About the client

The South East Sector Led Improvement Programme (SESLIP) brings together children’s services across the South East of England. Its mission is to improve outcomes for children and families through collaboration, knowledge sharing and the delivery of improvement projects across local authorities.

The challenge

SESLIP’s existing website was outdated and no longer met the needs of its users. Key challenges included:

• Limited ability to share information about SESLIP’s objectives, networks and activities.
• No structured way to publish and manage outputs and deliverables, such as reports, articles and resources.
• Lack of a secure members’ area for sharing restricted content with network participants.
• Cumbersome content management processes, making it difficult for administrators to update or expand the site.
• Inconsistent user experience and accessibility issues that hindered engagement.

These challenges meant SESLIP required a modern platform that could act both as a public-facing website and a secure collaboration hub for its networks.

The solution

Hero delivered a new WordPress-based website designed around SESLIP’s specific requirements. The solution included:

• Public Information Pages: About Us, objectives, areas of work, structure and people involved, all editable via the WordPress admin.
• Networks Section: Dedicated areas for each of SESLIP’s networks, with space for contacts, documents, news and useful links. The system was built to support 15 networks initially, with capacity to add more.
• News & Events: Centralised updates, event listings, newsletters and the option to embed Google Calendars or link to social feeds.
• Contact Directories: A managed address book storing contact details, which automatically updates across pages when changed.
• Members’ Area: Secure login for authorised users with role-based permissions. Restricted resources can be uploaded (reports, documents, PDFs) and assigned to specific networks.
• Search Tools: A global search feature with categorised results (pages, news, public files, restricted resources).
• Content Management Templates: Custom templates make it simple for administrators to add and edit pages consistently.
• Accessibility & Compliance: Built to WCAG 2.0 AAA standards, with GDPR-compliant user registration and data management.
• Additional Features: Mobile-friendly design, cookie controls, Google Analytics integration, SSL security and automatic updates.

The impact

• A modern, user-friendly platform has been delivered that clearly communicates SESLIP’s mission and activities.
• Secure collaboration across networks has been enabled, through protected members’ areas and resource sharing.
• Admin time has reduced through templated content management and automated contact directory updates.
• Transparency and engagement with news, events and accessible content have improved.
• A scalable foundation for SESLIP to grow its digital presence, in line with future needs, has been provided.