diff --git a/.github/dependabot.yml b/.github/dependabot.yml
index 3b9065f..bc9a294 100644
--- a/.github/dependabot.yml
+++ b/.github/dependabot.yml
@@ -5,6 +5,16 @@
 
 version: 2
 updates:
+
+  - package-ecosystem: "github-actions"
+    directory: "/"
+    open-pull-requests-limit: 2
+    schedule:
+      interval: "monthly"
+    commit-message:
+      prefix: "github actions "
+      include: scope
+
   - package-ecosystem: "pip"
     directory: "/" # Location of package manifests
     schedule:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/merge-release.yml b/.github/workflows/merge-release.yml
index b6cbb56..1e2c7cd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/merge-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/merge-release.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-name: merge-release
+name: create-release
 on:
   push:
     branches:
@@ -6,84 +6,9 @@ on:
 
 jobs:
 
-  test-publish:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    if: github.repository == 'NHSDigital/mesh-client' && github.actor != 'dependabot[bot]'
-    steps:
-      - name: checkout
-        uses: actions/checkout@v3
-        with:
-          fetch-depth: 0
-
-      - name: print branch info
-        run: |
-          git branch
-          echo "GITHUB_HEAD_REF=${GITHUB_HEAD_REF}"
-          echo "GITHUB_BASE_REF=${GITHUB_BASE_REF}"
-          git log --oneline -n 10
-
-      - name: clean
-        run: |
-          git clean -fdx
-          find . -type f | xargs chmod g+w
-
-      - name: merge into base_branch
-        if: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' }}
-        run: |
-          echo base branch "${{ github.base_ref }}"
-          echo pr branch "${{ github.head_ref }}"
-          git checkout "${{ github.base_ref }}"
-          git checkout -b "merging-${{ github.event.number }}"
-          git merge --ff-only "${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}"
-
-      - name: setup python
-        uses: actions/setup-python@v3
-        with:
-          python-version: "3.8"
-
-      - name: setup poetry
-        uses: abatilo/actions-poetry@v2
-        with:
-          poetry-version: 1.5.1
-
-      - name: add poetry plugins
-        run: |
-          poetry self add "poetry-dynamic-versioning[plugin]"
-
-      - name: build dist
-        run: |
-          RELEASE_VERSION="$(poetry version patch | rev | cut -d' ' -f1 | rev)"
-          echo "${RELEASE_VERSION}"
-          echo "RELEASE_VERSION=${RELEASE_VERSION}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          if [[ "${RELEASE_VERSION}" == "0.0.0" ]]; then
-            echo "${RELEASE_VERSION} = 0.0.0"
-            exit 1
-          fi
-          git tag "${RELEASE_VERSION}"
-          RELEASE_VERSION="${RELEASE_VERSION}" make dist
-          ls -l dist
-
-      - name: test publish
-        uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1
-        with:
-          password: ${{ secrets.TEST_PYPI_TOKEN }}
-          repository-url: https://test.pypi.org/legacy/
-
-      - name: install and test
-        run: |
-          python3 -m pip install requests 
-          python3 -m pip install --index-url https://test.pypi.org/simple/ "mesh-client==${RELEASE_VERSION}"
-          INSTALLED_VERSION="$(python3 -c 'import mesh_client; print(mesh_client.__version__)')"
-          if [[ "${INSTALLED_VERSION}" != "${RELEASE_VERSION}" ]]; then
-            echo "${INSTALLED_VERSION} != ${RELEASE_VERSION}"
-            exit 1
-          fi
-
   release:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     if: github.repository == 'NHSDigital/mesh-client' && github.actor != 'dependabot[bot]'
-    needs:
-      - test-publish
     steps:
       - name: checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v3
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pull-request.yml b/.github/workflows/pull-request.yml
index 0b89022..9f7cbb3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pull-request.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pull-request.yml
@@ -259,3 +259,81 @@ jobs:
           version="v$(poetry version patch | rev | cut -d' ' -f1 | rev)"
           echo "RELEASE_VERSION=$version" >> $GITHUB_ENV
           echo "${version}"
+
+
