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Google Analytics has been a staple for businesses and marketing teams alike when it comes to understanding online performance since its introduction in 2005. The first instance of Google Analytics came in the form of Universal Analytics (UA) - a platform we all grew to understand and love. It provided valuable insights into website activity, showed us how to track a user's interactions as they move through a site, and gave us access to demographics and user behaviour information we'd otherwise be in the dark around. 

However, as digital landscapes evolved, so did the need for a more advanced analytics solution. So, in July 2023, Google officially transitioned from UA to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a system designed to provide deeper insights into user behaviour across multiple platforms, including mobile apps.

If you're a fan of the old and are looking to transition to the new, moving between the two systems and understanding new terminologies can feel overwhelming. In this blog, we'll explore the benefits of GA4 and the five most significant changes you need to be aware of to make sure you don't miss out on vital data capture, and can seamlessly transition to the new normal.

The endless benefits of GA4

GA4 isn't just a simple update; it's a complete overhaul of Google Analytics with several advantages over UA:

• Cross-platform tracking: In a mobile first world, GA4 enables businesses to track both website and app data within the same property, offering a more holistic view of user interactions.
• Event-based data model: Unlike UA's session-based approach, GA4 captures all interactions as events, allowing for greater flexibility when it comes to data collection.
• AI-powered insights: Google's machine learning models help predict user behaviour and trends based of your historic data, making it easier than ever to adapt and optimise marketing strategies.
• Privacy-centric approach: With increasing privacy regulations, GA4 is designed to work with or without cookies, future-proofing your analytics and ensuring more robust compliance with data protection laws.
• Enhanced customisation: GA4 provides more control over how data is structured, allowing businesses to tailor analytics to their specific needs and utilise more data points in custom events.
  
  

Five key changes you need to know

To help you make the leap from UA to GA4 and ensure you're tracking your current KPIs in the correct way, we've summarised the five key changes from system to system to ensure you're in the know when it comes to effective analytics.

1. App Tracking

One of the most significant improvements in GA4 is its ability to track both websites and mobile apps within the same property. Unlike UA, which required separate tracking setups, GA4 adopts the same measurement model as Google Analytics Firebase (the version of GA for mobile apps). This means every user interaction, whether on a website or an app, is logged as an event, creating a unified view of customer behaviour.
With this change, organisations can gain a better understanding of their audience's journey across multiple platforms. If your organisation has both a website and an app (such as a self-service customer portal), ensuring that GA4 is correctly configured for cross-platform tracking is crucial.

2. Hit types are now Events

In Universal Analytics, interactions were categorised into different hit types, including pageviews, transactions, and social interactions. GA4 simplifies this by capturing everything as an event.
While UA had events structured with categories, actions, and labels, GA4 replaces this with event parameters which act as additional pieces of information that provide context to each action. Some parameters, such as page_title, are automatically tracked, but you can also define custom parameters (up to 25 per event) to tailor the data to your needs.
Because GA4's data model is fundamentally different, Google advises against copying over existing event logic from UA. Instead, you should rethink their approach to event tracking to fully leverage GA4's new capabilities.

3. Session calculations have changed

If you've noticed discrepancies in session numbers between UA and GA4, don't panic - it's because sessions are now calculated differently!

In UA, a session ended if:

• There was 30 minutes of inactivity (or per your session timeout settings)
• The clock hit midnight, which triggered a new session
• A user encountered a new campaign parameter

In GA4, sessions work very differently:

• A session is defined by the session_start event, which generates a session ID that all subsequent events are linked to
• Sessions can continue past midnight, unlike in UA
• Campaign parameters don't automatically trigger new sessions

Realistically, these changes make session tracking more accurate for organisations with a global audience. So if you're not reaching audiences on a global scale, these changes won't affect the outcome of your data, however it will result in differences when comparing data between UA and GA4.

4. Bounce Rate vs. Engagement Rate

Bounce rate was a key metric in Universal Analytics, but GA4 takes a more positive outlook - shifting the focus to engagement rate.
In UA, bounce rate was calculated as the percentage of users who visited only one page without interacting further. In GA4, bounce rate is the inverse of engagement rate, which measures the percentage of sessions that meet at least one of the following criteria:

• The session lasted at least 10 seconds
• The user completed at least one conversion event
• The user viewed at least two pages/screens

Although bounce rate still exists in GA4, it's calculated differently. This change encourages you to focus more on engaged sessions rather than solely on users who leave after viewing one page.

5. GA4 requires Google Tag Manager for Event tracking

With UA, you could set up certain goals and conversions directly in Google Analytics. However, GA4 has moved to an entirely event-based goal system, making Google Tag Manager (GTM) more important than ever.
If you previously relied on UA's built-in goal tracking, you'll now need to use GTM to define and track conversions effectively. This might require some additional setup time, but it provides greater flexibility in tracking user actions and defining what counts as a conversion.

Don't forget: Why are you collecting data?

While understanding the new terminology you need to use the platform is crucial, it's equally important to ask yourself: why are you collecting this data? Too often, organisations track data without a clear purpose or understanding of what the data means, leading to unnecessary complexity and confusion.

To make your analytics work for you:

• Ensure that the reports and metrics you track align with your business objectives.
• Use your data to inform decisions that drive growth and engagement.
• Regularly review and analyse your analytics to measure success and identify areas for improvement.

