Exemptions: what we agreed and what happens next

Exemptions: what we agreed
and what happens next

A structured application that can't be submitted incompletely, and a working surface that lets the team see the whole queue at a glance.

We covered the current application journey end to end, the mailbox, the new form Anthony has just built, the document-upload problem, and the standing queue of applicants. Two clear pieces of work came out of it, and this page records both, along with who is doing what next.

The priority we agreed is the road ahead: making every new application arrive complete, so the back-and-forth that eats the team's week stops happening in the first place. Alongside that, the team gets a better way to work the applicants already waiting.

Two connected pieces

The plan is one system in two parts. The main build is the new application journey, the thing that changes how every future application arrives. It sits ahead of a working surface that lets the team clear the current queue while the form is being specified and built.

The main build

The application journey

A structured application an applicant cannot submit until every required document and answer is in place. This is the headline deliverable: it makes the future process work properly, so the chasing stops being necessary.

A unique per-applicant link, delivered by the existing automated welcome email that 100% of applications already begin with.
Save and return, so an applicant can complete it across sittings.
An education and work timeline that accounts for every year, replacing the free-form CV and the gaps it hides.
Documents uploaded straight into the system, not through the unreliable MyICB upload.

Pilot before the end of July

The working surface

A view of the queue

A Professional-Standards-style view of the exemptions queue.

A unified timeline per applicant, with clear document labelling.
Click-through to the applicant's Sodalis record.
Route-specific emails drafted ready for one-click sending. Humans stay in the loop; nothing sends automatically.

Seeded from the tracking spreadsheet, then wired to the mailbox

The new form is the specification baseline

Anthony's own MS Form, live for about a week, is the starting point. It captures what a good application needs; the build turns that into a proper application that a simple form cannot be, one that blocks an incomplete submission, remembers progress, and feeds a clean timeline of each applicant's history.

The backlog

The current queue is the reason the working surface earns its place. There are 89 applications from 2026 for immediate attention, about 21 of them at the initial stage. Behind those sit 64 parked from 2025, worth chasing once the 2026 group is moving, and 63 from 2024, the oldest cohort.

Next Steps

Anthony & Nathan

The inputs batch

The tidied tracking spreadsheet
The application form
The requirements decision tree, in Visio

Jordan

Groundwork and the demo

This action-points record
Arranging exemptions mailbox access with Julius
The wider-team demo, with the latest on both the exemptions plan and the Professional Standards work

Demo Wednesday 8 July, around 11am

Timeline

The engagement runs to Monday 17 August 2026. The shape below gets both pieces operational within it.

Week of 7 July Inputs land, mailbox access arranged, working-surface groundwork begins, and the form is specified against the new MS Form.

Week of 14 July The working surface goes in front of the team, seeded from the tracking spreadsheet. The form build begins.

Before the end of July (by Friday 31 July) The application form goes to pilot.

Early August Iteration and refinement on both pieces, against real use.

By Monday 17 August Both pieces operational and documented for handover.

Open questions

?Whether and when the earlier applicants, the 2024 and 2025 cohorts, are routed through the new front door once it exists.

?A coordination check with the parallel Sodalis-replacement work, via Agatha, before the form's data home is finalised, so the two builds don't tread on each other.

A note on the arrangement: this work sits within the terms of the existing engagement, at no additional fee. Coordination and reporting run through Agatha, who holds the most context on how it fits alongside the wider programme.