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Somerset Digital Channel Roadmap Q4 2026
This roadmap is for anyone who needs to understand future developments of the Somerset Digital Channel
The Somerset Council digital transformation offer comprises various product groups, each with distinct objectives.
This is not a list of every item. We will continue to update our plans and share what we have done, what we are currently working on, and what we will do next.
Here are the overall objectives for somerset.gov.uk in the first 0-3 months of 2026
Keep our website running well
Regularly check and update our information to make sure it is correct and easy to understand
Ensure our forms and transactions are working well, and are easy to find
Make our website better
Reduce old documents and convert 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 back-office CRM easier to update so that 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, and make sure this is updated online
Help improve the services that people need in Somerset
Information, advice and guidance
Helping people understand what the Somerset Council offers and how to use those services. Products include: our websites, online forms, and the information used by Customer Services.
The goals are to:
Keep 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.
Redesigned and decommissioned legacy information, such as revenues, benefits and licensing.
Reviewed and actioned over 1000 pieces of customer feedback and updated over 1800 web pages as part of service content maintenance and feedback
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Working on now
Developing and redesigning microsite content, including Wild Somerset (Natural Tourism)
Redesigning our customer content journeys to match devolved services
Supporting the co-production of content for our Somerset Local Offer
Redesigning and simplifying the Blue Badge Process
Improved the structure of the school admission and housing pages
Improving the information, advice and guidance of our bottom and top 100 services
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Exploring or working on next
Supporting the review and content redesign of our people services frontend
Content support for the development of a flooding microsite
Review our Ports, Harbours and Flooding section
Review content for our Climate and Sustainability section
Continuing with the alignment of content to reflect our changing services, such as revenues and benefits
Finding and navigating services
Helping 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 useful and relevant information about the services available to them
Signpost to other organisations and services outside the council
Improve the quality and access to our data
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, election notices, and Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs)
Created templates and tools to help with customer engagement on subsites, such as household support and Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs)
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Working on now
Further work to improve the accessibility of our digital channels
Continuing to move unstructured and inaccessible information, advice, guidance and data into better formats
Improving the user journeys of our top 100 services
Improving our Directory templates so the public and internal stakeholders find them easier and more accessible to navigate
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 via the search function and menus
Reviewing key user journeys in response to customer feedback, such as SEND Local Offer, report-it and waste
Transactional services
Help 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 without compromising the needs of those who do not have digital access
Make our transactional 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
Support the Revenues and Benefits team in the consolidation of their systems
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Working on now
Optimising transactions for our top 100 services
Redevelop the Blue Badge process in-house
Creating a single pipeline for the design, development and management of customer-facing transactions
Ongoing digitisation of non-electronic forms and transactions
Improving the accessibility of our transactions by updating any that do not meet WCAG guidelines
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Exploring or working on next
Continued consolidation and alignment of transactions
Developing or decommissioning transactions to reflect service alignment or devolution
Platform
Products that support 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 applied UI and UX design standards to ensure a consistently good user experience
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
Rebuilding our directory template
Updating our code frameworks to comply with WCAG 2.2 requirements
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Exploring or working on next
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 initiatives
Major transformation projects and the development of websites that aren’t part of the somerset.gov.uk site 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
