How the submission calendar works
NDTMS operates on a regular submission cycle, with defined windows during which providers submit their data for the period. OHID, formerly PHE, publishes the specific dates, and services are expected to submit accurate, validated data within each window.
Because official dates are set by OHID and can change from period to period, this guide deliberately does not quote specific dates. Instead it focuses on the thing you can control: a routine that means whatever the published deadline is, your service is ready ahead of it. Always confirm the current window through your regional NDTMS team or the official NDTMS source.
Why the deadline matters more than it looks
A late or failed NDTMS submission is not just an administrative slip. NDTMS data feeds the picture commissioners and OHID hold of your service — demand, waiting times, and outcomes. Missing a window or submitting data full of validation errors creates reputational risk with commissioners and, in some contracts, can affect payment.
The deadline is also unforgiving in a particular way: a submission that fails validation is not counted until it is corrected and resubmitted. Effectively, an invalid submission on deadline day is a missed one. That is why the goal is to be data-complete before the deadline, with time left to validate and fix.
Build backwards from the deadline
The services that never scramble at deadline do the same thing: they treat the official date as the end of a routine, not the start of one. Working backwards, that means an internal data-complete cut-off ahead of the official window, a validation pass in between, and only then submission.
- Official window — the OHID-published dates for the period.
- Internal cut-off — at least a week earlier, by which all records for the period must be complete.
- Validation pass — between the cut-off and the deadline, to catch and fix errors while staff are available.
- Submission — within the window, with the reference kept for your records.
What to clear before every submission
Most deadline problems trace back to records that were incomplete, not to the submission itself. Before each window, clear:
- Overdue start, review, and exit TOPs.
- Outstanding CIRs and SIRs, with SIRs linked to the correct intervention.
- Episode start and discharge dates reconciled against case records.
- Duplicate or mismatched client identifiers.
- Any records flagged by a trial validation run.
Making the routine self-sustaining
A submission routine that depends on one person's memory fails the moment that person is on leave. It becomes reliable when the system shows what is due and outstanding at any point in the cycle, so the work is spread across the period rather than compressed into the final week.
GreenShoots surfaces due and overdue TOPs, CIRs, and SIRs against live records and validates the dataset against the current specification before export — so being ready for the deadline becomes a by-product of routine record-keeping rather than a quarterly project. Your service still owns the clinical accuracy of its records; the timetable stops being a source of stress.