Local
Authority Websites National Project
Organisation Development Toolkit -
The organisation to support
the Community Modules
Developed for LAWs by
Contents
The purpose of this document is to assist Local Authorities who adopt the Community Modules product to determine and understand the impact on their organisation.
What are the
Community Modules?
Why use the
Community Modules?
Are the Community
Modules portals?
The Community
Modules Described
How the Community
Modules are used
Different authors
may use one module over another
There is a generic
process for content entry
There are a number
of support functions required
Oversee, Technical
Support and Administration Functions
Training and
Marketing functions
Editorial and
Create Content Functions
Processes within
the Editorial function
Processes within
the Create Content function
Case Studies for
operation of Community Modules
The Welland
supports a group of councils
Welland Teams
supporting Community Modules
The Welland manages
the Community Portal Coordinators centrally
Description of the
roles within the Welland’s operational teams
Summary of the
Welland’s organisation model
Hinckley and
Bosworth Organisational Model
Description of
Hinckley and Bosworth roles
Summary of Hinkley
and Bosworth’s model
Recommendations
about organising your council to support the Community Modules
Recommended teams
to support Community Modules
Responsibility for
Community Module Functions by Team
Breakdown of
responsibility for functions by role in the Core Team
Role descriptions
and person specifications
Consolidation of
teams and roles with Community Modules and APLAWS
What are the Community Modules?
The Community Modules are applications which are provided on your council website for use by your community.
Members of the community – whether individuals, groups, businesses or the council itself – can use the applications to:
- post information about local upcoming events, jobs, leisure and sports clubs
- create their own web pages
- manage information about their local area such as the history of that market town
Why use the Community Modules?
The five community modules are applications which can be used on your council’s website to provide non-mandatory, value-added services to your community (non-mandatory because is it not required that you provide the community with a web presence).
The applications will:
- Enhance your council’s offering to the community
- Help deliver government targets around regeneration
- Develop a happier and more cohesive community
- Enable your council to be better informed about what is going on in the community and act on that information. (E.g. if 150 football clubs have been set up recently your council may want to plan for the building of a leisure facility)
- Empower the community while reducing council burden
Are the Community Modules portals?
What is a portal?
- A portal is a website that links to other relevant websites as well as providing content itself
- It may combine Public, Business and Community information
- The “Community Modules” are applications. These can be used on a council’s website. They are not strictly portals
- The
The Community Modules Described
Jobs
- Allows businesses (including the council) to post job vacancies on the web and to manage their online vacancies through their own administration panel
- Their standard data such as contact details, policies, logo etc are remembered by the system to avoid unnecessary repeat entering
- Job Seekers can search the jobs database according to their criteria and are presented with all jobs meeting their requirements
- The user can also have new jobs matching their criteria emailed directly to them
Events
- Allows the community or the council to
post information about events on the web
- All events are aggregated in a single
database
- Events per village, town or interest group
can then be sorted accordingly
- Events can be added by the community and
are time stamped with an expiry date so that they are automatically
deleted when they have taken place
Clubs
- Allows the community or the council to
post information about clubs and societies in the area on the web
- Aggregated in a database. Fully searchable
and automatically categorised
- Customised web templates available for
sports clubs, art societies and community groups
Locations
- Map-based module allows for self-publishing
of a village or location web page comprising photograph, description,
guest book, web-links
- Option to add gold/silver site (see Self
Publishing module)
- Possible also to link to village, clubs,
businesses, parish council, events etc if these are selected
Self Publish
- A DIY web wizard allowing community groups
to build their own multi page website without needing any HTML skills,
including their own logos, photos, text, web-links, email etc
- May be used by individuals, clubs (e.g.
football), community groups (e.g. church), or businesses
- Silver standard (one page website) or Gold
(multi-page website)
How the Community Modules are used
- The Community Modules hold community content presented on a public website
- Users may access the content and may also add to content
- Community users or council users can become authors of content by registering on the website
- They are then immediately able to create content in one of the five areas:
- Add a job
- Add an event
- Add a club
- Create their own web pages
- Add details about a location
(their village and its history for example, which will act as a gateway from which users can find other information about that location – jobs and events for example)
- The content is then reviewed by an approver before it is made live
- Different ‘authors’ may be more likely to use one community module than another, but the way the modules are accessed and content is entered is done in the same way for all of them
Different authors may use one module over another
Anyone (community person or council staff) can enter content in any of the modules for approval once they have registered as an author. The process for entering content into any of the modules is the same.
