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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Access to justice and advice sector issues  →  Thread

is less more?

shawn mach
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rightsnet.org.uk

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Total Posts: 3773

Joined: 14 April 2010

gov.uk blog post ... that suggests that they’re looking to -

‘... reduce our enormous stock of content ... and ... stop publishing too much in future.

https://insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2016/12/05/gov-uks-content-operating-model-whats-next-after-discovery/

Given it’s the sole repository of everything these days, hope that’s not as worrying as it might sound

(The BBC’s Chris Cook seems to think it might be: https://twitter.com/xtophercook/status/805796593706340353)

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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Joined: 17 June 2010

Posted this as a comment on their site.

There will be some consternation about the proposal for less content but I do think it reveals something about gov.uk which many of us have known for far too long. The reason so little content is browsed is not because of complexity at all. Generally speaking it’s the lack of complexity.

A couple of good examples.

1 - Access To Work. At the point at which gov.uk was created Access To Work documentation needed bringing together. There was a lot of it. Some was out of date and some was incredibly detailed. It was the detailed stuff: employers guidance, excluded items and so on which was useful. Gov.uk comes along and basically removes 90% of that content. What is left is basic, simple, very presentable but replicated in many many places on the internet. There is nothing of substance which might be of use to a disabled person; an employer; an assessor and so on. Funnily enough after people have accessed the site once looking for those materials they are unlikely to come again.

2 - Carers Allowance - similar message really. All the good stuff? Gone. What’s left can be found elsewhere and with more detail; more depth and breadth.

One could probably do some fascinating research as to the number of FOI requests generated by such nonsense but the key message is that if you want a site to be useful you put useful and detailed content on it and don’t spend years doing the exact opposite.