Category: News

A new release of PortfolioOnline has been in development for some time now. The beta version is available at https://beta.portfolioonline.co.uk so that you can preview the changes.

This version brings improvements to the searching/filtering of your portfolio, as well as improvements to the general navigation that should make it easier to move around your portfolio.

One of the most significant enhancements is being able to filter your curriculum coverage, allowing you to see it by training level and/or ARCP period.

NB: The beta version is connected to your real portfolio, so that you can see exactly how it will look. You can access it using the same login details and any activity on the beta version will be reflected on the current version. At this time we would recommend continuing to use the current version for Mini-PAT, WPBAs and Supervisor Reports.

We are working hard to make this release available as soon as possible. As this is a beta version you may find that some things are not working as expected. Our servers log all activity and collect information about any errors allowing us to track them down and fix them. Using the system and getting 'something went wrong' is of great help and would be very much appreciated.

If you would like to go one step further, then we would also be interested to hear any feedback you might have, in particular if you find that anything is not working correctly, or if there is something that you think is missing. Or even if it's just to let us know that you like it! Please email us at support@portfolioonline.co.uk and mention that you are testing the beta version.

The latest update includes some changes to the language that is used in the system when talking about the people who make up arcp panels.

There are two discreet concepts to be aware of when using Portfolio Online to do ARCP.

1. There is a designated pool of people for a given school that have permissions that allow them to take part in ARCP
2. It is possible to assign people from this pool to a given ARCP date (or panel)

Previously we referred to these people as "Panel Members". This is confusing because it implies that these people are on an ARCP panel, when in fact they only have the potential to be assigned to a panel.

A better description of the pool of people would be 'ARCP Reviewers' - and this is how the system now refers to them.

It also helps to make it clearer when we say that ARCP Reviewers have access to Trainee Portfolio's during the two week window up to and including the review date. What this means is that all arcp reviewers have access, regardless of whether they are assigned to the panel.

This is an important change to how the system used to work prior to August 2014. In the old system access to the portfolio was dependant upon the Reviewers being assigned to a panel. Our experience was that sometimes panel members may not have been assigned correctly, and that this would cause issues with those panel members not having the correct access to trainee portfolios, which in turn would hamper the ARCP online process.

The consequence of this is that Deanery Administrators should ensure that the list of ARCP Reviewers is kept up to date. If an ARCP reviewer is no longer needed then you should press the 'end' button to cease access. In this fashion you will build a historical record of ARCP Reviewers.

This leads to the question of why it is still possible to assign reviewers to a given date? The answer to this, lies in the outcome form. When the outcome form is generated, one of the questions asks you to specify which panel members took part. To avoid having to type this information each time, the system allows you to select from a pre-generated list of ARCP Reviewers. This list corresponds to the list of ARCP Reviewers that have been previously assigned to the date.

We have updated the various screens where we refer to panel members, to now refer to ARCP reviewers. Functionality has not changed but this change in language should make it clearer what is happening. There are still a couple of place where we refer to panel members, but these should only be where we are specifically referring to that person in the context of them having been assigned to a panel for a specific arcp/date.

Our Office will close at 5pm on Wednesday 23rd December and will re-open at 9am on Monday 4th January.

If you have an urgent query then please email us on 'support@portfolioonline.co.uk' and we will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.

We will aim to respond to all queries as soon as possible once our office reopens.

Many thanks and Merry Christmas form the Portfolio Online Team.

 

It has been possible for some time to do parts of the ARCP process on Portfolio Online, but just recently we have added some new functionality to enable the whole ARCP process to be performed online.

It's with many thanks to those that have already contributed their thoughts that we feel ready to make this new functionality live, but we don't want to stop here. We know that for our product to be great, we have to listen to our end users.

Here are some of the new features we have added to the ARCP process online

• Submit an ARCP Outcome
• Sign off an ARCP Outcome Form
• Release an outcome to a trainee
• Allow trainees to review and acknowledge an outcome
• Add an outcome form to a trainee's portfolio

If you try any of these new features out and would like to let us know what you think, please get in touch with one of our team members. You can contact us by phone during office hours on 0844 800 6516, or by email support@training.rcpsych.ac.uk