The Case for LocalGov Drupal: Shared Innovation, Reduced Costs, Better Outcomes

Introduction

Local authorities today face a complex digital landscape. Residents expect seamless, intuitive online services that mirror the best of the private sector. Yet, councils must deliver them against a backdrop of constrained budgets, legacy systems, and growing operational pressures. The challenge is not simply to “improve the website”, but to establish a sustainable digital foundation that supports service transformation, reduces duplication, and enables teams to deliver better outcomes for communities.

Alongside these pressures, the security of council digital infrastructure has never been more critical. Recent incidents, such as the high-profile cyber-attack on multiple London councils, and the incident impacting Leicester City Council that left key systems offline and exposed sensitive data, underline just how vulnerable public-sector organisations can be when reliant on outdated platforms or fragmented systems.

With cyber threats becoming more sophisticated, councils are under heightened scrutiny to ensure their digital estates are secure, resilient and built on technology that can be maintained and patched reliably. Accessibility expectations have also risen significantly, with WCAG 2.2 compliance now essential rather than optional. Combined, these factors highlight the importance of platforms that are actively supported, continually improved, and backed by a community invested in long-term public service outcomes.

In this context, the way councils design, build and maintain their digital services is shifting. There is increasing recognition that traditional procurement models, bespoke builds and proprietary CMS platforms can lead to unnecessary cost, technical debt, and supplier dependence. What’s needed instead is an approach built around reuse, interoperability, and collaboration.

This is where LocalGov Drupal has rapidly gained traction. Born out of a collective desire among councils to pool expertise and reduce duplication, it has evolved into a robust, open-source platform designed specifically for local government. By combining shared innovation with a strong technical foundation, it enables councils to deliver higher-quality digital services while spending less, and doing so in a way that is transparent, future-proof, and aligned with the realities of modern public service delivery.

What is LocalGov Drupal?

LocalGov Drupal is an open-source content management platform created by councils, for councils. It emerged from a collective recognition that local authorities across the UK were repeatedly solving the same digital challenges in isolation, building similar components, commissioning near-identical website features, and reinvesting scarce resources in work already done elsewhere. Rather than continuing that cycle, a group of councils came together to develop a shared solution that would reduce duplication, improve quality, and create long-term value for the sector.

At its core, LocalGov Drupal is a distribution of the Drupal content management system, a mature, enterprise-grade platform used globally by governments, universities and large organisations. What makes LocalGov Drupal distinct is the layer of council-specific functionality, design patterns and service components that sit on top of Drupal, all created with the needs of local government in mind. Councils benefit from a powerful CMS, while also gaining access to a suite of ready-made, sector-tested features.

The project is governed by a consortium model, with participating councils contributing code, insight, research, and governance. This ensures that the platform evolves in response to genuine public-sector needs rather than vendor-driven priorities. Councils of all sizes have joined the community, ranging from districts to unitaries and metropolitan authorities, sharing learnings and collectively improving an asset that belongs to them.

Because it is open source, LocalGov Drupal is free to use, with no licensing costs and no proprietary barriers. Councils can adopt it independently, extend it, contribute improvements, or work with certified suppliers from an approved directory. The codebase is fully transparent, which not only supports security but also reduces supplier lock-in and enables councils to take genuine ownership of their digital estate.

In short, LocalGov Drupal is more than a CMS. It is a sector-wide collaboration that allows councils to build better digital services faster, while benefiting from the shared expertise, investment, and innovation of the entire community.

Key features that matter to councils

LocalGov Drupal’s feature set is shaped directly by the needs, constraints and operational realities of local government. Rather than offering a generic CMS with templates that councils must bend to fit, it provides components and patterns explicitly designed for how residents seek information and interact with public services. The result is a platform that not only accelerates delivery but also helps councils create consistent, accessible experiences across all service areas.

Accessible, user-centred design patterns

Accessibility sits at the heart of LocalGov Drupal. Its components follow WCAG guidelines and are tested across device types and assistive technologies. This means councils begin with an accessible baseline rather than retrofitting fixes later. For authorities managing high volumes of content across diverse teams, accessible defaults significantly reduce risk and support compliance with legal responsibilities.