GA4 offers powerful tools to refine your digital strategy, but it's only useful if you know what you're looking for and how to act on the insights.

Up next: Building dashboard and using reports

Now that you understand the key differences between Universal Analytics and GA4, it's time to take the next step. We're hosting a free to attend, 30 minute webinar on Tuesday 29th April at 11:00am, where we'll show you how to build and structure GA4 dashboards and share insights from our customers on how they're leveraging analytics to enhance their content strategies.

You can find out more about the session here, and use the button below to register your place. Or if you'd like to receive bespoke training around how to identify base line data, structure KPIs and build custom events and dashboards that help you understand your audience, complete the form below.

We are beyond pleased to announce that off the back of last night's industry leading HSJ Partnership Awards 2025, the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RSCH) has won the prestigious Patient Engagement and Experience Initiative of the Year award. This accolade recognises their groundbreaking Parent Portal, a digital platform designed to provide expectant and new parents with accessible, bias-free, and educationally focused maternity information.

Developed in collaboration with VerseOne Group, the market-leading provider of transformative digital solutions to the NHS, the Parent Portal is a unique, user-centric tool that has already made a significant impact on prospective parents in the Surrey area. As the digital solution partner behind this project, we are so proud to have helped bring this vision to life, enabling better access to clinically-led information and enhancing the patient experience for parents across the region.

Not only has the portal empowered more prospective parents to feel prepared for birth and parenthood, enabled a steep increase in the amount of prospective parents who can access and take part in antenatal classes, and encouraged the sharing of content and knowledge across the region. But, the Parent Portal is also breaking down barriers by making essential maternity education available through:

• Over 200 languages, ensuring inclusivity for diverse communities.
• Instant translations and subtitles, helping those with hearing impairments.
• Support for ethnic minority groups, including Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities.
• Increased accessibility for those with visual impairments.
• Partnership with the Good Things Foundation, providing smart devices and SIM cards to combat digital exclusion.

This award is a testament to the fantastic work that RSCH have been doing to transform the patient experience in the Maternity sector. Kate Conway and the Maternity Team have developed a service that has gone from strength to strength, including being rated as Outstanding by the QCQ in 2024 off the back of their work in the sector.

Myself, the rest of the Maternity Team & our Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership service user group, at Royal Surrey are elated to have been recognised for our work developing the Parent Portal. We believe every woman is important and the Portal has supported us to increase women's access to, and equity of trusted sources of evidence based information and parent education. It's pushed us to be innovative at meeting language, socioeconomic and digital needs and had had huge benefits on our service and will continue to develop with us.

This award win is a reflection of the tremendous impact we have had on prospective parents across the region and we're truly proud of this great achievement.

We'd like to extend our deepest congratulations to the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RSCH) for this prestigious win, receiving the resounding recognition they deserve for delivering such a groundbreaking and impactful service for their local community. To find out the results that drove them to being nominated, check out our finalists announcement blog.

Or if you'd like to understand the benefits your Trust could gain such as improved service delivery and higher income through more babies delivered, get in touch with the VerseOne NHS Team or complete the form below to register your interest in being kept up to date around our upcoming Maternity Portal webinars, hosted in conjunction with Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

We are absolutely thrilled to share that the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RSCH) has been shortlisted for the Patient Engagement and Experience Initiative of the Year at the prestigious HSJ Partnership Awards 2025! This incredible recognition highlights the outstanding work the maternity team at  RSCH has been doing to enhance patient experience and accessibility through their Parent Portal - the online digital solution we at VerseOne Group are proud to have helped bring to life.

The Parent Portal has revolutionised how expectant and new parents access essential maternity information and services. As RSCH's  digital solution partner, we've worked closely with them to create a platform that is not only inclusive, accessible, and informative but also truly intuitive and impactful.

With this nomination, their dedication to improving perinatal outcomes, reducing inequalities, and enhancing parental education has rightfully been recognised - and we couldn't be more pleased and prouder!

A fantastic nomination for RSCH: Transforming prenatal and parental support

The Prenatal and Parent Portal, launched in October 2023, has already made a huge impact on prospective parents in Surrey. Designed to provide bias-free, educationally focused content, it ensures prospective parents can access reliable, up-to-date information when they need it most, including pre/during/post birth. Here's why it's getting the recognition it deserves:

• Over 3,473 women/service users signed up to the platform since launch.
• More than 8,784 workshops and classes booked and undertaken to support parents through pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood.
• Over 16,500 visits to the information library , offering trusted, clinically approved resources.
• 61% of users access the portal regularly , demonstrating strong engagement.
• 85% of users said the portal encouraged them to book antenatal and postnatal classes.
• 76% felt better prepared for birth and parenthood after using the platform.
• A remarkable 200% increase in antenatal class attendance , contributing to better-prepared parents and reducing birth trauma.
• 90% reduction in complaints regarding induction of labour and waiting times , thanks to clear and transparent information provided via the platform.

These figures speak volumes about the portal's effectiveness in empowering parents, improving accessibility, and strengthening maternity services at RSCH.

The portal itself is powered by VerseOnes Digital eXperience Platform (DXP) and utilises a unified, modular and security first approach to empower content creation, accessible design and an enhanced user experience. Working with RSCH, prospective parents can personalise their experience based on information like due date, to receive a tailored experience and gain exposure to information that is relevant to them at various stages of the pregnancy and post birth journey.  

