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Somerset Digital Channel Roadmap 2025/26
This roadmap is for anyone who needs to understand future developments of the Somerset Digital Channel
Here are the overall objectives for somerset.gov.uk in 2025/26.
Keep our website running well
Regularly check and update our information to make sure it is correct and easy to understand
We want everyone to quickly and easily find the information they need and do what they need to do, whenever they visit our site
Make our website better
Reducing the old documents and converting them into a more accessible format
Improve the advice and help we give online
Make it easier to use our website and find important pages
Work more efficiently
Make our CRM easier to update, so changes can happen faster
Use the same patterns and components across the site to save time
Use AI and automation to assist us with content, forms, and building new features
Support important projects
Help our services align
Help improve services for people in Somerset
Support changes in how our services are managed and delivered
The Somerset Council digital offer comprises various product groups, each with distinct objectives.
This is not an exhaustive list of every item. We will keep updating our plans and sharing what we have done, what we are working on now, and what we will do next.
Information, advice and guidance
This group of products helps people understand what the Somerset Council offers and how to use those services. It includes our websites, online forms, and the information used by Customer Services.
The goals are to:
Keep all current information, advice and guidance up to date
Improve the most important areas of existing content
Remove anything that’s no longer useful
Help update and improve content for services that are changing
These are the specific things we are working on.
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Recently completed
Improved readability, spelling, grammar and fixed broken links on over 1900 pages. Our Silktide content score has risen from 72% to 86% since January 2024. This score reflects the quality of content for this website, including writing, accessibility, and SEO as rated by Silktide. Content accessibility is currently 95%
Developed and designed content for additional microsites and subsites, including Care and Support for Adults and Smokefree Somerset.
Redesigning and decommissioning legacy information, such as ‘Self-build’ and licensing.
Reviewed and actioned over 1000 pieces of customer feedback and updated over 1700 web pages as part of service content maintenance and feedback
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Working on now
Developing and redesigning microsite content, including SCIL and HDRC – Health Determinant Research Collaboration
Redesigning our customer content journeys to match devolved services
Supporting the co-production of content for our Somerset Local Offer
Improving the information, advice and guidance of our top 100 services
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Exploring or working on next
Supporting the review and content redesign of our people services frontend
Supporting our finance colleagues with Fees and Charges updates
Improve the structure of the school admission guide pages
Continuing with the alignment of content to reflect our changing services, such as Housing Services and Planning
Accessing services
This group of products helps people find and use services or information. It includes tools like service finders, directories, contact options, and ways to access places like libraries and car parks.
The goals are to:
Give people more useful and relevant information about the services they can use
Signpost to other organisations and services outside the council
Improve the quality of data on somerset.gov.uk and partner websites
These are the specific things we are working on:
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Recently completed
Built additional directories to let customers access more of our data or signpost to external services, including recent licence applications, warm spaces, and film locations.
Completed several content and developer accessibility fixes taking our average WCAG 2.1 accessibility score from 81% in September to 99% in January 2025
Created templates and tools to help with customer engagement on subsites, such as Jobs and Careers and Care and Support for Adults
Payment forms have been migrated from legacy systems to our new payment solution
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Working on now
Further work to improve the accessibility of our digital channels
Continuing moving unstructured and inaccessible information, advice, guidance and data into better formats
Improving the user journeys of our top 100 services
Developing or decommissioning user journeys to reflect service alignment or devolution
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Exploring or working on next
Improving how customers navigate somerset.gov.uk
Improving our Directory templates so the public and internal stakeholders find them easier and more accessible to navigate
Review of Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO’s) and removal of old records
Update the Alternative Provision directory to a digital directory and align with the new vetting process
Reviewing key user journeys in response to customer feedback, such as SEND Local Offer, report-it and waste
Transactional services
This group of services helps users do things like report an issue, apply for something, make a payment, or book something.
The goals for these products are to:
Keep our digital services running smoothly
Offer more services online
Make our digital services easier to use, accessible, and up to standard
Phase out old systems by rebuilding or redesigning services to fit our current platforms
These are the specific things we are working on:
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Recently completed
Created a consistent user experience in more than 200 transactions across our legacy systems
Supported the design of our ePayment provider consolidation project
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Working on now
Optimising transactions for our top 100 services
Ongoing digitisation of non-electronic forms and transactions
Improving the accessibility of our transactions by updating any that do not meet WCAG guidelines
Creating a directory to hold essential information about our digital services for our service and internal customers
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Exploring or working on next
Continued consolidation and alignment of transactions
Creating a single pipeline for the design, development and management of customer-facing transactions
Developing or decommissioning transactions to reflect service alignment or devolution
Platform
This group of products supports key parts of the Somerset Digital Channel, including how we publish content, how users find and use services, and how they move around our websites. It covers things like our content management system, online services, navigation design, and search tools.
The goals for these products are to:
Make the Somerset Digital Channel easier to manage and reuse (e.g. content system, design patterns, components) so future updates are quicker and more efficient
Cut down on outdated systems by removing or merging them
Look into modern technologies that don’t rely on specialist support for older systems
These are the specific things we are working on:
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Recently completed
Created and continuously applying UI and UX design standards to ensure consistently good user experience
Decommissioned legacy microsites such as Somerset Independence Plus and transferred to a subsite on core to reduce our technical debt
Simplified and refactored the code of our core and partner (microsite) websites to improve the efficiency and performance
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Working on now
Conducting proof-of-concept work to build a closer relationship between our customer frontend and our back office systems using Power Automate and other Microsoft tools
Updating our code frameworks to comply with WCAG 2.2 requirements
Decommissioning legacy page builder components
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Exploring or working on next
Rebuilding our directory template
Continuously modernising our website technologies and frameworks (for example GOV.UK Frontend)
Reviewing the implementation of a booking platform
Working with our GIS Team to optimise the customer-facing user experience of our maps and geolocation data
Other websites and transformation initiatives
This group of products supports major transformation projects and the development of websites that aren’t part of somerset.gov.uk but are still part of our wider digital presence. These include campaign sites, services aimed at changing behaviour, and tools designed to reach people who are harder to engage.
The goals for these products are to:
Design and build better digital experiences for transformation programmes
Cut down on outdated systems and reduce long-term costs by removing parts of our digital channel that are no longer needed
Save money by reducing the number of websites built and hosted externally
Create more consistent user journeys across our digital services to make things easier to find and use
These are the specific things we are working on:
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Recently completed
Rebuilt microsites to reduce technical debt and improve accessibility, including Smokefree Somerset and Jobs in Somerset (previously known as DAS Jobs).
Decommissioned legacy microsites, integrating them into somerset.gov.uk. Including Somerset Independence Plus and Smokefree Life
Supported the communications team in creating a subsite for their Become a Childminder campaign
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Working on now
Rebuilding the SCIL microsites for improved functionality and user experience
Creating a new grant-funded microsite for Health Determinate Research Collaboration Somerset
Redesigning the user experience of our subsites and microsites
Designing, developing or decommissioning digital services in response to service alignment and devolution
Continuing to co-produce our Local Offer with the Somerset Parent Carer Forum and the SEND Service
Adjust the layout of Local Offer menus to streamline customer entry points by age range AND subject matter and change the menu and page titles so they are easier to understand by non-experts
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Exploring or working on next
Supporting services generating income, such as Visit Somerset
Support the Communication team with the Working in Social Care recruitment campaign
Rebuilding or retiring more of our legacy web estate
Supporting the Connect Somerset Community Hubs project