Reusable content types and service components

LocalGov Drupal includes a range of structured content types that mirror everyday council needs, including news, events, directory listings, service landing pages, step-by-step guides and location-based content. These components reduce the need for bespoke development and ensure consistency across services. They also help teams publish information more clearly, improving findability and reducing avoidable contact.

A consistent design system for the whole organisation

Branding, layout and interface patterns are handled through a shared design system. This ensures that whether a resident is reporting a missed bin collection or applying for a parking permit, the experience feels unified. Consistency builds trust, reduces cognitive load, and helps residents complete tasks more easily, an essential consideration for councils supporting users with varied digital skills.

Strong workflow and governance controls

LocalGov Drupal includes granular publishing workflows tailored to the realities of large content teams. Drafting, reviewing, approving and scheduling content is intuitive, allowing services, communications and web teams to manage content collaboratively while maintaining quality assurance and version control.

Powerful multisite capabilities

Many councils run multiple microsites for things like leisure centres, museums, major initiatives or even local partnerships. LocalGov Drupal's multisite functionality allows these to be managed centrally, sharing design patterns and content where appropriate, while still allowing for distinctive branding and autonomy where needed. This can significantly reduce cost and complexity across a council’s broader web estate.

Scalability, security and long-term maintainability

Built on Drupal, a platform trusted by governments globally, LocalGov Drupal inherits a strong security model, active patching, and a modular architecture that supports long-term maintainability. Updates are community-driven and transparent, giving councils confidence that the platform is robust, well-supported and suitable for mission-critical public services. Work is already underway to prepare the project for Drupal 11 and future upgrades.

Together, these features give councils a solution that is sector-specific, future-proof and immediately practical, enabling teams to deliver better digital services without reinventing the wheel.
 

Benefits for local authorities

The strengths of LocalGov Drupal go beyond its technical features. Its real value lies in how it helps councils tackle the systemic challenges of delivering modern digital services, ranging from budget constraints to accessibility requirements and the practicalities of maintaining large, multi-service websites. Based on our experience, the benefits below most frequently resonate with local authority teams.

1. Reduced costs through shared investment

Councils routinely face duplication of effort: building similar templates, commissioning similar user research, and paying repeatedly for the same features to be developed. LocalGov Drupal breaks this cycle. 

Because its components are developed collaboratively and made freely available to all adopters, every improvement is shared across the community. Councils benefit from features they didn’t individually fund, while contributing only where they choose to. This can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership over the long term.

2. Faster delivery and shorter time-to-value

With ready-made patterns, accessible components and a sector-specific design system, councils can launch or relaunch websites far more quickly than with traditional bespoke builds.

The platform provides a strong starting point rather than a blank canvas, enabling teams and suppliers to focus effort on what is genuinely unique, such as local service enhancements, integrations, or improvements driven by resident insight.

3. Better, more consistent user experiences

Residents often struggle with fragmented, inconsistent council websites. Different layouts, varying content quality, and inconsistent journeys can increase time on task or push users to call customer service instead.

LocalGov Drupal promotes clarity and consistency by design. Shared components and content structures mean that service areas follow a unified approach, making it easier for residents to find information, complete tasks and access support.

Councils adopting the platform frequently report reductions in unnecessary contact, improved digital confidence among users, and more effective self-service journeys.
 

4. Improved accessibility and compliance

Meeting accessibility standards is both a legal and ethical obligation, but ensuring compliance across thousands of pages and many authors can be challenging.

LocalGov Drupal’s accessible defaults, tested patterns and guidance reduce risk from the start. Councils benefit from the community's collective scrutiny, which surfaces issues early and ensures that updates reflect emerging standards, such as WCAG 2.2.
 

5. Reduced supplier lock-in and greater digital autonomy

Because LocalGov Drupal is open source and fully transparent, councils retain control over their digital estate. They are free to switch suppliers, build internal capability, or collaborate directly with the community.

This flexibility is often appealing to authorities looking to reduce long-term dependency on proprietary systems, agencies or single vendors.
 

6. A sustainable, future-proof foundation

LocalGov Drupal evolves in step with sector needs, supported by an active community of councils, developers and certified suppliers. This collective stewardship ensures ongoing improvements, security updates and innovation, providing a level of resilience difficult to replicate through isolated procurement.

