Most forums have a website so they can share information about events the forum is holding, share surveys and other ways to get involved and provide feedback to parent carers on the work they have been doing.
A website is an effective way of informing many people of the existence of your forum and its work. You can use a website to:
- Tell people about your forum and how to contact you.
- Tell parents about meetings, consultations and opportunities to get involved.
- Keep people up to date with what is going on, for example success stories, results of consultations and details of what the forum is currently involved in.
- Attract parents who do not like using telephones and cannot get to, or don’t wish to, attend meetings.
- Link to local networks, for example parent carer groups, local services and useful information, including the ‘local offer’.
- Set up online forums to enable parents to contribute their views on local services when they cannot get to meetings, so they still have their voice heard.
- Raise your forum’s profile amongst service managers and professionals.
Planning the forum website
Designing a website may feel overwhelming if you have never done it before. Forums could ask parent carers in the area if they have any experience and are able to help. Forums can also approach a company who will be able to build the website for them.
When forums are planning a website some things that forums need to be considered are:
- What the structure of your website will be (sections and pages)
- Who is going to write the content (cost and time)
- Who is going to design the website (costs)
- Images and logos (do you have the right permissions)
- Who is going to update the website (cost and time)
- Things you may want to add later (check the platform you choose will work with what you want to do)
Designing the website content
When designing the content for your website, it will be helpful to review the page on branding in this handbook. Forums may also find it useful to look at other forum websites. Or you can talk to forums in your region about how they have done their website.
Forums will want to create a list of pages that they want to have on the website. From this, start to think about how you can group them together. You may want to ask other parent carers to look at this to make sure it works for as many users as possible.
A forums website will want to include information about:
- The forum’s purpose and who can join.
- How the forum is run and how often it meets.
- How parents can join and get involved.
- Contact details for people wanting more information.
- What the forum is currently involved in.
- How the forum has been successful in improving services.
- You will also want to advertise forum meetings, events and consultations.
Once you have created this list, you may want to prioritise which pages you need to do first.
Accessible online platforms: Ensure that your website is accessible to all users, including those using assistive technologies such as screen readers or voice recognition software. Forums could include accessible navigation, forms, and multimedia content.
Include diverse representation: Ensure that your website reflects the diversity of your audience by featuring images and content that represent people from various backgrounds, abilities, and experiences living within the local community. This helps create a culture and sense of inclusivity and belonging for all members of the parent carer community.
Engage parent carers in the design: Involve parent carers, including those with disabilities or specific accessibility needs, in the design process to gather feedback and ensure that the website is inclusive and user-friendly. Consider conducting user testing to identify any issues and make necessary improvements.
Provide Language Options: Most websites allow you to add tools, like google translate, that will allow the user to select the language the text is displayed in. Forums can offer materials in multiple languages to accommodate parent carers from diverse linguistic backgrounds adding these to your website for downloading.
Updating and managing your website
Forums will need to schedule time to update the website as information can go out of date quickly. Tools are available that can be used to check for things like broken links which you may find helpful. You may also find that you can link your website to other tools you use, like a database, so you do not have to duplicate work. For example, some systems, like Lamplight, enable you to post events directly from them onto your website.
If a forum is signposting to other services, it can be helpful to put minimal information on your website and link to the service website. This method is often used by sites, like the Local Offer, so that the most up to date information is available.
If the forum starts to struggle to maintain the website, it may be worth going back to the activity you did when designing the website and reflect on what is needed and what could be removed. It can sometimes be better to have less information, but it’s up to date and of a good quality.
- Diggity Marketing: Guide: how to choose the best website builder
- Charity Excellence: Guide: UK Charity website design
Do you have any thoughts about this page? Visit our How to feedback page to share them.
Looking for something else? You can find a full list of pages on our Parent carer forum handbook contents page.
Find out more about developing a website
Branding
Find out more about branding your forum
Branding
Using technology to support forum activity
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Let's get digitally inclusive
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Presenting your forum
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Find out moreContact adviser
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Contact Parent Carer Participation Advisers
NNPCF Website and social media
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