Chichester District Council - website re-design saves £10,000 with more accessible website

Delivery of efficiency savings, Shaw Trust accreditation and a SOCITM Top 20 website

CMS provides flexibility for development with no additional cost

Recently rated by the research company MORI as one of the top three places to live in the country, Chichester covers an area of over 300 square miles, has a population of just over 106,000, and is dominated by two 'Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty' – the South Downs and Chichester Harbour. Based on the census of 2001, the population of the area was 106,445, of which about 22% are under 19, with 55% between the ages of 19-64. 23% are 65 and over.

Chichester District Council communicates with its residents in a number of ways. Increasingly, Chichester is driving enquiries to its website. This is the quickest and often most efficient way for residents to find the information they need costing a fraction of that compared to fielding enquiries via contact centres.

In 2009, Chichester District Council took the opportunity to redesign its website. Following feedback from users, it was felt that the original site would benefit from a new look, and improvements in layout and content.

Re-design for efficiency

The site was originally built by GOSS Interactive on GOSS iCM (intelligent Content Management) in 2007. It is this technology which has provided the flexibility for the web team at Chichester to make these changes to the website, without any additional investment with GOSS.

Harvey Monaghan, Web & GIS Manager at Chichester District Council explains, "As well as having a great new look, the website is easier than ever to use, giving customers speedy access to information on a full range of local services, at any time of the day or night, seven days a week.

"The homepage now features improvements with links to news and job feeds, an online poll, a list of top tasks, and an in focus section to highlight new Council initiatives. The 'Find my nearest' tool is a property search facility allowing customers to find information on their locality including their local councillor, nearest school and nearest facilities. Meanwhile the 'News slider' is a BBC style feature with the ability to add up to 12 news items which the user can play or view."

The site was re-designed using the results of customer research and to ensure continuous improvement, the site includes a feedback form on every page - giving users the opportunity to share their opinions. As a result, the new site will constantly evolve to meet the needs of its customers. The revamped website went live in October 2009.

Website redesigns and developments, such as those made by Chichester District Council, traditionally require investment with third party agencies. However, in this case, GOSS iCM provides the flexibility to allow Chichester to make the changes in-house without additional investment. The Council has saved over £10,000 by undertaking the development work themselves, and they have been able to deliver a more comprehensive range of services via the web channel. Citizen self service online is a key to reducing calls to contact centres and saving money, with online self service 87 per cent more cost effective than delivering services via the telephone. It is for this reason that websites are seen as the key efficiency driver for local authorities.

Accessibility accreditation

Accessibility describes a person's ability to use a website. Individuals with disabilities face a number of obstacles when accessing the web. GOSS iCM comes with an accessibility validator tool that only allows pages with A, AA or AAA accessibility functionality to be published. To further improve the accessibility of the website, Chichester District Council has been working with Shaw Trust , a national charity that provides a range of services including a website accessibility accreditation.

Cam Nicholl, Sales & Service Development manager at Shaw Trust comments, "If the information on a site is not presented correctly, those with certain access requirements could have difficulty accessing, navigating or reading the content of your web page. It is particularly important that Local Authority sites get this right – and Chichester has."

Following a full audit, www.chichester.gov.uk was identified as having a high level of accessibility and has been awarded the Shaw Trust 'Accessible' rating. The website was tested by a team of experienced web auditors, all of whom are disabled individuals and users of adaptive technology.

Harvey Monaghan continues, "The Chichester website is constantly evolving – and GOSS iCM from GOSS interactive enables us to be dynamic, to continue to develop the site without the need to invest more money, giving us fantastic cost savings.

"We are proud to have been recognised by Shaw Trust – combined with the positive feedback we've had from residents using the news site, this is validation that the website is evolving in the right way."

In addition, Chichester District Council was recognised by SOCITM in March 2010 as one of the top 20 most developed council websites, in its report 'Better Connected 2010'. Chichester was commended for the latest developments in its useful, usable and used website and was identified as having only narrowly missed a four star rating.

Rob McCarthy, Managing Director at GOSS interactive adds, "Chichester has really made the most of their investment in GOSS iCM – they have combined their in-house skills with the flexibility of the CMS to create a new look and feel for the site. In addition, thanks in part to the strong accessibility features built into GOSS iCM, and Chichester's hard work, the website has been awarded Shaw Trust accreditation."