Plans for Better connected 2013

Our list of tasks should not be interpreted in any way as a recommended list of top tasks for every council. We are absolutely clear that councils should design their websites for their customers, and not for Better connected. Evidence of site usage and local needs should guide whatever decisions are made by each council.

Gathering robust evidence for this purpose is not a trivial task and requires a comprehensive analysis of all the data that the organisation holds about visits to its website and other customer access data for potential activity on the website (eg from contact centres and service departments). Demographic data about the population served by the council is also important. Socitm Insight has published a number of reports and briefings that cover the sort of data required.

	Topic	Task	Councils surveyed	Comments
1a	Rubbish	Dispose of old bed	All, exc counties	Either...
1b	Rubbish	Find out opening times for council tip	Counties and NI dists	...or
2	Libraries	Reserve library book	All, exc shire dists and NI dists
3	Jobs	Apply for council job	Shire dists and NI dists only	Same as in BC2012
4	Leisure	Find opening times for local swimming pool	Shire dists and NI dists only	Same as in BC2012
5	Schools	Find out about free nursery places	All, exc shire dists and NI dists
6	Planning	Object to a planning application	All, exc counties and NI dists	Same as in BC2012
7	Housing	Find out how to apply for housing	All, exc counties and NI dists
8	Buses	Apply for older person's bus pass	Counties and unitaries only (E S and W)
9	Parking	Pay parking fine	London boroughs and mets only
10	Social care	Find out about getting help at home	All, exc shire dists and NI dists	Same as in BC2012
11	Roads	Report pothole	All, exc shire dists and NI dists
12	Business	Find help in starting new business	All, exc shire dists
13	Democracy	Find out about my councillor	All

Access from mobile devices

As in the past two years we have carried out a survey of at least one task for each council from a smartphone. However this year the results will for the first time be built into the process for ranking sites.

The tasks selected will be

• Report a pothole (single-tier and county councils)
• Apply job (shire districts and NI districts)
  

Customised assessment

Are you planning to change your website in 2013? Why not commission a customised assessment from our team as part of your quality assurance and in time for you to improve your site for the main survey?

Two Better connected reviewers assess your website independently and report their findings separately. In this way you will see how two of our expert reviewers view your site, and will learn from what they agree on and what they might just see differently.

From their reports we produce a detailed 30-page report. The answers to the questions by the two reviewers are shown side by side, unedited, so that web developers can see how similar, or different, the replies are. Both reviewers also give their top five recommendations for improving the site.

Further information, please take a look at this flyer.

New policy for non-subscribers (announced 24 July)

Our normal practice with the Better connected report is to survey the sites of all councils in the UK and list the results for every council, whether or not they subscribe to Socitm Insight. For the 2013 report we will discontinue the practice of reporting on councils that do not subscribe. However, we have surveyed all 433 sites whether or not they subscribe to Socitm Insight in order that we provide a comprehensive benchmark of best practice. This means that in the report itself we will list and attribute individual examples of best practice wherever we find this, again irrespective of whether they subscribe or not.

Where we will change our policy is that in Appendix 1 we will only attribute the results, including the star ranking, for those who subscribe. Those who do not subscribe will have their results shown but alongside the anonymous name, eg Shire district 1, Shire district 2 etc and these will appear in random sequence beneath those we name (because they subscribe to the service).  318 councils (73%) out of 433 currently subscribe.

It is interesting to see that in 2012 subscribers performed 24% better than non-subscribers. For example, only 2 out of 21 (10%) 4 star sites are non-subscribers, but 47 out of 111 (42%) 1 star sites are non-subscribers.  This suggests that they are less interested in improving their websites, or at least in Better connected advice about how to do this. (Reviewers have no idea who subscribe or do not subscribe).

Councils that subscribe to Socitm Insight will have access to the electronic version of Better connected 2013 on the publication date (1 March 2013) and to all the supporting spreadsheets, not to mention all the other reports and briefings that we produce in the full year. Councils that have pre-ordered the report will have access to the printed version of the report only, approximately one month after publication, which will contain the full information about their council.

Those who want to buy the printed copy of the report can now order their copy at a charge of £495 (£450 for Socitm members).

As a reminder of the benefits of Better connected at the current time, please take a look at this flyer, or for more information about the whole Socitm Insight service.

In short, subscribers will continue to benefit from a comprehensive benchmark so that they can see how they compare with similar councils; non-subscribers not prepared to pre-order a report will not be able to find out where they stand and will not have access to advice about best practice to improve their standing.