You’ll have the option of joining a community of developers, content designers and digital leaders from 45 (and counting) local councils across the UK and Ireland who share code, user research and ideas to help each other build incredible sites.
There isn't another platform for local authorities built purely for councils, by councils.
Ultimately, by using LocalGov Drupal, you'll deliver a much better digital experience for your citizens while saving money.
Front-End Features and Page Types
| Feature | Link to demo site | Council example |
|---|---|---|
| Subsites | view in the demo | Hammersmith and Fulham site |
| News | view in the demo | Canterbury Council Newsroom |
| Events | view in the demo | Brighton and Hove Event |
| Alert banners | view in the demo | |
| Directories | view in the demo | Essex County Council SEND directory |
| Service landing pages | view in the demo | London Borough of Barking and Dagenham |
| Service pages | view in the demo | London Borough of Barking and Dagenham |
| Guides | view in the demo | Blackburn with Darwen |
| Step by steps | view in the demo | |
| HTML Publications | Hammersmith and Fulham Council plan |
Publishing Features
- comprehensive suite of flexible page components
- large variety of patterns, styles and call outs
- publishing workflows
- revisions and history module
- Service contacts
- Shareable preview link
Development
- quick start install
- modular architecture
- automated testing
- automated checks for coding standards
It is there for the taking. Give it a road test and see what you think. There's no commitment or anything. And if you like it, then come and have a chat with the people who are using and building it and get involved.
Accessibility
The LocalGov Drupal content and functionality is designed to meet or exceed WCAG 2.1 level AA. The project also has a target for the administration interface to meet or exceed level AA.
Theme and Design
We have built a scalable base theme which you can use as the base for your LocalGov Drupal website.
We also include a sample “subtheme” called “Scarfolk” which uses this base theme. This shows you how simple it is to create a custom look and feel for your site.
You will notice a consistency of design patterns between different LocalGov Drupal sites (see some examples). These design patterns are created using best-practice, data-driven components from our research and also based on the GOV.UK design system.
You are, however, free to extend any templates and/or CSS/JS to ensure that the design of your LGD site exactly matches your council brand guidelines. That’s part of the beauty of using an open-source system.
New Feature Development
New features are constantly being developed based on councils' real-world needs. View these on our product roadmap.
While smaller councils could use LocalGov Drupal without too much customisation, we also see the distribution as a starting point for extension. Many councils choose to extend the default functionality with custom development for their sites, and we aim to consider this when releasing future updates.
More reasons to choose LocalGov Drupal
- The base theme is lightweight, WCAG AA accessible and responsive.
- Most of our content formats and patterns are based on Government Digital Service standards.
- Everything we’ve built is based on user research and tried and tested by the public sector.
- Members of our community have complete control over their websites and subsites.
- The code is generic enough for councils to use with ease and adaptable enough to create unique websites.
- Content designers, editors and managers can easily make content changes and quickly react to the needs of the public and elected representatives.
- Developers can add functionality but also gain functionality that has been worked on collectively.
- We always think long-term, so you can create council websites on a platform that will last.
- The platform is updated regularly with the latest security updates.
You can view most out-of-the-box capabilities on our demo site. Contact us for login details or if you have any questions.
Check out some examples of council websites using it.
Get the code from Github and try it for yourself.