NHS Neuro Website Development

North West Paediatric Neurosciences is a network of paediatric neurosurgeons, clinicians, and health professionals from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Their mission? To improve standards of care for children with neurological conditions across the North West.

We were thrilled to be invited to tender for this project, especially since it came on the back of our successful work with the NHS Cleft Lip and Palate Network. After winning the contract, we teamed up with key members of the network, including the network manager and consultant paediatric neurosurgeon Conor Mallucci, to bring their vision to life—a project we’re incredibly proud of.

The team needed a secure, user-friendly website where they could store and manage clinical information, while also providing patients and their parents with accessible, reliable information about neurological conditions.

But there were some unique challenges along the way. The paediatric neuro team is spread across the North West, and their demanding schedules often made it difficult to collaborate on projects like this. Members of the team could be called away to emergencies at any moment, meaning planning meetings often had to be rescheduled. Understandably, the client was concerned that this would slow down the process, as they were eager to launch the site as soon as possible.

Another hurdle? The website administrator had to be someone within their team, meaning the content management system (CMS) needed to be straightforward and easy to use. And with content scattered across various locations—from physical files in cabinets to digital archives—the site had to make storing, accessing, and archiving content a breeze.

We chose WordPress as the CMS for this project. It’s not only one of the most reliable platforms, powering about 30% of the web, but it’s also incredibly user-friendly, which made it perfect for the team’s needs.

After scoping out the technical and content requirements, we identified some unique functionality needs, including a secure members area to protect sensitive clinical content. We also added features like event management, brochure uploads, an advanced search facility, and user profiles with bios.

One of the key factors behind our success in delivering NHS projects is our ability to collaborate seamlessly at all levels, consistently demonstrating effective project leadership. Despite the team’s limited availability, we kept the project on track with regular meetings and a drip-feed approach to content. This allowed us to review and reformat content early, ensuring the project ran smoothly and efficiently.

In the end, we delivered a sleek, functional website tailored perfectly to the needs of each user group. Patients and their parents can easily find the information they need, while professionals can access a members-only section to share and contribute to research. The site also connects areas of neuroscience with the specialist teams who manage them, keeping all relevant information in easy-to-find locations.

We didn’t stop there—we provided training to the neuro team so they could manage the site themselves using their new CMS.

The best part? The team were so impressed with the results that they recommended us to the NHS Cardiac Network, who have since asked us to provide a similar service for them.