Organisation pages

How to create, edit and add content to your organisation pages.

Edit your organisation page

To open an organisation page for editing, you can either:

  • select the ‘Featured documents’ or ‘Corporate information’ tabs
  • select the ‘More’ tab, click on ‘Organisations’ and then click ‘View’ next to your organisation’s name

You can:

  • edit the content on your organisation page
  • feature specific content items
  • add or edit corporate information pages

Set up your organisation page

To edit your organisation page, select the ‘Details’ tab and click the ‘Edit’ link next to the heading.

Add a default image for news articles

You need to include a default image for your organisation that will appear if an editor publishes a news story without an image.

  1. Under ‘Default news image’, click on the ‘Choose file’ button.

  2. Select a jpeg, gif or png file of a generic photo that reflects your organisation, at 960 pixels wide and 640 pixels high, minimum 75 dpi.

Email address

You need to include an email address so the public can order attachments in alternative formats.

Status on GOV.UK

There are several options for setting your organisation’s status including:

  • ‘Currently live’
  • ‘Coming soon’
  • ‘Exempt from joining’
  • ‘Currently transitioning’
  • ‘Closed’

When your organisation goes live on GOV.UK, change the status to ‘Currently live’. Once your organisation is live do not change the status or your organisation will disappear from GOV.UK.

Associations

Under ‘Associations’ you need to select your ‘Sponsoring organisation/s’.

Once your basic organisation page is set up you have the option to include ‘Featured links’.

Add a description of your organisation’s responsibilities

This is created in a different part of Whitehall. See the section on adding a ‘What we do’ section.

Choosing your homepage layout

If you have ‘managing editor’ permissions you can choose from 2 layout options for your homepage:

  • ‘news priority’ (formerly ‘top tasks’)
  • ‘service priority’ (formerly ‘featured services and guidance’)

How to choose the right layout for your organisation page

You should choose the layout that best meets the needs of your users. You can use Google Analytics to find out what people come to your homepage to do. For example:

  • a high percentage of searches from your organisation page indicates the current format isn’t meeting needs - check what terms users are searching for
  • if your page is news-based but a high proportion of users are clicking on featured links, you might consider whether a service-based page would work better for your users
  • if your page is service-based and there’s evidence of high numbers of users clicking further down the page, a news-based page might meet your users’ needs better

If you do not have much new content to feature in the feature boxes, this could be because your organisation has an emphasis on services.

How to change the layout of your organisation page

To change the layout of your organisation page, select the ‘Details’ tab and click the ‘Edit’ link next to the heading.

Under ‘Position of featured links on organisation homepage’, select the option you want to use. Under ‘Featured links’ complete or edit the ‘Title’ and ‘Url’ fields. To add more featured links, click on ‘Add another featured link’.

The ‘news priority’ layout can have up to 5 featured links. The ‘service priority’ layout can have up to 10 featured links.

Only managing editors can add or edit featured links.

‘News priority’ homepage layout

‘News priority’ featured links are the main things users come to your organisation to do that are not covered by existing content on your pages.

‘News priority’ featured links must be used sparingly and only kept if you have evidence from Google Analytics that users are using them.

As a guide, each ‘news priority’ featured link should be followed by at least 2% of total visitors to your organisation page (measured in total unique pageviews).

‘News priority’ featured links should point to:

  • GOV.UK ‘Services and information’ (or ‘mainstream’) content
  • information or tools on other domains
  • publications that are heavily used

The text of the link must be as specific and active as possible, and not overlap with titles used for ‘corporate’ content types.

You can create links to information that’s not on GOV.UK if there’s evidence of user demand. For example the Ministry of Defence organisation page links to the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force sites.

Do not put anything in the top tasks list that’s already covered by a link on your organisation’s homepage. This includes:

  • detailed guidance
  • high profile groups
  • contact information (for press offices or other bodies)
  • lists of ministers
  • links to all press releases or announcements
  • links to all statistics and research
  • blogs and social media (these can be personalised under ‘follow us’, or calls to action added to relevant policies or publication pages)
  • working for us
  • procurement
  • our priorities

Only use ‘news priority’ featured links to promote campaign sites when there is clear evidence of demand.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) may remove any links that do not meet the standard. If you’re not sure what these links should be, ask GDS for content advice.

