A one page brief for Directors of Children's Services
Placid One directory, every offer you publish
Your council publishes several statutory offers to families, each on its own site, each with its own list of services, each kept up to date by a different team or not at all. Placid runs them from one directory. Update a service once and it is right everywhere. This page is the whole case on one sheet, for you and for whoever you hand it to.
What you publish now
- A SEND local offer, under the Children and Families Act 2014
- A kinship care local offer
- A care leavers local offer
- Family hubs and early help information
- Childcare and early years information
- Adult care and support information
Most councils hold these on two or three platforms, with the same organisations and services typed in more than once. The directory that most of them run on is the same supplier most other councils use, on a standard template, with a contract that renews without anyone looking at it.
What Placid does instead
- One directory of organisations, services and events, owned by the council, on open source software (LocalGov Drupal). No licence, no lock-in.
- Many sites. The SEND local offer, the kinship offer, the care leavers offer and the family hubs pages are each their own site, with their own design and voice, drawing from that one directory.
- One place to keep it right. A service changes its phone number once. Every site that lists it is correct that afternoon.
- Built with the people who use it. Each site is designed in weekly sessions with its own audience, the parent carer forum, care experienced young people, kinship carers. Calderdale's SEND local offer was built this way and is still edited this way, with the specialist inclusion team adding content because they find it useful.
What it costs, in shape
The exact figures are public on the G-Cloud pricing page. The directory and first site are a one-off build. Each additional site on the same directory is a design fee once and a small fixed sum a year for hosting and support. The second, third and fourth offers cost a fraction of the first, because the directory is already there.
How it is bought
Through your own low value purchase system or a G-Cloud 15 direct award. No tender. The route, step by step.
What to do with this page
Hand it to your Head of SEND, your head of early help and whoever owns the care leavers offer, and ask them one question. Which of our sites would you rebuild first? That is where we start.
Jonny Holden
pop pop studio. Two councils live, one directory each, one person to call.
jonny@poppop.studio
0161 9871 909
Thirty minutes is enough
Bring your Head of SEND. We will show you Calderdale's directory and what it would take to put your other offers on it.