The role distribution capability allows you to upload a zip file containing documents, effortlessly select the designated role and ensure prompt delivery to all individuals holding that role within your schools. Gone are the days of tedious individual transmissions; now, you can efficiently disseminate information in a single transaction!
Configuring Roles
To send a confidential file to a specific role (for example, Finance Administrator), the role must first be set up at the LA level in Broadcast. Schools can then assign specific users to that role within their Perspective accounts.
For more information on setting up roles and how schools assign those, click here.
If you don't have a specific user in mind but want to share documents with all school users of a certain role, Broadcast allows you to do that quickly and efficiently using Zips.
Preparing the ZIP File
Confidential files work the same way the Broadcast LA View does, by intelligently distributing files to schools using identifiers in the file names.
Confidential Files determines the audience for a file using the URN or 7-digit DfE number, followed by an underscore _ or hyphen -. For example, an uploaded file named 119119_Payroll.xls will only be received by the school with the URN 119119.
The underscore/hyphen is the identifier in the file name, which lets the system know when the rule ends and the file name begins. Everything to the left of the underscore will be treated as the naming rule.
Starting a file name with a school's six-digit URN or 7-digit DfE number, followed by an underscore or hyphen, will ensure only that the school receives that file.
Please note that you must use the 7-digit DfE number. If you use the 4-digit DfE, the file will not be matched to a school. You can always match it manually afterwards, however.
Once you have prefixed your files, you should highlight them and add them to a compressed zip folder. Please note that your zip folder must not contain more than one subfolder.
Uploading the ZIP File
Once you have your zip ready, in Broadcast, click Upload New File and either search for your zip and double-click it or drag and drop it.
Broadcast will recognise that the zip contains subfolders with URN prefixes, allowing you to select whether you wish to assign each file to the matching school.
If you do not want the automatic matching to occur and instead wish to send all the zip contents to a single school, untick the 'Assign each individual file to the matching school based on the URN' box.
Otherwise, keep it ticked and select the role you want to distribute the files to.
Then click Proceed & Validate.
Validation Checks
You are then taken to a validation page, which allows you to ensure the upload is completely accurate before sending the files out to schools.
Broadcast will list all the files inside your zip and highlight them according to their status. A file can be marked either Matched, Unmatched or display a Warning.
Matched Files
Match files are successfully mapped to their corresponding school and require no action.
Unmatched Files
Unmatched files are files for which we couldn't locate a school. This could be because there is an error in the URN or DfE. Unmatched files can easily be manually matched to a school, saving you from having to delete and reupload them!
Simply click the Assign button alongside the file, choose the correct school from the dropdown and click Confirm. That file will then match the school you have selected and clear the error.
Warnings
Warnings alert you to a problem with the file that may impact its visibility. Warnings appear when:
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- The school don't have a Perspective account.
- There is no school user assigned to the role you have selected.
- Your LA have the Broadcast module switched off for that school (Nexus Administrators can switch this on via Admin > Perspective Services).
More details about the warning are displayed on the right-hand side of the screen.
You can use the validation screen to remove the file or change the role.
You can also continue, and the file will sit behind the scenes until either the Broadcast module is switched on, the school are set up with Perspective, or the school assigns that role to a user. When the issue is corrected, the file will be ready to view.
If the warning relates to the school having no users with the assigned role, you can click Notify Head Teacher, and this will trigger an email to them, alerting them that their Local Authority shared a file that currently can't be accessed.
Confirming & Sending Files
Once you have completed the validation steps, click Confirm & Continue.
Please ensure you have completed any validation checks and are satisfied with the audience for your distribution. It is not possible to bulk-delete confidential files once sent, although you can remove them for individual schools easily.
The system will then display one final popup, confirming the number of schools, roles and any remaining warnings.
You can choose to notify the users that they have a new file via email by checking the box or leave this unchecked.
When happy, click Confirm (Or Confirm & Notify if you ticked the notify box).