The HSJ Partnership Awards 2025: An evening to celebrate

The HSJ Partnership Awards are one of the most prestigious events in the UK healthcare sector, celebrating outstanding collaborations that improve patient care. The awards ceremony will take place in Battersea, London on Thursday 20th March, bringing together healthcare leaders, innovators, and changemakers from across the country.

As VerseOne are the digital partners powering this game-changing portal, we're excited to attend the event alongside the fantastic team from Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to celebrate this achievement. The nomination alone  already acknowledges the groundbreaking impact of the Parent Portal and the dedication of the NHS teams involved.

Good luck RSCH!

This recognition is just the beginning. The Parent Portal is an ever-evolving digital tool that will continue to grow based on service user feedback, emerging healthcare trends, and evolving national guidelines. The Maternity Team at RSCH's commitment to improving patient engagement, accessibility of support, and education is something we at VerseOne Group are honoured to support.

We wish RSCH the best of luck at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2025 and will be cheering them on every step of the way! Watch this space for updates - and here's to many more innovations that put patients at the heart of healthcare.

If you'd like to find out more about how your Trust could benefit from a VerseOne Maternity Portal, get in touch with the VerseOne NHS Team.

At VerseOne, we're always thrilled to support NHS Trusts in their mission to improve healthcare through digital innovation. Most recently, we had the pleasure of working with Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust to develop a dedicated microsite for their Research & Innovation department. This new platform enables the Trust to showcase its diverse research studies, encouraging service users to participate by providing them with all the necessary information in an accessible format. It's a fantastic way to highlight the invaluable research taking place and ensure service users feel informed and empowered to get involved.

Having already partnered with the Trust in 2023 to deliver both a website and an intranet solution, we were delighted to further enhance their digital offering with this project.

With this microsite project under our belts and Research & Innovation departments looking for new ways to showcase their work, we wanted to talk about our Research Studies Module.

A smarter way to showcase NHS research studies

Our newly developed Research Studies Module is designed to help NHS Trusts effectively display their ongoing research projects in a way that is engaging, searchable, and easy to manage.

With this module, Trusts can:

• Easily add and update research studies -ensuring up-to-date information is always available.
• Provide search and filtering options -allowing users to find studies relevant to specific conditions or areas of interest.
• Customise study details -including participant criteria, timelines, key documents, lead researchers, and the study's objectives.
• Facilitate direct engagement -giving potential participants easy access to the research team for further information or to register interest.

A flexible, no-code solution

What sets this module apart is its flexibility. All elements are completely configurable to meet the needs of your Trust and the studies you are running, managed and configured from within the VerseOne DXP. Our Creative User Experience (CRuX) team works closely with you to establish an intuitive information architecture, ensuring that service users can quickly and easily navigate the research studies available.

By making it simpler to showcase and promote research, the module helps drive engagement, increasing the amount of people who can participate in these studies while also raising awareness of the groundbreaking work being carried out by NHS Trusts. Research is often hidden away, yet it plays a crucial role in healthcare advancement. With this module, Trusts can ensure their efforts are visible and accessible to those who may benefit most.

If your Trust is looking to improve the way it presents research studies and enhances user engagement, get in touch with us today to find out how our Research Studies Module can support your service delivery.

We're excited to announce the launch of the VerseOne NHS Innovation Roundtable, a series of interactive discussions designed to help NHS communications and HR professionals explore innovative solutions to their biggest challenges.

After listening to feedback from our customers, who told us they wanted more opportunities to connect with their peers in the sector, we've created this roadshow to bring valuable sector insights straight to your doorstep.

Here's everything you need to know about our Innovation Roundtable events and why they're an unmissable opportunity for you and your team.

Why are these discussions so important?
What's the plan and where do they take place?
What value will you gain from attending?
How to get involved

Why are these discussions so important?

In today's fast-paced environment, NHS professionals face a growing list of challenges: driving staff engagement, streamlining processes, empowering document management, providing a personalised employee experience, impacting recruitment and retention, driving employee happiness and productivity and so, so much more. These are no small tasks, especially in an organisation as complex as the NHS.

Our roundtable discussions aim to tackle these challenges head-on, focusing on how innovative solutions-facilitated by tools like your staff intranet-can help transform the way you work. By bringing together a small but diverse group of like-minded peers, these sessions create a space to share ideas, learn from real-world examples, and uncover creative ways to make a meaningful difference in your workplace.

Whether it's learning how AI can streamline the delivery of personalised content, discovering how others are empowering employees to access key documents and policies from anywhere and any device, or sparking new ideas and using creativity around rewards and recognition programmes to engage staff, these discussions will equip you with the insights you need to drive change in your Trust.

What's the plan and where do they take place?

Each roundtable is designed to be intimate and engaging, with a select number of participants from a variety of roles and seniorities around the table. This ensures everyone has a chance to contribute and have their voice heard, while also benefiting from the collective experience of the group allowing you to walk away with new insights.

Here's how it will work:

• Session length: Each discussion will last approximately two hours.
• Networking lunch: Following the session, we'd love you to join us for an informal lunch on site, as a thank you for taking the time to share your expertise.
• Locations: We'll be hosting these events at key NHS Trust sites across the country, based on customer demand.
  
  

Dates, Times, and Locations:

• Birmingham: Tuesday 18th February, 10:00am - 12:00pm
• Surrey: Thursday 20th February, 10:00am - 12:00pm
• London: Friday 21st February, 11:00am - 13:00pm
  
  

What value will you gain from attending?