+  publish:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    if: github.repository == 'NHSDigital/mesh-client' && github.actor != 'dependabot[bot]'
+    needs:
+      - coverage
+      - lint
+      - tox
+    steps:
+      - name: checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: print branch info
+        run: |
+          git branch
+          echo "GITHUB_HEAD_REF=${GITHUB_HEAD_REF}"
+          echo "GITHUB_BASE_REF=${GITHUB_BASE_REF}"
+          git log --oneline -n 10
+
+      - name: clean
+        run: |
+          git clean -fdx
+          find . -type f | xargs chmod g+w
+
+      - name: merge into base_branch
+        if: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' }}
+        run: |
+          echo base branch "${{ github.base_ref }}"
+          echo pr branch "${{ github.head_ref }}"
+          git checkout "${{ github.base_ref }}"
+          git checkout -b "merging-${{ github.event.number }}"
+          git merge --ff-only "${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}"
+
+      - name: setup python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v3
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.8"
+
+      - name: setup poetry
+        uses: abatilo/actions-poetry@v2
+        with:
+          poetry-version: 1.5.1
+
+      - name: add poetry plugins
+        run: |
+          poetry self add "poetry-dynamic-versioning[plugin]"
+
+      - name: build dist
+        run: |
+          RELEASE_VERSION="$(poetry version prepatch | rev | cut -d' ' -f1 | rev  | sed -E 's/0+$//' )$(date '+%Y%m%d%H%M%S')"
+          echo "${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+          echo "RELEASE_VERSION=${RELEASE_VERSION}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          if [[ "${RELEASE_VERSION}" == "0.0.0" ]]; then
+            echo "${RELEASE_VERSION} = 0.0.0"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          RELEASE_VERSION="${RELEASE_VERSION}" make dist
+          ls -l dist
+
+      - name: test publish
+        uses: pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish@release/v1
+        with:
+          password: ${{ secrets.TEST_PYPI_TOKEN }}
+          repository-url: https://test.pypi.org/legacy/
+
+      - name: install and test
+        run: |
+          poetry export -f requirements.txt -o requirements.txt
+          python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
+          python3 -m pip install --index-url https://test.pypi.org/simple/ "mesh-client==${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+          INSTALLED_VERSION="$(python3 -c 'import mesh_client; print(mesh_client.__version__)')"
+          if [[ "${INSTALLED_VERSION}" != "${RELEASE_VERSION}" ]]; then
+            echo "${INSTALLED_VERSION} != ${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+            exit 1
+          fi
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/poetry.lock b/poetry.lock
index 8a438a4..2284f10 100644
--- a/poetry.lock
+++ b/poetry.lock
@@ -1199,4 +1199,4 @@ testing = ["big-O", "flake8 (<5)", "jaraco.functools", "jaraco.itertools", "more
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.0"
 python-versions = ">=3.7"
-content-hash = "da609647213be41340739c4acba3b89a5e86ec60f5ded343d16e9f1061087bc5"
+content-hash = "96630b5009c1a33c6a70455e4ef69b12f42fbe9f63b3a219959f91d35784ff9c"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 090a2f5..9544a04 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ classifiers = [
 # core dependencies
 python = ">=3.7"
 requests = ">=2.26.0"
+urllib3 = ">=2.0.2"
 
 
 [tool.poetry.group.dev.dependencies]
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ab20eca..a10dd1c 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 from os.path import dirname, join
 
 import toml  # type: ignore[import]
-from setuptools import setup  # type: ignore[import]
+from setuptools import setup, sic  # type: ignore[import]
 
 with open(join(dirname(__file__), "pyproject.toml")) as f:
     pyproject = toml.loads(f.read())
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name=poetry_cfg["name"],
-    version=os.environ.get("RELEASE_VERSION", poetry_cfg["version"]),
+    version=sic(os.environ.get("RELEASE_VERSION", poetry_cfg["version"])),
     description=poetry_cfg["description"],
     url=poetry_cfg["repository"],
     long_description=long_description,