Hampshire County Council Case Study
Hampshire County Council has used Local Directgov links to join up services from district and unitary councils in the area. People coming to the Hampshire County Council website looking for services may not be aware that some services are provided by the district and unitary councils in the area, not the county council.
To help solve this problem Hampshire County Council has used Local Directgov links to join up services between the district, borough and unitary councils in the surrounding area. It has listed popular council services on the top-level pages of its website and in its A-Z section, and used Local Directgov links to direct people to the right service provider. The services that are provided by district, borough or unitary authorities link through to a page where the visitor can either pick a location on a map of the surrounding area, or enter their postcode to be redirected to the relevant page of the correct council's website.
Download the case study (PDF format, 1374KB)
Benefits for web managers
- It improves the design of your web page
You only need one link per service on the page rather than a link per council per service
- Any council can use Local Directgov links to link to neighbouring councils
They can also be used across regional boundaries
- There's potential for local working
A group of local authorities could suggest any additional services for inclusion in the Local Directgov application where they may be working on a joint initiative that is not currently covered
- It makes it easier for visitors to your site
They can accurately locate a local service by postcode, location, map or council name. They don't need to know which council area they live in or choose from a long list of different councils
- It's easy to find a link and use it with your system
Each link is based on the Local Government Service List, which makes it easy to identify the appropriate link for a particular service. This list is also categorised by the Local Government Navigation List. Whether you have a CMS or HTML site you just insert a link from the list.
- There's no maintenance required for the site hosting the link
The authority that owns the link has the responsibility to update the link with Local Directgov. So if East Hants DC change their site, providing they maintain their entries in Local Directgov, Hants CC don't have to change any of the links on their site. Also, the links are likely to be fixed more quickly because East Hants DC would know when their site is changing and can programme the link updates into their project plan. If everyone used Local Directgov links for cross-authority linking there would be time savings across all authorities
- There is a wide choice of services available
There are 240 services listed in the Local Directgov application covering everything from reporting an obstructed pavement to finding out about school holiday schemes
- You can highlight multiple services at the same time
When a visitor enters their postcode the Local Directgov application gives a list of related services for that council on the results page. For example, if the service for reporting a dead animal for Easington District Council is selected, the results page will also list the links for finding out about and reporting a dog fouling problem and reporting a litter problem for Easington. (This won't be the case if you use the immediate redirect option.)
You can use the spreadsheet of all the services included in the Local Directgov application to create links to services provided by other councils.
Spreadsheet of services in Local Directgov (xls, 164KB)