These roundtables are more than just discussions-they're a chance to grow professionally and spark meaningful change within your organisation. Here's what you'll walk away with:

• Valuable insights: Learn from real-life examples of how NHS Trusts are using innovative tools to address challenges and improve outcomes, with insights from like-minded peers who are solving the challenges you're facing.
• Inspiration and creativity: Gain fresh ideas off the back of other peoples successes, that you can tailor and implement within your own Trust, helping you take your intranet to the next level.
• Networking opportunities: Build connections with peers who understand your challenges and can offer support, advice, and inspiration in you day-to-day working life.
• Thought leadership: Position yourself as a driver of innovation within your Trust, equipped with the latest trends and best practices.

After the event, we'll also produce an infographic for attendees that summarises the challenges raised, and the innovative solutions that were suggested to solve these challenges. This means you'll walk away with an engaging and easy to access reminder of the ways in which your Trust could drive innovation to enact business change.

How to get involved

Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a dynamic and impactful discussion. Spaces are limited and attendance to these sessions are on an invite only basis to ensure a quality experience for all participants.

The VerseOne NHS Innovation Roundtable is your chance to connect, learn, and lead the way in transforming how we work in the NHS, and we can't wait to welcome you to one of our sessions and help you turn innovation into action.

To register your interest in attending one of our NHS Innovation Roundtable sessions, simply complete the form below and we'll be in touch or you can reach out directly to the VerseOne NHS Team to discuss the opportunity further.

The recent launch of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust's redesigned website is a testament to the power of collaboration and thoughtful design. By adopting a new look inspired by the Nightingale theme-already a standard across other Cornwall NHS sites - the Trust has made a bold step towards improving usability, accessibility, and engagement for its users.

Reflecting on the project, Leanne Baker from Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust expressed her satisfaction:  Thanks for the update, that's great. I can see the site is live. Happy to see the accessibility score is so high, thank you! This feedback highlights one of the key successes of the redesign: a focus on accessibility, ensuring that the website is inclusive and easy to navigate for all users.

This redesign was driven by a clear vision to enhance user experience across multiple dimensions:

• Engagement: The updated design, aligned with the Nightingale theme, ensures a consistent and visually appealing experience that keeps users engaged. Clean layouts and intuitive navigation make the site more inviting and easier to use.
• Usability: Thoughtful restructuring of content means users can find what they need quickly and efficiently, reducing frustration and improving overall satisfaction.
• Accessibility: A strong emphasis on accessibility ensures that the site meets modern standards, making it usable for individuals with a wide range of needs. A high accessibility score reflects the commitment to inclusivity.
• Information Architecture: By streamlining the site's structure, the redesign has made it easier for users to locate information and for administrators to manage content effectively.

The VerseOne Front-end Development Team worked closely with Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to bring their vision to life, ensuring that the new design was not only functional but also tailored to their specific requirements. The collaborative effort and meticulous planning resulted in a seamless launch ahead of Christmas, with the accompanying intranet redesign scheduled to go live in January.

Redesigning a website is about more than just aesthetics-it's an opportunity to rethink how users interact with an organisation online. For Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, this redesign ensures that their digital presence matches their commitment to delivering high-quality care. As we look ahead to the intranet launch in January, it's clear that these enhancements will have a lasting positive impact on both staff and users.

Well done to everyone involved - to explore the new website yourself visit cornwallft.nhs.uk.

The launch of the new microsite for the London Pathways Partnership (LPP) marks a significant milestone for Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust. This project has been a true collaboration, overcoming challenges to deliver a website that not only looks great but also provides enhanced functionality for its users.

The project was to build an advanced microsite for the LLP, which contains features and functionality specifically designed to meet the needs of wardens, managers, and other professionals working in forensic and prison services. Its modernised features ensure the website serves as a valuable tool for supporting mental health care and addressing personality disorders.

Key functionality includes:

• A comprehensive knowledge base: Empowering users with easy access to vital information.
• Enhanced engagement tools: Incorporating animations, videos, and user feedback mechanisms to maintain interest and deliver content effectively.
• A secure managers' area: Providing a safe space for leadership resources.
• An eLearning portal: Facilitating professional development and training.

The site stands as an example of what a well-executed digital platform can achieve, and the project followed our Total Engagement Programme and tried and tested project methodologies. This meant that workshops and discovery session were conducted to gain user feedback around desired features and functionality, and the user experience was carefully constructed to ensure ease of use and to establish a logic information architecture.

For NHS organisations, a new website isn't just about aesthetics-it's about accessibility, functionality, and impact. A modern look and feel not only improves the user experience but also reflects the organisation's commitment to progress and innovation. By ensuring key resources are easier to find and engaging to use, the new site supports LPP's vital mission to enhance mental health care in the forensic and prison systems.

This project's success highlights the power of teamwork and determination. To all who contributed: well done! And for those eager for more, keep an eye out for upcoming project go-lives.

The future is bright-and increasingly digital-for NHS services like Oxleas.

We’re thrilled to announce that the new Pathology & Imaging microsite for University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust has officially gone live! This marks an exciting step forward for the South West Peninsula’s diagnostic networks, allowing streamlined access to vital information and resources, all housed within a trusted and secure platform.

