Content responsibilities

Last updated: 22 September 2025

The responsibilities for digital content are shared between subject matter experts and the content design team.

Governance

We have a centralised publishing model for the medway.gov.uk website.

This means only Content Designers can publish content, except for news articles which are published by the Communications Team.

We have a small, trained set of content editors who update specific webpages due to the regularity of changes. For example, the sports team make updates to sports and leisure timetables. Webpage updates come through to the Content Designers for checking and approval before being published. This ensures we maintain our content standards.

The Content Design Team oversees the following websites, but the individual services are responsible for their factual accuracy, accessibility, and a level of content editing:

• Medway Adult Education
• Medway Safeguarding Children’s Partnership
• Rochester Corn Exchange.

There are several other council websites that are not governed or managed by our Content Designers, for example Visit Medway and Beside You. The services that commissioned these websites must take responsibility for their accuracy, user experience, accessibility and maintenance.

Subject matter experts

Subject matter experts (SMEs) own the factual accuracy of information we publish.

We need the help of SMEs to keep content on medway.gov.uk up to date.

You must monitor your content and notify the Content Designers of any updates that need to be made or if you think there’s a requirement for new content.

We’ll work with you to decide the best approach. To do this, we’ll need information about:

• the service, scheme, project or process
• any factors that could have an impact on the content
• any planned future changes.

Different business areas will have similar objectives and needs, so you must work on your content together. As stated in our content principles, we write and structure content in a way that’s agnostic of organisational structure. We do not duplicate content in multiple areas of a website.

What subject matter experts are responsible for

Subject matter experts (service teams) are responsible for:

• speaking with the content design team about if and how new content could be presented on the website
• making documents accessible in accordance with the law before submitting them to the content design team. Find out more about how to make content accessible in our accessibility toolkit
• making sure content within documents is written in plain English and following our content standards
• making sure documents meet our branding standards
• telling us if making certain content accessible is a disproportionate burden. You’re legally required to carry out an assessment and have this signed off by your service manager. Find out more about disproportionate burden
• making sure content aligns with laws you’re responsible for complying with, such as GDPR, Equality Act, consumer rights etc
• making sure content aligns with relevant council policies
• making sure content is accurate
• making sure you have review processes in place to maintain accuracy
• providing the content design team with a name and email address of the person responsible for the accuracy of content
• telling us when content is out of date and needs to be removed
• supplying images you have a licence to use or are copyright and royalty free
• making sure images do not contain text
• making sure online forms you create (for example Microsoft forms) or create with a third-party are designed following our form standards
• giving the content design team as much notice as possible to make a change to the website
• agreeing with the content design team how long content will take to publish if it is new or part of a project
• requesting new content, content changes and advice via the relevant forms on Service Desk.

Content Designers

Content decisions should be made by skilled Content Designers.

Content is at the heart of how we communicate with users and we should be involved at the start of any changes or the creation of new websites and digital services.

We accept that individual business areas have the best knowledge of their service, but Content Designers will have the final say on what content is published and how it is presented. Our job is to maintain content integrity by creating and managing content that:

• adheres to our standards
• uses repeatable patterns for consistency
• helps users achieve their intended outcome.

We’ll seek opportunities for improvement from data such as analytics and user feedback.

We’ll actively reach out to subject matters experts for help with auditing content.

What the content design team is responsible for

The content designers are responsible for:

• implementing our content strategy for digital services including medway.gov.uk
• managing medway.gov.uk to make sure it effectively serves its purpose, meets user and business needs and provides a positive experience
• creating, designing, editing, repurposing and organising content following industry best practice and our content standards
• approving and publishing all content
• designing, implementing and managing information architecture (the way content is grouped, and navigation is presented)
• managing the homepage
• keeping the website compliant with relevant laws, such as accessibility
• writing in plain English
• managing links (including broken links)
• managing and optimising the search engine
• managing cookies
• managing permissions of content editors
• monitoring performance through analytics and customer feedback
• responding to website feedback about usability and accessibility
• using data and user research to improve and develop the website in collaboration with design colleagues
• providing advice and consultancy around digital content, accessibility and usability
• staying up to date with digital and content design advancements.