Mandatory is a per-question setting in the same standard edit screen as the answer threshold. It marks a specific question as one that must always be answered before its standard can be rated, no matter what else has already been answered.
⚠️ Important: Mandatory is off by default for every question, existing and new. Nothing changes until you switch it on for a specific question.
What mandatory does
Scenario | Outcome |
A mandatory question is rated, or marked Not Applicable | The requirement is satisfied |
A mandatory question is left blank | The standard can't be rated and the assessment can't be submitted |
The standard's answer threshold has already been met by other questions | Mandatory questions still must be answered |
How to mark a question as mandatory
Open the standard's edit screen
Go to Quality Assurance, then Question Templates.
Open the template and click into the standard.
Switch on Mandatory
Find the question in the list.
Switch on Mandatory next to it.
Click Save changes.
📌 Note: good candidates are questions you never want skipped, such as safeguarding checks.
What happens at submission
If a mandatory question is still outstanding, submission is blocked rather than just flagged. The Submit Assessment button stays disabled and an error message shows how many mandatory questions still need attention. Providers completing a self-assessment in Provider Gateway see the same block.
⚠️ Important: marking a question Not Applicable satisfies the mandatory requirement, the same as giving it a rating.
Good and poor practice
Good practice
Reserve Mandatory for questions where a missing answer is a genuine risk, not every question in a standard.
Check the threshold on the same standard after adding mandatory questions, since it can't be set lower than the number of mandatory questions.
Use it consistently for the same type of question across templates if your organisation has a house rule about what must always be answered.
Poor practice
Marking most questions in a standard as mandatory, which defeats the purpose of having a threshold at all.
Assuming mandatory questions carried over from legacy PAMMS. They did not; set them fresh.
Expecting a warning rather than a hard block. Submission is genuinely prevented until the question is answered.
Summary
Mandatory questions guarantee that specific, high-priority questions are always answered before a standard can be rated and an assessment submitted, even once the standard's answer threshold has been met elsewhere. Set it from the same standard edit screen as the answer threshold.
See also: Set an answer threshold for a standard.