Contribute to Deliver good DfE services

Deliver good DfE services brings together guidance, standards, patterns, tools, and examples that help teams work consistently, meet user needs, and deliver services that are accessible, secure and reliable.

This product improves when people contribute. If you have guidance, examples, evidence, corrections or ideas that could help other teams, we want to hear from you.

View our roadmap for what you can contribute to.

Ways to contribute

You can contribute in 4 ways:

Contact the team

Contact the Deliver good DfE services team if you:

  • have an idea for new guidance
  • want to suggest a change to existing content
  • have examples, patterns or evidence from your service
  • are not sure where your contribution should go
  • want to discuss a larger content change before raising it

When you contact us, include:

  • what you want to add or change
  • why the change is needed
  • who it will help
  • any evidence, research, data or examples you have
  • links to relevant standards, guidance, patterns or services

Use page feedback

Use the "Give feedback" option at the bottom of the page, above the footer, to tell us if something is:

  • unclear
  • out of date
  • missing important information
  • hard to use
  • not meeting the needs of your team

This is best for smaller changes or feedback about a specific page.

Raise an issue in GitHub

You can raise an issue in the Deliver good DfE services GitHub repository if you want to:

  • suggest a new page
  • report a problem
  • propose a change to content, navigation or structure
  • request a new feature
  • contribute to the backlog

Raise an issue in GitHub: DFE-Digital/deliver-good-services-frontend

Issues are reviewed and prioritised by DesignOps. We may contact you for more information before deciding what happens next.

Become an editor

Some people may need to own and maintain content directly.

You can request access to the content management system if you need to:

  • own a section of guidance
  • maintain standards or policy content
  • regularly update content for your profession, community or product area
  • publish agreed guidance through the manual

To request an editor account, complete the CMS access request form: Request access to the CMS

We will review your request and get back to you within 3 working days.

We may ask for more information before giving you access. This helps us make sure the right people have the right level of access and that content ownership is clear.

What makes a good contribution

A good contribution should help teams deliver better services.

Your contribution should:

  • be based on user needs
  • be clear about the problem it solves
  • include evidence where possible
  • follow DfE and GOV.UK standards
  • use plain English
  • follow the GOV.UK style guide
  • be accessible and inclusive
  • avoid unnecessary jargon
  • avoid duplicating guidance that already exists
  • be reusable by more than one team, where possible

Standards contributors must follow

All content in Deliver good DfE services should follow:

  • the GOV.UK Service Standard
  • the GOV.UK style guide
  • DfE standards and guidance
  • accessibility requirements, including WCAG 2.2 level AA
  • plain English principles
  • DfE content, design and technical standards
  • any relevant legal, security, data protection or operational requirements

If your contribution introduces a new pattern, component, standard or way of working, you may need to provide evidence that it has been tested or reviewed.

Content quality

Before suggesting or publishing content, check that it is:

  • accurate
  • up to date
  • easy to understand
  • written for the people who need to use it
  • structured with clear headings
  • specific enough to be useful
  • linked to related guidance, standards or tools
  • clear about who owns it
  • clear about when it should be reviewed

Evidence and examples

Where possible, include evidence with your contribution.

This might include:

  • user research
  • analytics
  • service assessment findings
  • accessibility testing
  • support requests
  • operational data
  • examples from live services
  • design critiques
  • technical analysis
  • policy or legal advice

Evidence helps us understand whether the contribution should be added, changed or prioritised.

Ownership and maintenance

Content needs a clear owner.

If you contribute content, you may be asked to help maintain it. This means making sure it stays accurate, useful and aligned with current standards.

Content owners are expected to:

  • review content when standards, policy or guidance changes
  • respond to feedback
  • keep examples and links up to date
  • work with DesignOps on significant changes
  • make sure content continues to meet user needs

What happens after you contribute

DesignOps will review contributions and decide the best next step.

Depending on the contribution, we may:

  • make the change directly
  • add it to the backlog
  • ask for more information
  • suggest changes to the content
  • involve subject matter experts
  • ask for evidence or examples
  • discuss it at a relevant working group
  • decide not to progress it

We prioritise contributions based on user need, risk, reuse, evidence, alignment with standards and the value it provides to teams across DfE.

Larger changes

Some contributions may need more review before they are published.

This is more likely if the contribution:

  • creates new guidance
  • changes an existing standard
  • introduces a new design pattern or component
  • affects accessibility, security, data protection or legal compliance
  • changes how teams are expected to work
  • creates a new ownership or maintenance responsibility

For larger changes, contact the team before doing detailed work.

Contact the Deliver good DfE services team to discuss your idea.