In response to NHS England's initiative to establish 28 pathology networks across the UK, the Peninsula Pathology Network was formed to drive transformation in diagnostic services. Working closely with University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, our team at VerseOne developed a microsite that sits seamlessly within the hospitals existing installation on the VerseOne CMS. This new microsite offers a platform tailored to the specific needs of the Pathology & Imaging network, providing scope for further expansion as services grow.

By hosting the new microsite on the existing installation, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust can be sure that their new microsite is securely hosted on Microsoft Azure. It also ensures employees from other areas of the business are restricted from accessing or changing content on the new Pathology & Imaging site through the use of secure permission controls, and admins can provide support for the new site from within an existing platform that they know and love.

One of the most exciting aspects of this integration is the streamlined content management. By accessing one universal platform, staff can create and publish content across multiple sites with ease, ensuring a smooth and consistent user experience. With both the main University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust site and the new microsite on the same VerseOne CMS, tried and tested processes mean that everything from content updates to user access remains reliable and secure.

To see the new website for yourself, check out the Peninsula Diagnostics NHS site and explore this dedicated space for pathology and imaging resources across the South West Peninsula.

We look forward to seeing this new site evolve and continue supporting University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust in delivering exceptional healthcare.

On the 27th of September, VerseOne hosted a Macmillan Coffee Morning, and the event was a heartwarming success! Our office came together to enjoy a break from the usual workday, indulge in delicious homemade and shop bought treats, and raise money for a wonderful cause.

From 11 am, we downed tools for 45 minutes to connect with colleagues we might not usually get the chance to chat with. It was a perfect opportunity to pause, take time for ourselves, and share a moment of connection over coffee and cake. With a wide variety of goodies on offer, the office was filled with chatter, laughter, and, of course, a bit of friendly baking rivalry. Rene brought in a carrot cake, Katy made Kinder Bueno brownies and white chocolate cookies, and Kerry’s daughter added a creative touch with her Biscoff cupcakes.

We didn’t just stop at enjoying the treats—we made it competitive too! A highlight of the morning was our “VerseOne Star Baker” competition. After much deliberation (and tasting!), Rene's carrot cake took home the prize, along with a coveted trophy.

In total, we raised an impressive £184.71, and in the true VerseOne spirit of giving back, the company generously matched this amount, bringing our donation total to £369. All of this goes to Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity dedicated to providing physical, emotional, and financial support to people living with cancer.

Haydn summed up the day perfectly, saying:

 It was fantastic to catch up with colleagues, enjoy some delicious cakes, and most importantly, raise money for such a great cause. A big thank you to everyone who contributed and made the Macmillan Coffee Morning a success!

Macmillan Coffee Mornings are about more than just cake. They are vital for raising funds that help support the millions of people affected by cancer in the UK. For many, Macmillan is a lifeline, offering critical services, advice, and care.

At VerseOne, we believe in doing good. Our commitment to improving the lives of those who rely on social housing and the NHS naturally extends to causes like this, where we can give back to our community. We’re proud to support Macmillan and their incredible work, and we look forward to more opportunities to come together and make a difference.

Thank you to everyone who contributed and made the day a success!

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM) have been a VerseOne customer since early 2021. At VerseOne, we constantly work with our customers to help drive process improvements, deliver efficiencies, and empower NHS Trusts to provide accessible online experiences for their users.

Our most recent project with SLAM involved implementing the Accessible Document Converter module as part of their VerseOne Content Management System (CMS) installation. As part of this project the SLAM installation required an upgrade, once that was successfully completed the ADC module was enabled.

Making the inaccessible, accessible

Much like NHS Trusts across the UK, SLAM have a wide range of content – such as policy documents, leaflets and informational materials – that they host online in the form of PDFs. Whether these are plain but lengthy word document style pieces, or heavily designed infographics featuring pictures and graphs, PDF documents are inaccessible by design. They can’t be read by screen readers, and with almost 2 million people living with visual impairments across the UK, a significant portion of SLAMs online content is inaccessible to many of their users.

VerseOne’s Accessible Documents Creator solves this problem by automatically reading Word and PDF documents, and converting them into clean, Accessible HTML pages — complete with Accessibility Checker and suggested corrections, inpage navigation indices, and links to the original document.

The content team at SLAM can simply upload their documents, tick the Conversion option and be confident that everyone, of all abilities, can access this critical information — and with minimal effort.

Looking forward to an accessible future

We’re proud to have worked with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to enhance their current CMS installation, and enable the effortless conversion of accessible content to enhance the user experience of their patients.

If you’d like to understand how your Trust could benefit from providing accessible content at scale, get in touch with the VerseOne team today.

On 9 January 2024, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on birth trauma in the UK set up an inquiry to investigate the reality of maternity services across the country, focusing on the reasons for traumatic births. This inquiry involved focus groups, interviews with grieving and trauma-stricken patients, and the over-worked and highly pressured staff who live this trauma day in and day out. The desired output? The development of policy recommendations to reduce the rate of birth trauma and ensure a fair experience for all regardless of race, religion, location or wealth.  

The Birth Trauma Inquiry has now been concluded and it contains some harrowing stories of heartbreak, loss, and trauma. The outcome from the inquiry is an 80-page report that outlines key changes needed in the sector to provide a fair and accessible experience for all prospective parents no matter where they live, covering the entire journey from pregnancy through to parenthood. To help you digest the inquiry report, we’ve highlighted seven key conclusions and matched them to seven digital solutions that can help maternity services meet these recommendations. 

