Process for updating SEND content

The process for making updates to our SEND Local Offer web content.

How to create good web content

We must write our web pages in a style that's easy for people to read and understand. By law, everything we publish on our websites must be accessible.

Content standard

We follow the LocalGov Digital content standard. This sets out 5 rules that content should meet before it goes online:

Is it easy to read and understand?

People skim read web content. We need to get to the point, use plain language, avoid jargon and break content up with subheadings.

Is it easy to find?

Visitors should be able to find the content using search words that make sense to them.

Does it answer a question that visitors are asking?

Think about the audience your content is for and what they want to know.

Make sure it goes on the relevant website. For example:

• Norfolk County Council - for:
  • Parents or carers
  • Children and young people
  • Health, social care, or education professionals
• Schools - for education professionals
• Communitydirectory.norfolk.gov.uk - listings of services, events and groups

Is it original?

If the content already exists elsewhere on the web, we should link to it rather than duplicate it. We must also make sure we have the rights to use any images. Don't save images from search engines for use in council pages.

Are images necessary and helpful?

Always ask if an image is necessary. What does it add to the page? Does it help the customer? If we do need to include an image, it should be of good quality (and we must have the rights to use it).

Accessibility

You must make sure anything you create for our websites is accessible. Our step-by-step guide explains how to create accessible online content.

Always consider a web page over a document like a PDF. Around 50% of our web page views are on mobile. Web pages are more accessible on mobile than documents. We've put together some reasons why web content is better as a web page.

How to make updates to SEND content

The SEND Local Offer content is regularly reviewed. The process for updating content is different for small and complex changes.

Small updates

Small web updates include updating spelling errors, broken links, a line of text, or an existing document.

You should send small web updates to send@norfolk.gov.uk. The SEND team will review updates and if they agree, they'll submit a web change request to our web team. The web team will check the update meets our web standards before publishing it.

The SEND team will keep a record of changes made to SEND content.

Complex updates

Complex web updates include adding new web pages, sections, or large documents (like a brochure PDF).  It could also be changing large amounts of text.

Complex updates have to go through a longer process, often involving more people. For example:

• A content designer: skilled in writing clear content that meets our web style and user needs
• Subject matter expert: a topic expert who makes sure content is factually correct
• User advocate: ensures content meets user needs
• SEND team: ensures content meets SEND policy requirements and our organisation's needs

The process for making complex updates is:

Content planning meeting

The SEND team and digital team meet quarterly to highlight potential upcoming projects. The digital team prioritise, schedule and plan any agreed work requests.

Identify user needs

We'll identify user needs to check the request is something users require. User research could include:

• User interviews
• Website feedback
• Strong anecdotal evidence from user advocates

Content outline meeting

A content designer, user advocate and SEND team member meet to review the identified user need(s). The aim of the meeting is to discuss how the new content will fulfil user needs.

By the end of the meeting, the content designer needs a bulleted list of what the content must include. They'll use this to write a first draft.

Content designer writes a first draft

The content designer writes a first draft in Word online.

Content review meeting

The content designer, subject matter expert, user advocate and SEND team member discuss the first draft.

Content designer writes a second draft

The content designer writes a second draft based on feedback from the review meeting.

User testing

Two user testers (who represent the target audience) review the second draft. Each user test session needs the content designer, SEND team member and any other required stakeholders. Someone should be responsible for noting any successes or issues.

Content designer writes final draft

The content designer writes the final draft based on feedback from the user testing.

Final review meeting

The content designer, subject matter expert and a user representative check content quality. This should be for small changes like typos. This review meeting is not for major changes.

An independent digital team member reviews content

The content designer asks an independent digital team member to review the content.

Digital team publish content

The digital team publish the content on our website.

Monitor content

The digital team and SEND team monitor content after it's published. They'll monitor analytics and website feedback periodically to inform changes.

If you need to make small updates, follow the small change process above.

Review content at set intervals

The digital team and SEND team review content at certain points. They'll decide what content to keep, update or delete.