‘Service priority’ homepage layout

The ‘service priority’ layout is for organisations that have very little (if any) news, publishing or policy activity, but a high volume of users with very specific, service-oriented needs.

You’ll need to ask GDS to be able to use featured services and guidance proposing the text and URLs for up to 10 links.

When choosing links, consider:

  • what users are searching for from your organisation page
  • routing users to specialist browse pages (if you have them)
  • the top tasks from your existing organisation page
  • most popular content based on page views
  • user feedback comments
  • frequent contact centre queries
  • balancing mainstream and specialist user needs
  • seasonal trends (for example applications for study visas or fishing rod licences)

GDS content designers can help you with choosing the links and the wording based on users’ needs.

Feature content

Feature content on your organisation page to draw attention to current stories or important publications or announcements. Any items you feature must include an image.

You can feature up to 6 pieces of content on an organisation page.

You can only feature published content.

You can feature content published using Whitehall Publisher, including:

  • detailed guides
  • news articles
  • publications
  • speeches
  • consultations
  • collections
  • topical events

It’s also possible to feature some content not published using Whitehall Publisher, including:

  • blog posts
  • campaigns
  • manuals
  • services
  • news stories and press releases published using Content Publisher
  • job adverts published on Civil Service Jobs
  • NHS content
  • emergency alerts
  • content not on GOV.UK, but with a .gov.uk domain

Feature content published using Whitehall Publisher

  1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Features’ tab.

  2. Click the ‘Documents’ tab (or ‘Topical events’ tab for a topical event) and search for the document or event you want to feature.

  3. Click on the ‘Feature’ button next to the document or event you’d like to feature.

  4. Select a 960 pixels wide and 640 pixels high image to be shown on your organisation page with this feature.

Feature content not published using Whitehall Publisher

  1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Features’ tab.

  2. Click the ‘Non-GOV.UK government links’ tab.

  3. Click on ‘Create new link’.

  4. Complete the title, summary, type and URL fields and click Save.

  5. Click on the ‘Feature’ button next to the external page you’d like to feature.

  6. Select a 960 pixels wide and 640 pixels high image to be shown on your organisation page with this feature.

Unfeature and edit content

You can change the order of or unfeature featured content. The first piece of content you feature will be the most prominent.

Change the order of featured content

  1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Features’ tab.

  2. Click on the ‘Currently featured’ tab and then the ‘Reorder documents’ link.

  3. Click and drag an item up or down in the list.

  4. When you’re done setting the order, click ‘Update order’.

Unfeature content

  1. On your organisation page, click on the ‘Features’ tab.

  2. Click ‘Unfeature’ to remove featured content from your organisation page.

Add or edit the ‘What we do’ section

‘What we do’ is a short summary of your organisation’s responsibilities that will appear on your organisation page.

It’s taken from the summary of the ‘About us’ corporate information page. The full ‘About us’ page will be linked to from the ‘What we do’ section when your organisation is live.

To add this section to your organisation page:

  1. Select the ‘Pages’ tab.

  2. Click ‘Create new corporate information page’.

  3. Select ‘About us’ from the ‘Type’ dropdown.

  4. Add a summary and a body – the summary is the part that will show up under the ‘What we do’ section and the body will only be on the separate ‘About us’ page.

  5. When you’re happy with the content, click ‘Submit for 2nd eyes’ so another editor can review the page and publish.

To edit the text:

  1. Select the ‘About’ tab.

  2. Click the ‘View’ link next to the ‘About us’ heading.

  3. Click ‘Create new edition’.

  4. Edit the summary – this is the part that will show up under the ‘What we do’ section.

  5. When you’ve made your edits, click ‘Submit for 2nd eyes’ so another editor can review the page and publish

Add, edit or delete a contact

  1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Contacts’ tab.

  2. Edit, add or delete contact details.

Contact details are shown in the order you add them.