In essence, LocalGov Drupal enables councils to deliver better digital services with fewer resources while benefiting from an approach built on collaboration, transparency, and shared value.

Real-world use cases & examples

LocalGov Drupal is now used by a growing number of councils across the UK, ranging from small district authorities to large unitaries and metropolitan councils. As adoption has increased, so too has the variety of use cases, demonstrating how the platform can support different organisational structures, service models and resident needs. The examples below illustrate the types of outcomes councils are achieving.

1. Accelerating website relaunches

Many councils have used LocalGov Drupal to deliver complete website redesigns significantly faster than traditional approaches. Authorities that previously relied on legacy CMS platforms or bespoke systems often face long development cycles and high redevelopment costs. With LocalGov Drupal providing a ready-made foundation, including content patterns, templates and governance tools, teams can focus on content migration, service clarity and user-centred improvements rather than technical groundwork.

2. Improving accessibility and meeting compliance needs

Councils with older sites frequently experience inconsistent accessibility standards across service areas. LocalGov Drupal’s built-in, WCAG-aligned components help remove these inconsistencies. Councils report that content teams find it easier to produce accessible pages, and that accessibility testing becomes more manageable because many common issues are prevented by default. This is particularly valuable during periods of heightened accessibility scrutiny or when preparing for updated standards such as WCAG 2.2.

3. Enhancing service clarity and reducing avoidable contact

Several authorities have used LocalGov Drupal’s structured content types to improve how key services, such as waste, planning, housing and benefits, are presented. By replacing dense, unstructured legacy pages with clear, task-oriented guidance and consistent design patterns, councils have seen reductions in avoidable calls and improved completion rates for online tasks.

Features such as step-by-step patterns and location-based content have supported clearer journeys, enabling residents to find the right information quickly.
 

4. Managing multiple sites more efficiently

Some councils manage a constellation of microsites alongside their main corporate site, including leisure facilities, venues, cultural programmes and local initiatives. LocalGov Drupal’s multisite capability has enabled authorities to consolidate hosting, reduce maintenance costs and apply a consistent approach to branding and content governance. Teams can manage more sites without proportionally increasing workload, while still allowing for distinctive branding where appropriate.

5. Strengthening sector collaboration

Perhaps the most distinctive outcome is cultural rather than technical: LocalGov Drupal has helped councils share learning, contribute improvements, and collectively shape the platform. This collaboration has enabled councils with limited resources to benefit from others' innovations, while also giving larger authorities a meaningful way to support sector-wide improvement.

Support & sustainability

One of the most important considerations for any council choosing a digital platform is long-term sustainability. Websites and digital services are not static assets; they require ongoing updates, security patches, accessibility improvements, content governance and continuous enhancement. LocalGov Drupal is designed with these needs in mind, providing a model of support and sustainability that differs meaningfully from traditional proprietary or bespoke systems.

1. A community-driven roadmap

LocalGov Drupal is maintained and improved by a broad community of councils, developers, user researchers, content designers and delivery teams. This collective stewardship ensures that the roadmap reflects genuine sector-wide needs rather than commercial priorities. Enhancements and fixes contributed by one authority become available to all, creating a multiplier effect that benefits the entire ecosystem from shared expertise and investment.

2. Transparent, secure and actively maintained

Because LocalGov Drupal is open source, all code is publicly visible and subject to continuous scrutiny. This transparency strengthens trust and security by enabling issues to be identified, discussed, and resolved openly, and by allowing every council to verify the integrity of the codebase. Updates to Drupal core, security patches and new features are managed in collaboration with the community, providing councils with a reliable and predictable maintenance model.

This is particularly valuable at a time when cyber threats facing local government are increasing. Unlike proprietary platforms where councils must rely on a single vendor for fixes or upgrades, the LocalGov Drupal community provides resilience through diversity: multiple contributors, multiple reviewers and shared responsibility for security.

3. Access to a certified supplier network

While councils can adopt and support LocalGov Drupal independently, many choose to work with partners from its certified supplier directory. These suppliers have demonstrated the capability to deliver, maintain, and extend the platform in line with best practice. Their experience helps councils accelerate delivery, manage updates safely and ensure that the platform performs reliably throughout its lifecycle.

