Project Overview
GovTech Service — Local Council Digital Transformation. A UK local council needed to digitise three resident-facing services: planning application status tracking, council tax ...
Technology Stack
Compliance & Standards
The Challenge
A UK local council needed to digitise three resident-facing services: planning application status tracking, council tax direct debit setup, and housing benefit claim status. The existing system was a legacy PHP application from 2008 — no mobile support, failing WCAG accessibility, and requiring 3 days of manual processing per application. The council had a fixed G-Cloud budget of £95,000 and a deadline of 8 months.
Our Approach
Architecture: Next.js with GOV.UK Design System, GOV.UK Pay for payments, GOV.UK Notify for communications, PostgreSQL on AWS RDS eu-west-2, AWS ECS for containerised deployment, GitHub Actions CI/CD. GDS Service Standard Compliance: GDS Alpha and Beta assessment preparation. User research with 45 residents including elderly users and those with disabilities. WCAG 2.1 AA throughout. English language at Flesch reading ease 70+ (plain English requirement). UK GDPR and Public Sector Compliance: UK GDPR DPIAs for all three services. ICO registration. Cyber Essentials certification (mandatory for G-Cloud). Legitimate interest as lawful basis for council tax processing; statutory obligation for housing benefit. Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA including: screen reader testing with NVDA and JAWS, keyboard-only navigation, 4.5:1 colour contrast, captions for all video, clear error messages (plain English).
The Results
Delivered at £89,000 — under budget. Passed GDS Beta assessment on first attempt. WCAG 2.1 AA certified. Planning application processing time: 3 days → 4 hours (manual step eliminated by digital tracking). Council tax direct debit setup: 100% digital, zero paper forms. Resident satisfaction: 4.2/5 (vs 2.8/5 previous system).
“ClickMasters understood GDS Service Standard from day one — we didn't have to educate them on what the assessment criteria meant. The Beta assessment passed first time, which almost never happens." — Digital Transformation Lead, UK Local Council (name withheld)”
Project Details
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