Like many local authorities across the UK, Bracknell Forest Council wanted to adopt a digital-first approach to customer service, putting the power in the hands of its users to self-serve via the website where possible. 

Their existing website did not have the flexibility or the functionality to support these ambitions, and with Drupal being used effectively by many other local authorities and governments agencies, it was Bracknell's first choice of technology. 

After initially employing an in-house Drupal Developer, Bracknell Forest Council instructed Microserve via the public sector procurement system G-Cloud, to undertake a full audit of their work completed to date.

The challenge

The first step was for one of our Senior Developers to perform an audit of the work to date. Our audit process is very thorough and our report highlighted a number of issues that needed to be addressed before continuing further development.

Microserve were subsequently appointed to take on the delivery of the website, ensuring that this business-critical project could be delivered in timely fashion, thanks to the strength-in-depth that only an experienced Drupal development agency can offer.

Bracknell Forest Council was extremely proud that its previous website had won much praise for its high standards of accessibility, and then Microserve were tasked to match or improve upon these standards within the new web build.

Our approach

We were excited to be given the opportunity to take ownership of the site's technical architecture, and ensure that it was consistent with Drupal best-practice and coding standards. The meticulous work of our development team ensured that the site was a robust platform that would support the Council's future ambitions, and this has made ongoing support and iterative development of the site far more efficient. 

We also helped Bracknell Forest Council to migrate the site to a reliable managed hosting environment, which removed considerable risk from the client's in-house team.  

On the front end of the website our team ensured that all development work was completed in line with Government Digital Service Standards guidelines, and that we met the expected high standards of accessibility. 

The results

Bracknell Forest Council now has a modern, contemporary website which is mobile-responsive, follows GDS standards and complies with WCAG 2 level AA.  

The new site has been very positively received by the residents of Bracknell Forest. Our analytics data shows that users are able to complete key user journeys on the site 50-60% faster when benchmarked against the previous site. 

The site has also received a number of independent accolades, including being nominated as a finalist in the Digital Council of the Year awards 2018. It achieved an impressive 4-star rating when reviewed by Socitm, as well as earning a coveted Shaw Trust Accreditation for accessibility.

  • Pass
    Shaw Trust Accreditation for Accessibility