Goldstone Media Limited

Content audit and content design

We take a user-centred approach to designing accessible interfaces, content and services that people choose to use.

We have 20+ years working on digital change and transformation projects that improve people's lives, including moving 300+ government websites onto the award-winning GOV.UK.

Features

• Content designers with public sector and government experience
• Work with researchers and designers to build user-centred services
• Data-driven design thinking using analytics and user research
• Clear and accessible content that meets WCAG2.1 guidelines
• Work in agile teams to design, test and quickly iterate
• Advocate for the user when managing stakeholder relationships
• Develop journey maps, user needs/stories, content workflow and governance
• Experience of GOV.UK design system and service assessments
• Train staff in how to write for the web
• Design organisation-wide content strategy and operations

Benefits

• Meet latest accessibility requirements
• Ensure content is open and is easily understood by all
• Increase your team's capability or capacity
• Data-led: using user research or analytics to guide content design
• Improve search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Experienced in cross-government work including Brexit, Covid-19, climate change
• Expert in applying GDS/CDDO service manual and design principles

£475 to £1,750 a unit a day

• Education pricing available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  ODT

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  ODT

• Service definition document

  ODT

• Terms and conditions

  ODT

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at bids@goldstoneassociates.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

713618804362321

Contact

Mark Hazelby
01323400402
bids@goldstoneassociates.co.uk

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: Goldstone takes a user-centred approach to understand the needs of our clients and their users. ; ; Using user research and data, we help clients to understand the problem that needs to be solved and take an agile approach to doing the work. ; ; We work collaboratively with our clients, always taking opportunities to find shared solutions to problems. ; ; We're often used by clients to bolster capacity or plug a capability gap in user-centred design: we can provide entire teams or individual experts. ; ; And we're often called upon to design new systems, structures, processes or governance that allow content to be produced efficiently across an organisation. ; ; That's why our work is guided by the government:; ; - service manual; - design system ; - content design manual; - technology code of practice; ; We're expert in content migration projects involving GOV.UK, Localgov Drupal, NHS.UK and their associated digital services.
• Planning service works with specific services: No

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: Goldstone provides content training, coaching and mentoring. ; ; Our trainers created the prevailing GOV.UK courses for civil servants on how to use GOV.UK Whitehall and how to successfully write content for the web. ; ; We provide bespoke courses on content strategy, content operations, content governance, accessible content design and all aspects of content production.
• Training is tied to specific services: No

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: We're expert in managing content migrations between different software solutions or platforms. We moved more than 60 websites onto GOV.UK when the UK government in 2014 was committed to delivering a single site for all government information and services. We've since led large-scale intranet, website, service transitions at multiple Whitehall departments and agencies. ; ; All our client work starts with understanding their users and their needs by undertaking user research and analysing existing data. We map journeys and create user stories, so we can ensure the content we deliver meets a need. ; ; We user the research to work with designers and developers to create new information architecture, new content and a develop the migration plan. ; ; Goldstone is technology agnostic: we provide objective recommendations about the right technology to use based on the needs of your users and your organisational policies.
• Setup or migration service is for specific cloud services: No

Quality assurance and performance testing

• Quality assurance and performance testing service: Yes
• How the quality assurance and performance testing works: Goldstone is skilled at evaluating the performance of digital content using analytics and usage metrics, particularly to help improve and iterative content as part of an agile lifecycle. ; ; We are experienced in developing content standards for organisations and designing assessment methods to validate that standards are being adopted. ; ; We also prepare clients so they are ready for formal GDS/CDDO service assessments at discovery, alpha, beta and live stages.

