Website redevelopment

Report reference number:: 036-24
Classification:: Not protectively marked
Title of report:: Website Redevelopment
Area of county / stakeholders affected:: Countywide
Report by:: Darren Horsman
Date of report:: 13/07/2023
Enquiries to:: Darren Horsman

1. Purpose of Report

The PFCC Website is around ten years old, is based on old technology and is no longer fit for purpose. This decision report sets out the options on the redevelopment of the website and provides a recommendation to move the current site onto a new more modern platform.

2. Recommendations

The commissioner agrees to contract with for the redevelopment of the PFCC website at a cost of
The commissioner agrees to contract with to provide ongoing website support and development for the PFCC Website, Restorative Justice Website and Violence and Vulnerability site for two years at a cost of .

3. Background to the Proposal

The PFCC website is an essential public facing platform aside from social media to reach a wide range of audiences and stakeholders. The website delivers a range of important information from updates and information about the PFCC’s work, publishes the office’s transparency information and provides access to the PFCC’s decision-making and scrutiny processes.
Refreshing the website is overdue. The platform the website is based on is out of data and struggles to deal with the range of devices that people use to access it.
Anything new that requires further fixes or work from the developer comes at a cost, adds complexity and reduces the user experience. In addition to this, customisations are restrictive which limits the accessibility of the material published and the amount of interactive and engaging content that can be shared. The current website is only able to meet our basic accessibility needs (As set out in the Public Sector
Accessibility Guidelines) and as such limits the amount of people who can easily engage with the site and the engagement we can have with the community.
The website was developed in 2014-15 and has been adapted and restructured twice since. It has however, remained on the same platform. There is now an opportunity to provide a more modern, accessible website for the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex that delivers an improved user experience and improved accessibility features. This will allow us to reach a much higher level of
accessibility and benefit from improvements in technology to make the site easier to access on a range of devices, improve the functionality and search options. It also gives us the opportunity to reconsider and improve the way decisions and information from our scrutiny programme is published to make this information easier to access.
By investing in the redevelopment of the website members of the public and our partners/stakeholders will be able to access the website on any device, have accessibility features available to them and be able to locate information more easily.
The PFCC’s Communications and Engagement Team will have access to an improved Content Management System (CMS) and as a result will be able to access, maintain and update the website more easily and provide a more consistent look and feel. Other team members including Scrutiny Officers and Governance Officers who upload a number of documents weekly will also benefit from an improved CMS.

4. Proposal and Associated Benefits

It is proposed that the PFCC engages to redevelop the PFCC website, improving the accessibility of the site and benefiting from a more modern and dynamic CMS platform. Further details are set out in the option analysis below.
Engagement with the public and transparency of decision making is fundamental to public confidence in policing and fire and rescue services. By providing the information the public need to understand what decisions are being made, why and with what impact, we are building an open and trusting dialogue that fosters trust in the democratic process and our emergency services. This decision will provide a better platform for the PFCC to share information, promote transparency and engage with the public. This underpins the success of the work of the PFCC as set out in the Fire and Rescue Plan and Police and Crime Plan.
The redevelopment of the site will be done over a six-month period and is scheduled to align to the publication of the new Police and Crime Plan and Fire and Rescue Plan. The initial technical work will take between 6-8 weeks with further support provided as we develop and refresh content. Aligning this with the development of both new Plan will allow the content to support the launch of these Plans and create
a strong basis for our ongoing dialogue with the public.

5. Options Analysis

Following several conversations with partners across the county, three providers were approached to provide quotes. Each provider presented their proposals, engaged constructively with the Communications and Engagement Team and tailored their proposals for our required needs.
(Recommended Option)
Currently host West Midlands PCC and West Mercia PCC and various NHS and commercial sites.
https://www.westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk/

is our current website partner.
They provide a good level of service at a competitive cost.
They would utilise a headless CMS platform which can be transferred to other
providers.
The website build-Web UX and design would be covered within our marketing
retainer under our existing support arrangement.
Web development of page templates
Web development of page builder elements
Mobile responsivity across devices – mobile and tablet
Accessible to WCAG 2.1 AAA standard
Testing
o Site-wide browser and device testing
o Bug fixing of browser and device testing
Admins: Going live, IT, admin and set-up
CMS training & user guide production
They would also support the transfer of content to the new site.
Cost (plus support and development costs for 24 months for three
sites. PFCC site share 50% so over two years)
Total cost over two years

Currently hosts ECFRS, West Yorkshire Police, West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Home Office and councils. Offers more engagement around design and implementation of website. Mixed reviews from those who use this platform.