There is a generic process for content entry
These are the processes that authors will use to enter content:
Register to use the applications or modules
Then can create content
However, to successfully operate the community modules there are a number of other functions which are required to support it.
There are a number of support functions required
Each of these functions is described in further detail below.
Oversee, Technical Support and Administration Functions
Training and Marketing functions
Editorial and Create Content Functions
Processes within the Editorial function
These processes ensure that content is viewed and approved before it is published to the live website and then reviewed regularly
- The Approval Process ensures that content in the Community Modules is approved before it is published in a “live” environment
- The system can be set up so that those responsible for approval are automatically informed when new content needs approval
- The Review Process ensures that content in the Community Modules is kept up-to-date and old content is removed
- Councils will need to put a procedure in place to ensure that existing content is regularly reviewed
Processes within the Create Content function
These are the processes that an author will use to create content
- An author may be someone in the community or within the council
- Whoever they are, they will need to self register on the web to use the community modules. They will then have access to all the modules and be able to create content
Case Studies for operation of Community Modules
There are two case studies of councils operating the Community Modules
- The
- Hinkley and Bosworth: a small rural district council operating the Community Modules independently
The Welland Partnership is a Partnership of five local authorities across four counties:
- East Northamptonshire District
- Harborough District
- Melton Borough
- South Kesteven District
The Welland Partnership was established to serve the needs of a rural area punctuated by market towns. As a Pathfinder it implemented community portals for 11 of its regional market towns.
Hinkley
and Bosworth is a rural District council with a
‘very rudimentary’ website with no integration to back office and limited scope
for transactional services. It took advice from the
The Welland
The
The central team coordinates content created by the different communities via a team of part time Community Portal Coordinators who are recruited from the community.
Each council can learn from others in a regular meeting.
Each council is responsible for its own area and has staff to manage, support and stimulate community involvement.
Welland
Executive team: The
Regional strategy
team: Fortnightly meetings are
held with relevant stakeholders. The team meets to discuss strategy and share
learning.
Technical
operations team:
Regional operations
team: At a regional level a
team works to coordinate the local community portals and sets standards for
content, processes and policies. This team is also responsible for ongoing
development and implementation of strategy (e.g. new modules, usability,
accessibility) The Process and Content Officers manage and direct the eleven
Community Portal Coordinators working across the five
Local operation
team: At a local level each
council is responsible for their own content and for supporting their local
community in producing content.
The Welland
The eleven Community Portal Coordinators
(CPCs) in the
There is one CPC per community (i.e. one or more for each of the five councils).
A meeting is held bi-monthly to issue Action Plans and provide guidance. This meeting enables the CPCs to share ideas and experience with one another
CPCs submit monthly reports detailing hours spent on the Community Portals, number of approvals, any issues and also promotional and community activity involvement.
CPCs may liase with the relevant Council Information Officer where they have locally relevant questions but are not directly managed by individual councils.
The local team is made up of the Council Information Officer and one or more Community Portal Coordinators (one for each community)
The Council Information Officer acts as the approver for content created in the community modules (jobs, events, clubs etc) by council staff.
The Community Portal Coordinators are the approvers for any content created by community authors.
Description of the roles within the
Welland
Summary of the Welland
The
The Regional Operations Team has the
Process and Content Officers directing a team of Community Portal Coordinators
(CPCs)across the
The five councils themselves do not play a major role in managing the community modules. Their key role is restricted to being responsible for content created by council staff.