4. A sustainable model for the sector

The combination of shared maintenance, transparent governance, and an active supplier ecosystem creates a long-term sustainability model rare in local government digital procurement. Councils avoid vendor lock-in, reduce duplication of effort and gain confidence that their platform will evolve in step with emerging needs and standards.

Together, these elements make LocalGov Drupal not just a strong technical choice, but a resilient foundation for digital public services.

Should your council adopt LocalGov Drupal?

LocalGov Drupal offers a compelling proposition for many councils, but like any platform, it is most effective when adopted with a clear understanding of organisational needs, digital maturity, and long-term goals. The following considerations can help authorities assess whether it is the right fit.
 

1. The scale and complexity of your website

LocalGov Drupal is particularly strong for councils with large, content-heavy sites, multiple service areas and a need for consistent patterns across diverse teams. 

If your existing site suffers from inconsistent content quality, fragmented journeys or unclear governance, the platform’s structure and design system can provide much-needed coherence.

2. Your approach to digital accessibility and compliance

Authorities working toward higher accessibility standards or struggling to maintain WCAG compliance across thousands of pages often see immediate benefits.

LocalGov Drupal’s accessible components and patterns reduce risk, simplify testing and make it easier for authors to produce compliant content.
 

3. Appetite for collaboration and shared innovation

The platform thrives in organisations that are open to learning from others and to contributing to a shared roadmap.

Councils that value sector-wide collaboration or lack the resources to build specialist functionality in-house will benefit from the community-driven model.
 

4. Desire to reduce long-term costs and dependency on proprietary systems

If your council is seeking to lower licensing costs, avoid vendor lock-in or reduce duplication of effort, LocalGov Drupal provides a viable alternative. 

Its open-source nature gives councils full ownership of their digital estate and the freedom to switch suppliers or develop capability in-house.
 

5. Internal skills and readiness for change

Adopting LocalGov Drupal doesn’t require specialised in-house development teams, but councils do benefit from having:

• Clear governance around content
• Strong service ownership
• A willingness to adopt structured patterns

Where internal resources are limited, working with a certified supplier can provide capacity and reassurance
 

6. Migration, integration and technical considerations

For councils with complex legacy systems or bespoke integrations, a discovery phase is often needed to assess the migration effort.
LocalGov Drupal integrates well with common local government systems, but thorough planning ensures a smooth transition and long-term maintainability.

Empowering councils to shape their digital future

LocalGov Drupal is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but for many authorities, it offers a rare combination of sector-specific features, shared investment, long-term sustainability, and greater control over their digital future. Councils looking to modernise their web estate in a secure, cost-effective and collaborative way will find it a strong contender.

LocalGov Drupal represents a significant shift in how councils can approach their digital services. Rather than working in isolation, rebuilding the same components, commissioning the same features, or wrestling with the same accessibility issues, authorities now have access to a shared, sector-owned platform designed around real local government needs. It offers a practical, sustainable alternative to traditional proprietary systems, and one that aligns closely with the financial, operational and strategic pressures shaping public service delivery today.

By pooling expertise and investment, councils can achieve more than any individual authority could deliver on its own. The platform’s accessible design patterns, structured content models, strong governance tools and open-source foundations provide a resilient starting point for delivering consistent, user-focused digital services. Just as importantly, its community-led roadmap ensures that improvements are driven by genuine public need rather than vendor priorities.

LocalGov Drupal is not merely a technical framework, it is a collaborative movement, one that enables councils to share innovation, reduce costs, and deliver better outcomes for residents. As digital expectations continue to grow and security, accessibility, and efficiency become ever more critical, the value of a collective, transparent, and future-proof approach becomes increasingly clear.

For councils exploring their next steps, whether planning a full website redevelopment, addressing legacy risks, improving accessibility, or seeking a more sustainable delivery model, LocalGov Drupal offers a powerful foundation. It empowers authorities to take ownership of their digital estate, build capability, and contribute to a platform that benefits the entire sector.

In an era where local government must do more with less, LocalGov Drupal stands out as a practical and collaborative approach to delivering high-quality, secure, accessible digital services shaped by the needs of the communities they serve.

You can learn more about LocalGov Drupal adoption pathways and contact our team for an exploratory chat via our LocalGov Drupal services page.