1. Recruit, train and retain more midwives to ensure safe levels of staffing in maternity services. 

This training will also include mandatory training on trauma-informed care and will extend to obstetricians and anaesthetists. Under current practices, recruiting and training costs an NHS Trust £12,000 per nurse. This cost combined with the time taken to recruit, onboard and train staff puts the NHS recruitment crisis in a whole new light. Focusing on retaining and training midwives in order to increase the number of staff on shift at any one time will reduce the strain on maternity services and put more staff at the helm when dealing with traumatic birthing scenarios. 
 

The solution: An enhanced employee experience that fosters continuous improvement, staff engagement and boosts staff retention. Through the use of efficient and effective staff onboarding, both clinical and non-clinical employees feel engaged and involved right from the beginning of their employment and staff retention increases. 

2. Commit to tackling inequalities in maternity care among ethnic minorities, particularly Black and Asian women.  

Many reports over the years, including investigations from the charity Birthrights, have highlighted racial injustice for women under maternity care. For example, black woman are four times more likely than white women to die during childbirth, and Asian women are twice as likely. Far too often, women have reported feeling unsafe, being denied pain relief, and faced racial stereotyping about their pain tolerance. This stems from stereotyping and a lack of cultural competence and negatively impacts a person’s ability to speak up about the care they’re receiving. 

The solution: Make content and services accessible to all, and available in any language to minimise opportunities for racial discrimination, making all prospective parents feel at ease during their pregnancy journey. This can be facilitated through an easy-to-access maternity portal that translates content and enables the patient to raise complaints or give feedback about the service they’re receiving. 

3. Training and procedure documents need to be more accessible for staff to reduce the amount of injuries in child birth. 

Even in a digitally adopted world, clinicians often don’t have easy access to a computer when on the ward. This means the use of procedure documents and guidelines are often time consuming or hard to access, especially in times of need such as during traumatic birth situations. 

The solution: An easy-to-access staff intranet that provides employees with the latest policy and procedure documents anywhere, anytime and on any device. Put the power back into employees’ hands and adhere to compliance and regulations by making documents more accessible to staff. A great staff intranet also encourages community and learning, helps share general news and education like announcements and blogs, and provides staff with one source of the truth and a hub of conversation and information – all facilitated through their mobile phone. 

4. Link to mental health services and enable people to have standardised post birth services like birth reflections and 6-week check-ins. 

After traumatic births, parents are offered a birth reflection to discuss their thoughts and feedback around the service they received and the impact the traumatic birth has had in understanding what went wrong. These sessions can often feel rushed and both clinical staff and the parents themselves either do not feel satisfied with the discussion that took place, or are under-prepared for the conversation itself.  

The solution: Providing the ability for parents to complete birth reflections and check-in information in their own time prior to their appointment. This would enable parents to take their time to think about their response, and ensure they’ve covered everything they need to. It would also ensure appointments are used to discuss the information as opposed to gathering it, helping make the sessions more efficient. This could be facilitated through online forms, accessed through a personalised maternity portal that only they have access to. 

5. Information and permissions need to be agreed prior to labour to eliminate women having to fill in forms in the middle of labour. 

In worst case scenarios, consent forms are required for clinical staff to administer drugs or undertake procedures such as epidurals and c-sections. Often, these forms are completed by the patient on paper, in high stress environments and during a time where cognitive understanding of the possible risks and complications of these forms is impaired. 

The solution: Ensure all possible forms required for various situations and circumstances that could arise during labour are already signed via a digital portal ahead of time. This gives clinical staff easy access to consent forms and policies to save administration time during stressful situations, and also alleviates the need for women to sign these types of consent forms when possibly cognitively impaired. 

6. Ensure better education for women on birth choices. All NHS Trusts should offer antenatal classes, risks should be discussed during both antenatal classes and the 34-week check. 

Antenatal classes are the most common form of education for prospective parents across the UK. However, these are paid for classes, delivered by non-medically trained staff from a variety of third-party organisations. This format of paid-for education often means that those who cannot afford the classes miss out on the same experiences and education as those who can. This has created a clear divide across geographic locations and ethnicities who are being unfairly affected by a lack of accessible education. 

The solution: A maternity portal that provides access to free and paid for NHS antenatal classes and clinically-led education to help inform prospective parents. Content can be consumed in their own time via any device, and nobody is excluded based on ability to pay. This also generates income for the maternity service based off classes that are paid for and helps reinvest that income to provide free support and education to ensure equality in the services provided. 

7. Provide support for fathers and ensure nominated birth partners are continuously informed and updated during labour and post-delivery. 

Often, family members, fathers and birth partners are not as involved in the pre-delivery education, with antenatal classes and support primarily being offered to the mother during the pregnancy journey. This recommendation would ensure that everyone is informed and educated to the same level, which can help provide further support to the prospective parents at all stages of their experience. 

The solution: Enable fathers, birth partners, friends and family access to a maternity portal that enables communication both pre and post-delivery, enabling them to provide feedback on the service they received, and keep up to date and informed throughout the entire pregnancy journey. This portal can be accessed 24/7, on any device and allows the user to educate themselves in their own time. 