Mid-range cost wise
Carry out stakeholder engagement sessions to understand design process
Use Personas, a UX tool that allows understanding of target audience and
design decisions.
Information Architecture that provides operational map to how the website
functions for users
Uses wireframing to design a website service at the structural level
Accessible to WCAG 2.1 AAA standard
Testing and Quality Assurance
Uses Drupal which isn’t as easy to move to a new supplier once built.
SLA – 7 days a week for severe issues
Support desk and account management
Upskilling of clients
Cost est (plus per month + any development costs)
Total cost over two years: + any additional development costs
Works with the Single Online Home roll out, already works with several PCCs and
Police Forces. Offers a high calibre website design and support throughout and
substantial SLA afterwards. No support for transfer and a significant proportion of the
cost is to get the Single Online Home License.
Upper range cost wise, high quality, large team with over 20 years-experience
Benefits on using the SOH platform:
Consistent user experience for people visiting police sites.
Good quality design and provides a modern mobile-first user experience.
Accessible: Audited to adhere to W3C WCAG 2.1 AA standards (Lower than
other two options)
Supported 24/7/365: Measured against defined KPIs and SLA.
Robust and secure: Cloudflare mitigates against cyber attacks.
Platform availability: High availability, uptime target of 99.99%.
Futureproofed: Evergreen environment designed to accommodate future
updates and technology advancements.
Content delivery and performance: Uses Cloudflare CDN to
maximise the speed of site.
Onboarding and training: Supporting the transition to SOH – including content
development and end user training
Workshops to understand audience and website journey with stakeholders
Content audit
Accessibility Review
No support for the transfer of material which could result in 1 fte for four to six
months needing to focus on information transfer
No ability to move away from the platform without rebuilding site.
Cost (plus per month + any development costs)
Total cost over two years: £ + any additional development costs + content
transfer costs estimated at £

6. Consultation and Analysis

In developing this proposal, we have spoken to a number of suppliers, staff internal to the office to understand their needs and a range of external organisation to research what suppliers are in the market and their reputations.

7. Strategic Links

Public accountability and transparency are both statutorily required and fundamental to the success of the Police and Crime Plan and Fire and Rescue Plan. This proposal supports the effective delivery of those plans.

8.Police Operational Implications

There are no operational policing implications however the site will be used to publish the police’s statements of accounts and a variety of other transparency documents.

9. Financial implications

The cost of the redevelopment of the website () will come out of the PFCC Communication and Engagement budget for 2023-24 or the carry forward. This is already known and will be charged to the budget.
The cost of the ongoing support and development is part of a broader package of support that covers the PFCC’s website, their Restorative Justice website and the Violence and Vulnerability website. The cost of the support including hosting of the sites, technical support and allocated development costs throughout the year.
This package costs £ over two years. The division of these costs will follow what we have agreed over the previous two years. 50% will be funded from the PFCC’s Communication and Engagement budget, 25% from the PFCC’s Restorative
Justice budget and 25% from the Violence and Vulnerability budget. These costs will come out of these budgets during the 2024-25 financial year and the 2025-26 financial year. These costs are known and will be charged to these budgets.

10. Legal implications

The redevelopment of the PFCC’s website and the ongoing support and development of all three sites will be delivered under Formation Media’s standard Terms and Conditions. These will be reviewed by the Deputy Monitoring Officer and Senior Information Risk Owner and recorded in our local contract register.

11. Staffing Implications

Implications of these changes will require staff support and this has been factored into the work plan for the Communications and Engagement Team and is identified in the PFCC’s office work plan. In the medium term the decision will help staff make a bigger impact in less time by improving the platforms available to engage with the public.
During the six-month development stage the PFCC’s Communication and Engagement Manager and Communication and Engagement Officer will work with the wider team to review and refresh content. As an estimate this will take around one working day per week for the six-month period with a commitment of three days a week for the month leading up to and immediately after go live, so a commitment
of around 37 working days. It is anticipated that there will be a smaller impact on the wider team as they get used to using the new site and meeting the required level of quality for published material.

12. Equality and Diversity implications

This decision will have a direct positive impact on equality and diversity by ensuring the websites operate optimally so it can be used by as many people as possible in the way that adequately meets their needs.
The redevelopment of the PFCC website will move us from an AA to just under a AAA rating for accessibility with the ability, should we choose to take it, to reach a AAA rating in the future.

13. Risks and Mitigations

When choosing an organisation to help redevelop a website there is always a risk around the ongoing viability of that company and the level and quality of their delivery. As Formation Media are a known partner who have worked with us and several other PCCs before we can be confident that they will deliver to a good standard.
The choice of Formation Media also means we will be using a headless CMS system which can be supported by several organisations rather than a CMS that is tied to a single supplier. This reduces the impact of a provider failing would have.

14.Governance Boards

This decision report was discussed by the PFCC’s Senior Management Team meeting on the 12th of March 2024 and gained positive feedback. Following discussions at that meeting the financial section has been updated to make it clearer, the staffing section has been updated to include an estimate of the staff time it will take to complete this work and a number of small changes have been incorporated to aid clarity.