GovWire

Send a content request to the Government Digital Service (GDS).

Any changes to the non-link content of the page must be updated by GDS, similar to how mainstream pages are updated.

Send a content request to GDS.

You will need access to Local Links Manager.

If you do not have access, one of your organisation admins can help with this.

If youre the only organisation admin, use the accounts form to ask for access to Local Links Manager.

Check links

Once youre in Local Links Manager, you need to:

1. Select the Services tab. Youll see all the services currently tagged to your organisation.
2. Select Edit next to the service youre interested in. Youll see the related GOV.UK pages for the service in the Page title(s) on GOV.UK column.
3. Youll see a list of all the broken and missing links picked up by the link checker.
4. If you want to see all the links, select Show all links. This will show links that are Good, Pending and those that have a note attached. A note shows the page cannot be checked by the link checker, so you may want to visit those manually to see if there are any issues.

Some services work across 2 local transaction pages, so if you update them once theyll update on both pages. You can see all the affected pages under Page title(s) on GOV.UK.

Some services have multiple interactions for each council. These are redundant now, and each interaction can be given the same link.

If you find any links that are marked as Broken but that seem to be working for you, you do not need to take any action. The link checker does not work on certain council websites.

Update links

You will need a working link.

The new link cannot be a direct link to a PDF document. If thats the only place where users can find the information, link to the page that hosts the PDF instead.

If you cannot find a working link but you know that the council provides the service, you can link to their homepage or contact details.

If youre not sure whether a council provides a service, you can leave it blank and itll be marked as Missing. Users will get a message telling them that were not sure if the council provides the service, and theyll be given a link to the councils homepage instead.

If you want to update a single link, you need to:

1. Go to the relevant service.
2. Search for the name of the local council with the broken or missing link.
3. Select Edit next to all the interactions that show up.
4. Enter the new link and select Update.
5. Select Show all links and check the link has updated. It will go live on the site immediately.

If you want to update multiple links at once:

1. Go to the relevant service.
2. Select Download links.
3. Unselect any categories youre not interested in. Caution links are those with a note attached.
4. Select Download links.
5. Open the file in a spreadsheet and add working links to the New URL column. If the council is listed more than once in the Authority Name column, add the same link next to each instance.
6. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.
7. Go back to the transaction and select Upload links.
8. Select Choose file, choose the updated CSV file and select Upload links.
9. Select Show all links and check the links have updated. They will go live on the site immediately.

Update the name of a council

If the wrong council shows up when users enter a particular postcode, send a technical fault report to GDS.

This might be because:

• a local council has changed its name
• several local councils have merged together
• a local council has split apart
• theres an issue with the postcode data