Wakefield Council

If you were asked what the town of Wakefield conjures up in your mind, it would probably run along the lines of a Northern town, famous for its love of rugby league. You wouldn’t necessarily think of it as a forward thinking community that’s paving the way for UK local government agencies with its online initiative. Yet this is exactly what Wakefield Metropolitan District Council (WMDC) is doing.

In 2002, the council realised that to keep up with the needs of both its citizens and staff, it would need to change its numerous, well-established and popular websites. It needed to ensure consistent appearance and quality, while allowing council employees to administer the sites to meet the e-Government initiative and give citizens easy access to the information they want and need.

Having looked at its particular requirements, the council concluded that the project should be split into two distinct areas. First, it wanted to develop the site from the community viewpoint, making it the first port of call for residents looking for local information online.

Second, it realised it needed to develop what it refers to as the ‘corporate’ angle of the site. The idea was to create pages that include information for staff and other interested parties pertaining to business-focused issues, such as online job applications, the council’s mission statement and ministerial listings and information.

What makes WMDC’s approach unique is that, once it had outlined these requirements (and prior to starting work on the project), Wakefield spent an initial six months trawling the web, compiling a list of features and functions from other public sector sites that it wanted to include on its own. The aim was to ensure that it had all the requisite elements to deliver a best-of-breed site that would take them well beyond the 2005 e-government deadline. It then turned to Parity, the IT services specialist, to help it achieve this.

Mick O'Malley, technical manager at WMDC said,

A community focus
One of the main aims for the community aspect of the site is to enable visitors to search more easily for the information they are interested in. This can range from refuse collection through to weather reports, or details about local attractions. Wakefield was finding that while it was receiving a lot of hits to the site, the number of drop-outs was considerable. This was because the number of different pages was making it unwieldy and difficult to navigate.

To remedy this, it called on the help of Parity to implement a solution that allows visitors to search using questions as well as single words. It implemented a Windows 2000 advanced server operating system and Mondo soft search engine software. Now, users can find details of what they are looking for at the click of a mouse.

In addition, the council realised it needed to ensure that all members of the community would benefit from the site. This meant that disabled visitors, such as visually impaired people, would need to be able to use the resource. It therefore developed its pages so users can change the colour scheme, font size and background according to their needs.

Harry Mason who is blind summed up the site as,

David Stevens stated,

Visitors to the site can also personalise it and ‘ask’ it to remember them.

O'Malley continued,

Another driver behind the redesign was tourism. While the town was generating a large amount of revenue from visitors to the area it wanted to grow this. By redeveloping the site and including details on local attractions, sporting events and local accommodation, for example, people from outside the region that are interested in making a trip to Wakefield can find out what the town has to offer, from the comfort of their own home.

O'Malley concluded,

The corporate angle
In developing the site for the citizen, Wakefield needed to ensure it was possible for staff to keep the community’s online presence up-to-date and relevant.

A new content management solution, based on Microsoft Content Management Server (MSCMS), SQL 2000 and IIS Server is enabling council officers to update details on the Internet, which saves the team time and allows it to focus on more technical and larger-scale projects. At the same time, however, the solution enables the Web team to maintain editorial control over the site. This means that no incorrect or unapproved community data will be pasted online.

In addition, WMDC decided to create a portal to meet the communications needs of staff internally. The look and feel of this was designed to give the whole area of the site a more corporate feel and reflect the local authority’s view of itself as a business. By consolidating the existing internal intranet sites into a single information intranet, WMDC has provided its employees with a more comprehensive information portal for all aspects of council information.

Now, staff can use the portal to find details such as the council’s mission statement, as well as information on job vacancies and ministerial contacts.
The disability-friendly area of the site is also proving to be a benefit from a ‘corporate’ point of view. Wakefield has visually impaired staff internally, so this tool is helping ease the working day of its employees.

Future developments
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council realises that establishing a strong brand for itself online and ensuring that citizens are able to use the web as a community tool is key for the future of the town and its residents. Because of this, it is planning on continuing these developments beyond 2005, when the e-government initiative reaches its conclusion.

Heather Moore, managing director at Parity said,