You must add a Freedom of Information contact, which must be shown on your organisation page.

Add other contacts (not for your organisation page) that appear frequently in your news and other documents. You’ll be able to pull these in from the list you create here.

Add a social media account

  1. On your organisation page, click on the ‘Social media accounts’ tab.

  2. Edit, add or delete social media accounts for your organisation.

They will appear on your organisation page under the ‘Follow us’ heading.

Social media accounts are shown in the order you add them.

Add people

To find out how to create people see guidance on People and roles.

Once you’ve created your organisation’s people, you can go to the ‘People’ tab, click ‘Reorder’ and drag people’s names up and down to reorder them.

You can change the number of people photos that appear on an organisation page under ‘Our management’.

  1. Go to the ‘Details’ tab and click ‘Edit’.

  2. Change the number in the ‘Display management team images’ drop down menu.

  3. Select ‘Save’.

Add corporate information pages

  1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Pages’ tab.

  2. Add new corporate information pages as needed - you can only use each type once.

The pages you can add to your organisation page are:

  • About our services
  • About us – the summary of this page will also appear in the ‘What we do’ section on your organisation page
  • Accessible documents policy
  • Complaints procedure
  • Equality and diversity, to show how the organisation meets its equality responsibilities
  • Media enquiries
  • Membership
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Office access and opening times
  • Our energy use, links to the organisation’s energy use data (generally central headquarters)
  • Our governance, describes the boards and committees that run the organisation
  • Petitions and campaigns
  • Personal information charter, for standards followed by organisations when asking for information
  • Procurement offers information for potential suppliers
  • Publication scheme lists the information the organisation routinely makes available
  • Research at x lists areas of research and analysis
  • Social media use
  • Statistics at x includes a forward look at releases and explains how the organisation compiles stats
  • Welsh language scheme for organisations providing services in Wales
  • Working for x provides direct links to job listings and any relevant recruitment or HR policies

These pages will be listed on your organisation page automatically.

You cannot add HTML attachments directly to corporate information pages. You’ll need to publish the attachment on a publication page type then hyperlink to it from the corporate information page.

Translate your organisation page

To add a translated version of your organisation page, go to the ‘Translations’ tab. Then choose the language that you’ll be adding the translation for and click the ‘Create new translation’ button.

You need to add a translation of the:

  • organisation name
  • organisation acronym (if you use one)
  • logo formatted name

View an example of a translated organisation page.

The translated organisation name will appear on all Whitehall content translated into the same language.

You can then add translated versions of the other content on your organisation page. If you do not add translated versions, then the English versions will show up by default.

Feature translated content

  1. Select the ‘Features [language]’ tab. 

  2. Feature the translated content in the same way as you usually feature content on an organisation page.

  1. Go to the ‘Translations’ tab on your organisation page.

  2. Click ‘Edit’ next to the translation you want to have featured links.

  3. Add or edit the featured links and click the ‘Save’ button when you’re done. The new links should show straight away on the live page.

Add translated contacts

  1. Go to the ‘Contacts’ tab on your organisation page.

  2. Click ‘Add translation’ next to the contact you want to translate.

  3. Select the language you want to translate the contact into.

  4. Add the translated content as usual and click ‘Save’.

Add translated social media accounts

  1. Go to the ‘Social media accounts’ tab on your organisation page.

  2. You should see a ‘[Translation] account’ option under the ‘English account’ option. Click ‘Edit’ next to it.

  3. Add the URL (if there’s a different URL for the non-English version) and title in the relevant fields and click ‘Save’.

Add translated people pages

Follow the guidance on adding translations to people pages.

The translated version will automatically show up on the translated organisation page.

Add translated corporate information, including the ‘What we do’ section

  1. Go to the ‘Pages’ tab on your organisation page.

  2. Click ‘View’ next to the page you want to add a translation for.

  3. Follow the guidance on translating documents.

The translated version will automatically show up on the translated organisation page.

You can add a translated version of your ‘What we do’ section by following these steps and translating your ‘About us’ page. The summary of that translation will be used in your ‘What we do’ section.

