Content responsibilities

Last updated: 15 May 2025

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

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• telling us when content is out of date and needs to be removed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.

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.