Delivering better outcomes through digital 

Digital tools and technologies have the potential to alleviate the strain on maternity staff whilst still delivering a higher quality service to expectant mothers, birth partners, friends and family. Whether this starts from recruitment and focuses on improving staff retention to ensure better staffing rates, or alleviates the strain of education and ensures fair and equitable access to antenatal classes for all - digital solutions have the power to elevate your maternity service. 

Although the inquiry has made many recommendations and driven a major call for change across the country, one conclusion stands clear. The UK’s maternity sector is over-worked and under resourced and change needs to happen to ensure a fair service is offered to all prospective parents across the UK without prejudice. Technology has the power to make this happen, and make it happen at scale, without causing a major strain on the already tight resources of the NHS. 

To understand more about how digital solutions could enhance the offering of your maternity service, get in touch with the team today or check out our webinar aimed at Maternity services to help them discover how other NHS Trusts are using digital solutions to enhance the patient experience. 
 

Get in touch

 

With 24% of the UK population being registered as living with a disability, keeping accessibility front of mind when creating online content or building a websites user journey is imperative to providing fair and equal access to your services.

To help NHS Trusts implement tools and functionality that ensure accessible digital experiences for all, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (also known as WCAG). These are a set of internationally-recognised recommendations for improving web accessibility, that provide different levels of compliance based on a set of criteria.

The digital landscape offers a variety of tools that ensure compliance with these guidelines, and for a lot of NHS Trust, making online and digital experiences more accessible is easier than you think. In this infographic we share statistics around the top accessibility testing failures across websites in the UK, as well as solutions to help overcome non-compliance with the WCAG guidelines.

Click here to access the infographic

Or click here to access an accessible HTML version.

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (BWC) is a valued and celebrated VerseOne customer. So we’re delighted to announce that we’ve delivered another exciting project to help them promote their service offering whilst maintaining their brand identity and increasing the availability of content they can offer.

This project saw us create and deliver BWC’s Operation Delivery Network (ODN) microsite. The ODN required their own website, which needed to be built on the existing BWC VerseOne CMS installation to enable ease of use for staff and ensure brand consistency. The wider benefit of this is that the ODN team will be able to use the modules that are already within the BWC installation, allowing them to develop the site as they further develop their content.

The microsite supports six distinct networks, each distinguished by a vibrant colour palette:

• Children and Young People's Cancer
• Congenital Heart Disease
• Surgery in Children
• Paediatric Critical Care
• Paediatric Palliative Care
• Perinatal

It’s also been built with accessibility in mind, to ensure ease of use for the Trusts service users, and encapsulates the creative flair and unique features that we’ve previously worked with BWC to deliver for their wider portfolio of websites.

It’s been a pleasure to work with such a valued and creative customer on this project, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for our relationship with the Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

To view the website, simply click here!

Thank you so much for all your work on this – much appreciated. I’ve emailed the ODN team and they’re very happy.

Catherine Connolly, Digital Communications Specialist, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

A great brand sets you apart from the competition. It showcases your values, personality, skillset and can help your business exponentially. An affective brand identity makes a memorable impression, gains trust with your customers, and gives them the confidence to know exactly what they are likely to expect from your organisation or services.

Ultimately, a powerful brand ensures customer retention. With 60% of consumers stating they’d prioritise their preferred brand even if it’s pricier, an effective brand not only helps you keep your customers for longer, but you can entice more customers to shop with you too.

A logo is important within any brand, but it's just the start. Outstanding brands combine great typography, imagery, tone of voice to its colours, to name just a few. If you’re new to the world of branding or want to help your organisation grow its brand, this blog post is here to help you discover how you can create a strong identity. We’ll cover things like typography, imagery to colours, but at its core branding is all about consistency, so that’s where we are going to start.

1. Brand consistency

Brand consistency is the powerhouse of visual identity and design. If your brand is consistent across your website, printed marketing material, social media profiles and mobile user experience then this goes a long way.

Consistency is key to establishing a recognisable brand. As documented by Mailchimp:

“Brand consistency means ensuring that the way you present your company—and what it stands for—remains the same across all your marketing channels, unifying the image and message your customers and potential customers see.”

If potential customers see the same values, proposition and design during various interactions across lots of different channels and devices, this adds to your brands trustworthiness and elevates your brands credibility. Consistency should not be overlooked, which is why brand guidelines are crucial within any organisation.

A set of Brand Guidelines document the brand’s typography, imagery, tone of voice, and colour usage that others in the organisation need to follow. However, the bigger an organisation gets the harder it can be to retain the brand, with studies showing that only 30% of brands have guidelines that are well-known and accessible to the entire organisation. Ensuring all areas of the organisation are on the same page helps secure consistency, which makes having these documents even more important. With that being said, what are the key aspects to any strong brand design?

2. Typography

You want to choose a typeface that represents your brand identity. If your brand is friendly and outgoing, then you could choose more of a ‘friendly’ typeface (think curved edges and playful touches). However, if your brand is more serious and corporate, then a more traditional typeface might be worthwhile. For example, we work with a lot of NHS Trusts who need to maintain a professional and accessible brand identity, so the typeface most NHS Trusts opt for is Frutiger.

“Frutiger is a contemporary and flexible sans serif font, which was designed to be clear and easy to read at a distance and in small sizes. It still achieves this objective and has become recognised as the clean, simple typeface which people associate with the NHS.”

