Submitting data with SDCS Cloud

This guide is intended to help you start submitting data, for one or more data sets, to the Strategic Data Collection Service in the Cloud (SDCS Cloud). It provides guidance on:

• submitting a file
• using dashboards to view the details of your previous submissions

If you have any questions about guidance or functionality, or are experiencing any operational issues, such as problems with system access, please contact our National Service Desk on 0300 303 5035 or via email at [email protected].

For general enquiries, such as questions about Data Sharing Agreements (DSAs) or other data-related issues, please email our Contact Centre at [email protected].

You can start submitting data to NHS England once you have:

• set up your organisation on the Organisation Data Service (ODS)
• registered individual users to submit data 
• set up your authentication method and activated your SDCS Cloud account. See Activating and managing your SDCS Cloud account for details.

Please note, if you need to submit a data file on behalf of multiple organisations you will need to submit the file, to each organisation, one at a time.

To submit a file:

1. Log in to SDCS Cloud from the SDCS Cloud webpage.
   See Activating and managing your SDCS Cloud account for details on how to log into SDCS Cloud.
   The SDCS Cloud Home screen will be displayed.
2. Select Submit a file.

3. Select the organisation for whom you wish to submit data.
   Please note, if you have 1 organisation from which to select, you will not be requested to select an organisation.

• If you have less than 5 organisations from which to select, check the radio button alongside the organisation you want to select and click on Next.

• If you have 5 or more organisations from which to select, select the organisation from the drop-down list and click on Next.

4. Select the radio button alongside the data set you are submitting from the Available Collections list and click Next.
   Please note if you have one collection from which to select, you will not be requested to select a data set.
   Only data sets you have registered for will be displayed in the list. If the data set you want to submit is not available, see Registering new user access for details.

Please note, if an incorrect data set is selected, the processing engine will recognise that the file structure is incompatible and it will be rejected. 

5. Select the reporting period you want to provide data for from the list of Open Reporting Periods.
   The list of available open reporting periods will be subject to the submission model for the chosen data set.

Please note, if the incorrect reporting period is selected, your file may be rejected during data quality checks.
Additional Submission Options will be displayed below the selected Reporting Period.
You can change the reporting period from this screen by selecting the appropriate radio button alongside the reporting period required.

6. Check the Test Submission box if you want to run a test submission and click Next.  
   Please note:

• The Test submission checkbox will be disabled if the No Data to submit for this period checkbox has been selected.
• Test submissions do not count as live submissions. They generate a report to allow you to view any data quality issues prior to submitting live data. See the Viewing Test Submissions section for further details.

The Review Submission Details screen will be displayed.

Check the submission details are correct.
If the Organisation, Collection or Reporting Period are incorrect, click on Change and change the details as required.
Click Choose File to navigate to the file stored on your local network/drive that you want to submit. Only files with the accepted file extension(s), for the chosen dataset, will be displayed for selection. Select the required file and click Submit.
Please note:

• compressed files cannot be uploaded to SDCS Cloud
• the maximum upload file size permitted is 2GB

When the file has successfully uploaded, the Successful Submission screen will be displayed.

Please note, an error message will be displayed if your upload was unsuccessful. This may have been due to an issue such as a network error. If your file does not upload you will need to submit the file again.

7. Select the No Data to submit for this period checkbox if you have no qualifying data to submit for the reporting period and click Next.
   Please note:

• the No Data to submit for this period checkbox will be disabled if the Test Submission checkbox has been selected
• the No Data to submit for this period checkbox will be disabled if a successful file submission has previously been made for a given reporting period
• subsequent file submissions can be made following a ‘no data to submit for this period’ submission

The Review Submission Details screen will be displayed.

Check the submission details are correct and click Submit.
If the Organisation, Collection or Reporting Period are incorrect, click on Change and change the details as required.
The Successful Submission screen will be displayed.

You can view details of your previous submissions, for collections and organisations that you are associated with, on the Submission History screen.

Please note that if your submission did not upload successfully, it will not appear in your submission history.

To access the submission history:

• Click Submission History from the navigation bar at the top of the SDCS Cloud Home screen.

The Submission History screen will be displayed.

The status for each submission will show as either:

• Processed
  Your file has completed successfully.
• Rejected – Empty file
  The submitted file had no data and has been rejected.
• Rejected – DQ
  There were some validation errors in the data submitted and the file has been rejected.
• Rejected – file already submitted
  The file has been previously submitted and has been rejected.

You can filter the submissions history details using the ‘Filters’ functionality.

• Click Filters from the Submission History screen.

Filter options will be displayed.

You can filter the submissions you want to view on the Submission History screen by:

• The submitting data set, by entering the data set name in the Collection field.
• The organisation for whom the data is being submitted, by entering the organisation code in the Org Code field.
• The reporting period, by entering the period in the Reporting period field.
• Status, by selecting to view submissions with All statuses, or by selecting to view submissions that are either Uploaded, Processing, Processed, Rejected or Failed.
• Test submissions only by selecting the Test Submissions Only checkbox.
• No qualifying data for the reporting period by selecting the No Data Submissions Only checkbox.

When you have selected your filter options, click Apply filters.

You can view the details of a submission on the Check your Submission Report screen.

• Click View under the Action column for the relevant submission, to view the submission details.
  The option to view submission details is not available for No Data Submissions.

The Check your Submission Report screen will be displayed.

The following information is available:

• Your Submission Information
  You can check the Status field to see if your file was successfully processed.
  Take a note of your Submission ID, in case you need to contact NHS Digital about your submission. It will help resolve your incident/service request in a timely manner.
• Data Quality Overview
  The Records count, Error count and Records accepted counts provide a high-level view of your data quality.
  Successful submissions can still have data quality issues.
• Available Extracts
  Data Quality Reports can be accessed by clicking on the link in the Download column. See Understanding data quality in SDCS Cloud for details.

Test submissions do not count as live submissions, statistics or records. A test submission will generate a Data Quality Report that will allow you to review any data quality issues in advance of making a live data submission.

Test submissions can only be made within an active submission window, or ‘reporting period’, for live collections. For more information, please see the webpage for the data set you are submitting.

Test submissions will show as ‘rejected’ or ‘processed’ on the Summary History screen.

• If your test submission has been ‘rejected’, you should view the Data Quality Report. See Understanding data quality in SDCS Cloud for details.
• If your test submission has been ‘processed’ you can now submit your file as a live submission. See the Submitting a file section for details.