Close an organisation

Organisations should never be deleted from GOV.UK. Instead, the status of an organisation can be changed to ‘closed’.

Organisations marked as closed are not listed on the organisations index and disappear from the parent or sponsor department’s organisation page. But they continue to have a profile page findable at the same URL, with a statement indicating they’re closed.

Closed organisation profiles will remain findable by external search engines and the internal site search, and remain listed as a filter option, for example when filtering by organisation on the list of all government publications.

Documents tagged to the organisation

All documents tagged to the organisation will stay tagged after it closes, so the context of who published it is retained.

You might need to re-tag some documents so they’re tagged to both the closing and new organisation, for example if the closing organisation is being replaced, merging or changing its name.

Only re-tag a document to the new organisation if the content is still current - for example, guidance or policy should still be followed. Keep the document tagged to the closing organisation too.

To get an idea of what you need to re-tag, you can export a list of your organisation’s published documents and what content type they are. In the ‘Documents’ section of Whitehall Publisher, filter by your organisation name and select ‘Export as CSV’.

GDS recommend re-tagging these document formats to the new organisation:

  • detailed guides
  • ‘guidance’ publications
  • forms
  • manuals
  • research and analysis
  • fatality notices
  • independent reports
  • correspondence - unless directly associated with a previous minister
  • maps
  • decisions
  • case studies
  • international treaties

You should only re-tag the following formats to the new organisation if the content will be updated by the new organisation:

  • national statistics
  • statistical releases
  • transparency data
  • open consultations

These formats should not be re-tagged to the new organisation:

  • news articles
  • press releases
  • annual reports
  • transparency data
  • statistics
  • closed consultations
  • documents in history mode

There may be exceptions to the list of formats that should not be re-tagged - for example:

  • things that are heavily used, like recent news articles
  • an announcement of something that has not yet happened
  • history mode published in the wrong format

Ask GDS if:

  • you do not know what to re-tag to the new organisation
  • there are too many documents to re-tag manually - GDS can bulk re-tag

How to close an organisation

  1. Go to the ‘Details’ tab and click ‘Edit’.

  2. Change its ‘Status on GOV.UK’ from ‘Currently live’ to ‘Closed’.

  3. Under the ‘Reason for closure’ menu that appears, choose one of these:

  • no longer exists
  • replaced
  • split into parts
  • merged with another organisation
  • change of name
  • no longer part of central government
  • devolved to regional government

If your organisation is being taken over by another organisation, enter the name of the organisation taking over from (superseding) your organisation.

Choose the date the organisation closed.

What a closed organisation page will look like

There are different options in Whitehall publisher for describing ‘closed’ organisations, each of which generates slightly different wording for users.

Reason for closure Use when Automated wording Example
No longer exists Organisation is closed and its functions have not been taken over by anyone else. [name of organisation] closed down in [month/year]. or if date not known [name of organisation] has closed down. Agricultural Wages Committee
Replaced Organisation is closed and has been replaced [name of organisation] was replaced by [name of organisation] in [month/year]. or if date not known [name of organisation] was replaced by [name of organisation]. Driving Standards Agency
Split Organisation is split into parts [name of organisation] was replaced by [name of organisation] and [name of organisation] in [month/year]. or if date not known [name of organisation] was replaced by [name of organisation] and [name of organisation]. Department for Education and Skills
Merged with other organisation Organisation is merged into / with another organisation [name of organisation] became part of [name of organisation] in [month/year]. or if date not known [name of organisation] is now part of [name of organisation].  
Change of name Organisation changes its name [name of organisation] is now called [name of new organisation].  
No longer part of central government Organisation is still operational, but no longer part of central government [name of organisation] is now independent of the UK government. [Note: link to the organisation’s website in the text summary field] Design Council
Devolved to regional government Organisation is devolved to regional government [name of organisation] is now run by the [name of new organisation] (NB Scottish Government / Welsh Government / Northern Ireland Executive are modelled in the system]. [Note: link to the organisation’s website in the text summary field] Western Health and Social Services Board