Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) wanted to launch a shared fostering service with Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The site needed to feel neutral, not owned by one council and still accessible, cost-effective, and easy for multiple teams to manage.
The LocalGov Drupal (LGD) platform already included subsites, but the councils needed something more flexible:
- A dedicated URL and branding separate from the main council sites.
- Shared content ownership between different organisations.
- A setup that could be reused for future shared services.
What we did
We worked with H&F’s web team to configure and design one of the first LocalGov Drupal microsites, purpose-built for standalone service websites.
- Built on open source: using LGD’s beta microsite functionality, we configured user roles and permissions so multiple councils could collaborate on one shared site.
- Accessible design: orange was chosen as the main brand colour, so we tested and refined contrast and font size to meet accessibility standards.
- Reusable theming: to make future microsites easier, we created a base theme (LBHF Main Overrides) with built-in design standards specifically for H&F. Fonts, circular image settings, and accessibility tweaks.
- Custom features: a microsite-specific header with three council logos, adjusted layouts, and branding overrides.
The result: a fully branded fostering microsite designed and launched in under two weeks.
The results
The project showed how flexible LocalGov Drupal can be for small, shared-service websites.
- The fostering microsite went live quickly and met accessibility and performance standards.
- H&F can now launch new microsites faster using the same base theme.
- The LGD community gained valuable insight into configuring and improving the microsites feature.
We also plan to contribute fixes from our LBHF Main Overrides theme back to LocalGov Drupal including some little accessibility improvements.
What’s next
More microsites are on the way for H&F, and we’re continuing to refine the process. We’ll publish guidance and lessons learned for other councils interested in using LocalGov Drupal microsites, including setup advice and common pitfalls.
Interested in a microsite installation?
If you’d like to explore how microsites could support your council or organisation, get in touch at hello@wearechicken.co.uk.mi