Being ready for day one

On day one, residents need to access services without disruption, even if those services are still running on legacy council systems. 

Residents will continue to use legacy websites for essential tasks such as:  

• making payments 
• submitting statutory forms (planning, benefits, housing) 
• contacting customer services 
• accessing emergency information 
• finding councillor and democracy information 

To make this work smoothly, you’ll need: 

• a single website that acts as the front door to all services 
• clear signposting and navigation to legacy systems where needed 
• redirects from predecessor council websites 
• a postcode lookup tool to direct residents to the correct services for their area 
• updated privacy and accessibility statements 

What must be in place: 

• single website with new council branding 
• one main customer service phone number 
• new council domain (configured well in advance) 
• contact centre ready and briefed on new arrangements 
• updated logos and addresses across public-facing materials 

Consider launching individual services in alpha or beta months before day one. This reduces risk and avoids overloading systems and teams on the day. 

Working in the open from day one, our multi-disciplinary team from across the five councils moved quickly through discovery to live service. Working software was demonstrated in the first sprint and an alpha service was in the hands of real users after a couple of months. The beta service was launched on the new buckinghamshire.gov.uk domain in the January before vesting day. As well as giving the team the benefit of ongoing user feedback, it reduced the risk of a ‘big bang’ launch on vesting day.

Ben Unsworth, Head of Digital, Buckinghamshire County Council (2020) 

Staff need to work effectively from day one. If they can’t log in, find information, or access systems, service delivery suffers. 

Staff must be able to: 

• log in to devices and networks 
• access email, calendars, and collaboration tools 
• find their colleagues’ contact information 
• use core systems (HR, payroll, finance, line-of-business applications) 
• book annual leave and report sickness 
• find and understand policy and practice 
• report issues and escalate incidents 
• access council premises with correct permissions 

What must be in place: 

• email and identity systems under the new council domain 
• payroll running correctly 
• HR and self-service systems operational 
• access to all critical line-of-business systems 
• IT helpdesk ready and briefed 
• clear processes for starters, movers, and leavers 
• intranet or equivalent for staff guidance and updates 

Note: Access to calendars and documents for colleagues from predecessor councils will depend on the speed of Microsoft tenancy migration. Plan for limited cross-organisation visibility initially. 

New structures and system changes create cyber vulnerabilities. Councils should assess their cyber security posture prior to vesting day, using the Cyber Assessment Framework for Local Government. Security must be built into day one planning from the start. 

What must be in place: 

• new council domain with DNS and email routing configured 
• multi-factor authentication (MFA) on critical systems 
• core cyber controls operational 
• incident response and monitoring active (councils can access Local Digital’s services to detect and respond to cyber threats)
• data-sharing agreements updated for the new authority 
• clarity on data controller responsibilities 
• finance payments and receivables operational 
• committee and elections systems functional 

Some services may continue to run jointly or unchanged for a period after vesting day. Ensure IT support arrangements account for this, and that security monitoring covers all systems, including those yet to be migrated. 

The new council homepage should be simple and accessible and provide: 

• the new council name and branding 
• a clear statement confirming the formation of the new authority 
• prominent search facility 
• links to major services (bins, council tax, housing, benefits, planning, schools, parking) 
• a short explanation of ongoing transition (“Services are currently being brought together. For now, you may be directed to information from the former councils.”) 

Each major service area also needs a day one landing page that: 

• describes the service in plain English (following GDS guidance on Government content and publishing) 
• tells users what to expect during transition 
• signposts clearly to the correct legacy website 
• warns users if processes differ by geography (if applicable) 
• uses a consistent design pattern for redirects 

Redirects need to be: 

• clear and consistent 
• accessible 
• transparent (“We’ve redirected you to the former X Council website while services are being aligned.”) 
• stable and maintained throughout transition 
• presented using a consistent pattern or banner 

There are core corporate pages that must be updated to reflect the new council by day one, including: 

• about the council 
• contact us 
• councillors and democracy 
• privacy notice (with transitional data arrangements) 
• complaints and FOI routes 
• governance, constitution and committees 
• senior leadership profiles (even if interim) 

Priority should be given to high-volume pages where inaccurate information will cause immediate public impact, including: 

• bin collections 
• council tax 
• benefits 
• parking 
• housing repairs 
• emergency contacts 
• school admissions 
• planning and building control submissions 

As many legacy sites will remain in use temporarily, councils must publish a transparent statement explaining their accessibility approach during transition. 

The website must be findable from both external search engines (for example, Google) and internal search. To avoid broken user journeys you will need to: 

• configure redirects from old “About the council” pages 
• ensure Google/Bing Search Console is updated 
• map common search terms across legacy sites 
• calibrate internal search to prioritise day one pages 

A new council brand must be consistently applied. The veneer must look and feel like the new organisation, even if back-end systems are not yet integrated. 

Finally, to run the veneer website from day one you need: 

• a clear content ownership model 
• a rota for updates and urgent changes 
• a service desk route for digital issues 
• analytics in place (Google Analytics 4 or equivalent) 
• a disaster recovery plan 
• contact centre briefings 

In terms of finance payments and receivables, ideally this should look like a single set of accounts and budgets, but our unitarised council went live with separate budgets that fed into a consolidation layer. We’re still running that two years later.

A council transformation lead