Looking at Slack’s media kit, their use of typography corresponds to their brand values: ‘empathetic, playfulness and thriving’ to name a few. Choosing a typeface for your brand requires patience and trial and error, but it makes a huge difference to your brand identity.

3. Imagery

Much like typography, the imagery you choose should also represent your brand and the personality you want to convey. Is your brand more of a human-lead organisation? Do you target the younger generation, or do you want to focus more on cutting edge technology within your imagery?

For example, if you look at Innocent Drinks, their imagery is playful, cartoony and friendly. This is represented by their fun illustrations (they have a nice website too!) and clearly showcases their brand position - it works effectively.

Much like the written word, images are also a form of communication. What is the personality of your brand? How would you describe your business in a sentence? This can form your use and style of imagery.

4. Tone of voice

Tone of voice can sometimes be left behind when it comes to creating a strong brand identity. It’s not as ‘concrete’ as things like your brand colours or imagery for example, but tone of voice sets the bar for the way in which your brand will be interpreted.

Words form the content of your website. They can be used to persuade potential customers, describe your offering, showcase your services and portray your values. They also make up your marketing material, like assets, emails and social media posts - so setting parameters to define your tone of voice is pretty important. Like most of these pointers, do you want to communicate a friendly or corporate vibe?

This links back to your core values as an organisation. If you want more insight into tone of voice, this article by SEMRush is a good quality read.

5. Colours

Great brands minimise their use of colours. This is evident by some of the biggest and most recognisable brands across the globe like Cola-Cola, Mastercard or IKEA for example. Brand colours are mighty, and are one of the most important elements of visual identity and design. Choose correctly and wisely, and more people will recognise your brand amongst the crowd. According to Looka:

“A well-developed brand should make your audience feel something when they see you. Since most colours already have emotions tied to them, you can use them to connect your company to specific moods or feelings.”

To choose your branding colours, consider the different colour meanings, and how it sits within your industry or competitors. For example, your competitors may use blue as their core colour, so it would be wise to choose a different colour to stand out from the crowd. Or if you’re in the health care industry, you probably want to stay away from red, which is associated with danger.

It’s also important to keep accessibility in mind. This can be achieved by using dark, mid and light colours that provide a contrast. We recommend you choose a maximum of 3-4 core colours to showcase your brand. The less, the better. If you start choosing every colour under the sun, it dilutes the potency of your brand.

Good things come in fives

We’ve covered a lot of ground in today’s article, and you’ve found it useful. We’ve talked about brand guidelines and their importance in ensuring consistency, and detailed the four key areas your guidelines need to cover to build a powerful brand. Here’s a little recap:

• Consistency: Be consistent with your imagery, typography imagery, tone of voice and your colours. The more consistent you are with your brand, the better.
• Typography: Choose a typeface that represents your brand through trial and error and once you’ve decided, stick with it.
• Imagery: What are the type of images you will use to communicate your brand? Pick a style and use this business wide.
• Tone of voice: Words are powerful, and your brand’s tone of voice should reflect your brand personality. A good tone of voice corresponds to your brand values.
• Colours: Use a maximum of 3-4 colours for your brand. The best brands in the world minimise their use of colour. Remember to keep accessibility in mind, so it’s wise to incorporate dark, mid and light colours in your brand identity document.

At VerseOne, we’re helping organisations in the NHS and social housing sector with our Creative Services. These cover everything from helping you use GA4 and Heatmapping to understand the needs of your audience, to creating engaging visual content like motion graphics and email designs. Coupled with this, we’re experts in all things brand – from brand identity document creations to logo designs, so take a look at our services and see how we can help you.

Alternatively, if you want to make waves with a website design that packs a punch, take a look at our website solutions and Intranets to help you deliver enhanced customer and employee experiences.

Looking for more free content to help you discover the importance of brand identity? We offer a variety of free to attend webinars that do just that so be sure to check out our events calendar.

View our NHS events calendar
 

We’re happy to announce that The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has just launched their new VerseOne Intranet solution! This marks a significant milestone for the Trust, acting as the final piece in the puzzle for providing an elevated customer and employee experience.

Last year, we had the privilege of delivering the Trust's website project and following this, the team at Hillingdon were able to shift their focus to the development of the intranet.

Hillingdon chose to work with VerseOne as they recognised the need for a comprehensive staff intranet and website that is all housed within a single, unified platform. This approach aimed to simplify content management, ensuring updates could be made efficiently and consistently across both platforms but from one solution.

This unified platform enables the Trust to “manage once and publish to many” when managing content, which ensures that the layout and visual identity is consistent and compliant with NHS branding and accessibility standards. Developing the intranet and website on one unified platform will also enable the Trust to become efficient at updating these systems, and ensure the content is easily kept up to date. Finally, by using a trusted partner from the health sector to deliver this digital solution, The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust benefits from a system that is future proofed to support emerging technologies.

The feedback from Lucy Wills, Acting Head of Communications at Hillingdon, and the users of the platform has been very complimentary throughout, both the project and surrounding the launch of the intranet which speaks volumes about the impact of this project. It's moments like these that remind us of the significance of our work and the difference it can make in empowering organisations to thrive.

A huge thank you to everyone who worked on this project, and we look forward to working with the amazing team at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust again in the future.

Thank you so much for all your hard work in getting this project over the line, particularly Alex for being so patient with me and the changes I requested, it’s really appreciated, great work!

Lucy Wills, Acting Head of Communications
The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust