Socitm have recently reported on their 17^th survey of local authority websites, Better Connected 2015, and the picture still isn’t great. Although rising expectations are said to be driving improvement, there are still significant gaps in performance. The key highlights from the report illustrate this:

•    Slow and intermittent progress in improving their websites in the past year.
•    Advances in accessibility – 43% providing satisfactory features for the disabled.
•    Increases in number of responsive sites – increasing to nearly 50% (easy reading and navigation).
•    8% now reach the 4 star ranking.
•    Public satisfaction fell by 30%.
•    The gap has narrowed by over 9%, between satisfied and dissatisfied.
•    Slow progress in mobile performance experience – only 1/3 passing the assessment, especially customer journeys for top tasks.
•    Only 37% of councils passed the top tasks standard, a slight improvement on last year.
•    Nearly 50% of new sites launched didn’t improve the 1 or 2 star ranking.

Martin Greenwood (Socitm’s Insight Programme Manager) said shortcomings are due to councils having limited resources and not taking the right approach to designing websites. He highlights key barriers to improvements:

•    Lack of resources and skills.
•    The need to simplify.
•    Focus on mobile, getting this right helps with the website as a whole.
•    Addressing what makes the website poor, such as standards, digital governance, and management of content, before making the same mistakes.
•    Not having strong editorial control, to ensure consistency.
•    Not having a national structure for budgets, third party software and information sharing.

So what is the right approach? Information on how individual councils perform is available in the full report, but 34 councils achieve the maximum 4 star. In the past year, there has been a significant increase in the number of councils that have implemented a responsive site, up from 107 (26%) to 198 (49%). Many of the issues highlighted are the same for all websites, and ownership, clarity of purpose, clear user journeys are key to all websites. So how can all websites be improved?

•    Have clear editorial processes and accountability.
•    Really focus on the customer journey and remove any distraction.
•    Make the information architecture clear and consistent, prioritise top tasks.
•    Design for mobile devices first.
•    Keep content relevant.
•    Make sure all forms have context, such as the process or service which can be expected.

and specifically for local authorities Socitm highlights:

•    Ensure local democracy content is engaging.
•    Focus on getting social care content right.

Should local authority websites be a priority in today’s efficiency saving climate? Ipsos Mori shows that 85% of the adult population now use the internet, while Ofcom found that half of internet users use government websites, including local authority ones, and this is growing rapidly. With 45.3m visits each month to council websites already, this will continue to grow, but will sites be resilient enough to cope? 30% of visits end in failure, even the best performing sites have 15% failures, and most failures lead to other modes of contact, such as calls to already busy call centres. DCLG found that 65% of local authorities said they had made savings as a result of implementing digital services, with an average saving of £1.4m, and also the added value of greater efficiency and transparency. The digital trends which are emerging across the public sector are driven by technological solutions to create efficiencies, as well as a better use experience, for a more digitally aware customer. Part of the solution to this efficiency is strategic use of content, simplified and used across the whole organisation. Technology will be used more and more in service delivery, better use of call centre information and feedback, and improved searching functions for information. The results of Better Connected, although promising, have some way to go. Although failure to meet, what are essentially customer service standards, may not be having a direct monetary impact currently, it will in the future if local authorities do not keep pace with the principles of user-centred design. Idox agrees with the report’s findings, especially that user-centred design is key to online services. As a company we are taking this forward within our business strategy. We have found that there is a an eagerness to develop and improve web experience, but with constraints on financial budgets, public sector clients are prioritising the improvements which are absolutely necessary. The Idox Information Service can give you access to a wealth of further information on digital service delivery, to find out more on how to become a member, contact us. An example of other resources we can offer to meet the challenge facing the public sector: Better Connected 2015 (Press Release) Local Digital Today Digital Trends in the public sector Digitally positive: an essay collection Technology Manifesto Internet Citizens 2013: use of citizen-related online content and services