Updates: Support for government publishers
2024
Updated guidance about Whitehall Publisher accounts and training. GOV.UK leads and managing editors can request a new Whitehall Publisher account through GOV.UK Support as the 'Writing and Publishing on GOV.UK' training is currently paused.
2023
Updated 'How your request is prioritised' to reflect clearer definition of small changes (previously 'quick fixes').
Added information about when and how to request a content service review.
Added a new section for organisation pages as this content was previously missing
Removing out of date reference to 'beta'.
2022
Added information to the 'Whitehall publisher accounts' section on how to submit a request to reset 2-step verification on a user's account .
Removing Help with content quality section as GDS no longer spot checks content from other government departments.
Reworked to make guidance clearer.
2021
Clarified under ‘Emergency support requests’ that you can only request emergency GOV.UK support if the public or government is facing immediate and significant financial, legal or physical risk.
Added a new Brexit checker section in ‘Request a thing’ which explains how to request a new action in the Brexit checker or amend an existing action.
Clarified rules around requesting a short URL
2020
Updated the other opportunities to learn information in the 'Training' chapter and added a link to the content community service manual page.
Removed out of date bullet point about requesting a new publishing account in the 'Whitehall publisher accounts' chapter.
2019
Change in the 'Request a thing' chapter in the 'Organisation or agency name' short URL request section. Short URLs for organisations should usually be words or an acronym (if that acronym is well known).
Removed references to ‘campaign pages’ as they are no longer available on GOV.UK.
2018
Changed references to ‘high-profile groups’ to ‘sub-organisations’.
Link to emergency contact details on Basecamp removed as this is no longer in use.
Removed guidance about policies because they're about to be retired from GOV.UK.
Added guidance to the ‘Request a thing’ section that explains the difference between Whitehall and mainstream content with some examples.
Added guidance on how to request a topic. Removed guidance on how to request a sub-topic (specialist sector).
Updated training section - information about summer training review and available GOV.UK training course.
2017
Added new content on how to request a featured slot on the GOV.UK homepage.
Updated training section - training is now held at GDS and added the new split advanced content design courses.
New process for how publishers should request Welsh-language translations from GDS
Updated training requests section - training will be held at GDS in Aldgate from January 2018.
Added 3 new content design training courses.
Removed bullets in blog section about how to run a blog, that information is accessible through the link.
Added information about managing your organisation's accounts as an organisational admin in the Whitehall publisher accounts section.
National emergency publishing guidelines
Changed heading structure to better reflect the order in which someone following the process would need the information.
Guidance on emergency homepage wording has been clarified and examples of wording are presented more prominently.
General edits for style and clarity - including splitting up long paragraphs, using more plain English and adding numbered steps.
Removed reference to the GDS Operations Manager as this role is now performed by a different team.
Removed link to the Digital Communications Basecamp group, which no longer exists.
Replaced reference to GOV.UK ‘government team’ with ‘Programme team’, which now performs this role.
Created a new section: 'Change mainstream content'. This describes how to request a content change in a way that will get it completed more quickly.
Expanded this section to include 2 other ways to get content advice, plus a link to the style guide. Also renamed it from 'Government content community'.
Changed the 'request a thing > campaign' guidance in light of the new campaigns platform.
2016
Added section on technical support requests
Removed references to Google analytics training, as GDS no longer run the course.
Added guidance on requesting a Welsh-language translation of mainstream content
Updated to include changes to available training
Removed information on content clinics as these are not happening at the moment
Completed section on requesting analytics permissions and reports
Updated standard response times and removed link to outdated PDF.
Content clinics guidance added.
Updated to explain what requests managing editors and user managers can make.
2015
Added section on validating user needs
Requesting a downtime message has been added to ‘Request a thing’.
Added information on how to request a change to policy pages.
Guidance on requesting a blog updated.
Request a topical event page advice updated.
Added information on requesting training.
2014
Added how to request a sub-topic.
Section added explaining how the Government Digital Service carries out spot checks of GOV.UK content, to help improve content quality.
Moved the responsibilities section of 'Request a blog' to the Blogging section of the content manual.
National emergency publishing guidelines
New section added.
New section added.
New section added.
GOV.UK support requests: processes and response times
New section added.
New section added.