The benefit of this model is that by managing the community content centrally, the Regional Operations Team is able to coordinate the efforts of the CPCs, ensure they share learning and have the advantage of a strategic overview to identify gaps and overlaps in the communities.
In addition, the management and approval of community content remains in the community (rather than in the hands of the individual councils) by employing part time community people into the role of CPC.
Hinckley and Bosworth context
Hinkley and Bosworth are the first council to implement the Community Modules independently.
Being an individual council, rather than
part of a group of councils, their approach to operating the Community Modules
has necessarily been different to the
The
Hinckley and Bosworth Organisational
Model
All marketing and training (workshops for community and businesses) were done during the implementation by the e-government Project Managers of which there are two at H&B.
Project Managers are responsible for
on-going sustainability and plans for further training and marketing events and
also attend the
Now that the portal is up and running,
The Information Officer is responsible for data protection procedure and policy.
H&B don’t use a Community Portal
Coordinator based in the community as the
The Communications Officer is responsible for user admin and for approving all content before it is published whether from the community or from council staff. An Administrator provides support to this role.
All content authors (whether staff or community) access the portal and create data in the same way and have content approved by the Council Communications Officer.
Technical support is provided by Siemens Business Services (they provide H&B’s tech support generally). Example issues: no web access through the server; blocked website addresses for html links to. They also liaise with Rutland Online when necessary regarding development issues.
Rutland Online provide the technical hosting and support for the Community Modules
Description of Hinckley and Bosworth roles
Summary of Hinkley and Bosworth’s model
Hinkley and Bosworth has taken a more council controlled approach to organising itself to support the Community Modules.
The Communications Officer has responsibility for approving or rejecting content authored by the community as well as that created by council staff.
Recommendations about organising your council to support the Community Modules
There are a number of roles required to be responsible for the various functions necessary to support the Community Modules.
The following sections recommend teams and roles to enable your council to successfully operate the Community Modules.
The models assume you are a single council,
but can be adapted for councils working in groups like the
Recommended teams to support Community Modules
Operational Teams and Roles
Responsibility for Community Module Functions by Team
Breakdown of responsibility for functions by role in the Core Team
Roles in the Core Team
Depending on the size and number of individual communities and the level of interest generated in those communities, you may opt for a number of Community Operators, one per village or town. The Community Operators will have most responsibility for delivering training, marketing and support activities with authors. It should be expected that council authors will produce rather less content than authors in the community and therefore the Manager’s responsibilities around approving council content and council user support should not be excessive.
Roles in the Technical Team
The technical team is responsible for the Technical Support Function. This whole function could be outsourced depending on your requirements and whether you have good in-house technical skills and resources.
Role descriptions and person specifications
The role descriptions and person
specifications are provided separately. It should be noted that the roles are described and titled, but each
role may constitute an entire job, or part of a job.
Role Descriptions aim to describe:
- The purpose of the role
- The designation of the role and position within departmental structure
- Main duties and responsibilities
- Scope of the role
Person Specifications aim to describe:
- Training and qualifications
- Competence summary
- Work related personal requirements
Consolidation of teams and roles with Community Modules and APLAWS
If you are also implementing the APLAWS Content Management System there will be some overlap in organisational change to support the products.
Your Community Modules will appear integrated with your council website to users, and so the products and management of the content entered via the two products may be dealt with together.
At the very least, those responsible for content for each system should communicate.
Some examples of this:
- The Technical Support person may be the same person for both products
- The Analyst may be the same person for both products
- The trainer for APLAWS may take on the responsibilities for council authors of the Community Modules, rather than this being a responsibility of the Council Community Modules Manager
- The APLAWS Corporate Editor and the Council Community Modules Manager may be the same person
- Some of the more strategic responsibilities of the Council Community Modules Manager could be included in the APLAWS Core Team Manager Role
There are roles in the APLAWS Core Team which could take some of the responsibilities necessary to support the Community Modules.
The Council Community Modules Manager’s responsibilities could be fitted into the APLAWS Core Team.