Security testing

• Security services: No

Ongoing support

• Ongoing support service: No

Service scope

• Service constraints: No.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Usually the same working day, or the next working day if received at the weekend.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: Web chat
• Web chat support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• Web chat accessibility testing: We have not yet had the call for this but would welcome the chance to refine our offer.
• Support levels: We will discuss with our client the best tooling for us to use collaboratively. We have used Slack and Trello with success to manage most in-contract support. Specific software-based support may require the use of services such as Zendesk. We are happy to discuss options with buyers.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Staff screening not performed
• Government security clearance: Up to Security Clearance (SC)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  We want our people to do their bit to protect or improve their local environment. ; ; That’s why we’ve created more than 100 annual e-days, so our staff and supply-chain workers can get into their community to focus on environmental work and projects that add real value to their local area. ; ; We provide their salary or day rates, they provide ingenuity, braun or hard work.; ; So far our team members have:; ; - planted a native garden; - started community vegetable gardens; - created a home for school yard critters, butterflies, frogs and lizards; - created a butterfly garden in a local residential home; - planted trees outside community centres; - done beach and community litter picks; - installed a community bee hive; ; As we grow as a business, so will the number of e-days available to our team. ; ; We also work closely with our clients and their teams to identify informal ways of improving their organisation’s operation and reducing the impact of climate change. ; ; For instance one of our workers helped a government agency to cut by 35% the amount of photocopying paper that was needed, just by turning on double-sided printing as a default setting. ; ; Of course climate change remains one of the most critical global challenges facing humanity. And whilst digital design and development drains the globe's energy, the World Economic Forum has stated that technology can cut global emissions by 15%.; ; That's why we have adopted Digital Detox's Green Report principles in our work, to create a more sustainable and clean world. We are in discussions with them to see how we can partner in this work in the future, and to bring forward opportunities for our clients to benefit from this work too.

  Covid-19 recovery

  We advise the professional body for pathology medicine professionals on a large-scale transformation to reduce the amount of unnecessary lab tests that are requested by primary care providers in the NHS. ; ; Testing is a cornerstone of medical practice and helps the detection and diagnosis of conditions and diseases including cancer, diabetes and arthritis. Across the UK, laboratories process over 300,000 tests each day costing the NHS nearly £3 billion each year and GPs currently spend up to 2 hours per day reviewing pathology tests. However, NHS research suggests 40% of these tests are considered unnecessary. and staffing shortages mean patients are experiencing record levels of wait-times for test results. ; ; Our advice is helping the organisation to develop a new platform to support clinicians to choose the most appropriate test for patients; increasing patient outcomes and reducing costs. Patients will benefit from accessible information that explains the benefits and risks associated with their tests, delivered in the most appropriate format.; ; Our vision is to leverage digital technologies to transform how pathology services help deliver patient-centred care across the UK and beyond, in a bit to reduce the impact created on wait times by Covid-19.

  Equal opportunity

  We are committed to tackling workforce inequality. That’s why we have:; ; - appointed a board-level advisor on equality and diversity; - a vision and values that embrace equality, diversity, respect and inclusion; - annual Acas equality, diversity and inclusion training for directors and staff; - annual unconscious bias training for all directors and staff; - unbiased recruitment processes; - annual diversity and inclusion review of our policies and procedures; - a modern slavery policy that requires frequent review of our supply chain; We encourage:; - staff to join professional networks (including Women in Tech, UK Black Tech, Out in Tech); - the celebration of inclusive events, including those in the organisations or communities where we work (such as black history month, LGBT history month, mental health awareness week, neurodiversity celebration week); - our staff joining and being active in client staff networks during our engagement

  Wellbeing

  We offer all of our clients the opportunity to benefit from a wellbeing healthcheck undertaken by our resident health and wellbeing psychologist.; ; The healthcheck covers:; ; 1. Staff happiness: your team members are empowered to achieve a sense of control and resilience in their day to day work by ensuring they have the practical tools and techniques they need for managing workload and everyday sources of stress.; ; 2. Staff resilience: your staff know how to ‘refill the tank’. They understand where they get their energy from, and are supported in developing strategies for getting more of it.; ; 3. Staff recovery: the organisation proactively provides a range of targeted interventions to help people recover and build back from the wellbeing challenges they are experiencing.; ; 4. Organisational leadership: the organisation has a clear wellbeing strategy in place. It actively works with and supports managers and leaders to embed practices to address the structural and cultural causes of poor wellbeing.; ; It’s designed to measure and benchmark your current wellbeing performance and provide recommendations for quick, cost-effective ways to improve. ; ; This is a service we use ourselves, to ensure we’re doing all we can to maintain or improve the wellbeing of our delivery teams. ; ; We offer our all clients access to the same service, as a way of objectively influencing change and improving the physical and mental health of your staff team.

Pricing

• Price: £475 to £1,750 a unit a day
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes

Service documents

• Pricing document

  ODT

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  ODT

• Service definition document

  ODT

• Terms and conditions

  ODT

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at bids@goldstoneassociates.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.