A quick guide to publishing your Data Security and Protection Toolkit for the very first time.
When you have completed the questions in the DSPT, scroll to the bottom of your screen and click “Publish”.
If you have only completed the 26 mandatory questions for Approaching Standards you will be asked to complete and upload an action plan on how you will complete the remaining questions.
If you have completed all 42 questions, then you can publish at Standards Met and you will not need to upload an action plan and can skip straight to Publishing at Standards Met below.
If you are publishing at headquarters level on behalf of multiple sites, you will need to choose which sites to include within your DSPT publication. See guidance below on Publishing a Headquarter’s Assessment.
Publishing at Approaching Standards
- When you have completed at least the 26 mandatory questions for Approaching Standards (or more, but not all the 42 questions for Standards Met), you can publish at Approaching Standards level. Click on this blue button at the bottom of the page:
2. You need to upload an action plan on how you will complete the remaining questions. You can download a “blank action plan template” to complete, outlining how you will meet the remaining requirements you haven’t finished yet. You don’t have to use this template, you can upload a document in another format if you wish.
3. When you have completed your action plan, upload it here – drag and drop it in the Upload file box. You will be able to see the file you have uploaded. If you need to make any changes you can remove and replace the file.
4. Once this is done, click “Publish Approaching Standards Assessment”. You will then be asked to confirm that your organisation profile is correct. Make any changes you need and then click “Publish Approaching Standards Assessment”.
When you have done this, you will receive an email confirming that you have published and confirmation will appear on the screen.
Congratulations, you have completed Approaching Standards on the DSPT. You can now move on to republish at Standards Met.
Publishing at Standards Met
- If you have completed all 42 questions, you can publish at Standards Met level. Click on this blue button at the bottom of the page:
2. You will then be asked to confirm that your organisation profile is correct. Make any changes you need and then click “Publish Assessment”. When you have done this, you will receive an email confirming that you have published and confirmation will appear on the screen. You can download your DSPT certificate from this screen.
Publishing a Headquarter’s Assessment
If you are publishing for multiple sites, you can choose which of your branches to include when you publish your Headquarters Assessment.
Once you have clicked the Publish button, you will be taken to a page that asks who you would like to publish for:
The list of your branches should reflect your CQC registrations but if the list is incorrect, please contact the DSPT team to provide details of missing/incorrect branches and request that the ODS record is updated to match the CQC details.
It may be that you wish to publish for some of your branches straightaway, as others may not be ready, e.g. if relevant training has not yet been cascaded across the whole organisation. If the list contains branches that you don’t wish to publish for (i.e. because they are either incorrect or not ready), you can choose to exclude them at the “publish” step. It is fine to add them in later, and the system allows you to do this.
Select all the branches you wish to publish for and click “Publish” to complete your DSPT submission.
If you need to have your DSPT submission copied to other HQ Codes, contact [email protected] and ask for them to do this for you.
Next steps
Make the most of your DSPT. Make sure that your managers know what you have said in your DSPT entry. Share it with staff and your key stakeholders including CQC inspectors and funders. You can download the information you have entered as a spreadsheet, and you can get a DSPT certificate demonstrating the level you have met.
And remember, you must republish your DSPT at least once a year, otherwise it goes out of date and is invalid. Add a calendar reminder to review and republish. The deadline every year is 30 June.
