEmploy – Next Steps in eEmploy can now offer different set of activities when a participant is in employment and a selection of next activities at each step.

• eEmploy – The activities calendar in eEmploy is now available from a participant record. It's intended use is to book participants onto existing activities.

• eEmploy – There is a new PICS Config option to enable Leaner Payments instead of Money Activities in eEmploy.

• eEmploy – When creating a new job for a participant there is a dedicated button for creating self-employed jobs.

  Added GDPR contact preferences for contacts and organisations in eEmploy.

  When editing an organisations in eEmploy there are now separate buttons for creating contacts or officers.

  There is a new PICS Config option to enable the use of a category field for customising Risk bands.

  When viewing eSurveys for a participant it is now possible to complete a new survey for that participant via a link from eEmploy.

• eEmploy – Microsoft Outlook Calendar and Teams integration - Each user can now authorise eEmploy to sync appointments with outlook using the new setting in the user profile section.

• Desktop PICS – PRaP Referral CSVs can now be load balanced between contracts based on a percentage value.

  Added support for the Twilio SMS provider.

  Added additional Status Workflow validation for participant contact details and uploaded document types.

• Desktop PICS – LARS v8 : 24th September and ORGANISATION v3 : 20th September are now available in PICS.

Improvements

• CRM and Applicants, eEmploy – eEmploy Action Plan page now has filtering options to hide activities based on status and dates. Specific action plan activities can be configured to link to corresponding Courses configured in Course Manager. When creating a new participant in eEmploy you now have the option to select the appropriate contract by selecting the referring job centre.

• Imports and Exports – PelControl ILR Imports now sets historic Learning Delivery HE data.

• SOAP Service – Performance enhancements have been made when searching for Applicants and not filtering by last modified date/time

Data Patches

• eEmploy, Desktop PICS – Added new user permission to disable editing of PRaP Client Programme Start and End sections in PICS Desktop, CRM and eEmploy.

Bug Fixes

• Claims and Profiles – The FM25 Funding Calculation was looking at the 2020 funding factors from the FIS for 2021 calculations. Now fixed.

• Claims and Profiles – The Desktop AEB Funding Calculation was not applying the yearly cap factor accurately. Now fixed.

• Imports and Exports – PelControl ILR Imports was incorrectly creating multiple PriorAttain records on for the same date where the Level was different in multiple years. Now fixed.

•  Desktop PICS – Programme Aims starting after 31st July 2021 would be missing from the PDF ILR output, even when the "Include future starting Aims in ILR form print" configuration option is switched on. Now fixed.