Making government content smarter: a look at Content Block Manager

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Our team at GDS has been exploring a way to store facts in one place and share them across multiple pages

Government content has come a long way since the launch of GOV.UK in 2013. We’ve moved from the days of DirectGov to a modern, user-focused platform that’s leaps ahead in both design and tech.

These days, content designers across government work hard to make even the most complex policies easy to understand. Together, teams manage around 700,000 pages, with over 100 people spread across the Government Digital Service (GDS) and ministerial departments.

While content designers love simplifying the complex, there’s one task that sends a chill down even the most seasoned spine: uprating.

Just like death and taxes, changes to government facts are inevitable — VAT rates, pensions, contact details, you name it. When these facts change, content designers have to drop what they’re doing and comb through pages to update every instance manually.

Each change triggers a workflow of peer review and fact checking. It’s time consuming, and every year, around 200 Zendesk tickets are raised just for uprating. That’s a lot of time and effort for small, scattered changes.

Enter the Content Modelling Team

Since mid-last year, our team at GDS has been exploring a better way. What if we could store these facts in one place and share them across multiple pages, so updates happen once and ripple out everywhere?

That’s where Content Block Manager comes in.

What is Content Block Manager?

It’s a system that lets publishers manage reusable snippets of information — like pension rates — in one place. Each snippet comes with an embed code, which content designers can insert into GOV.UK pages, like this:

{{embed:content_block_pension:b979187f-c031-4388-8259-f0e69f089d84/rates/full-basic-state-pension-amount/amount}}

When a page is published, the embed code is replaced with the current value. If the value changes later, the system finds all pages using that block, updates the value, and republishes them automatically.

Smarter updates with built-in previews

The tool also supports a (still evolving) workflow. When someone updates a block, they can:

Our first beta: Basic State Pension

We’ve just completed our private beta using the Basic State Pension. Content designers embedded the rate block into 4 GOV.UK pages (in both English and Welsh), then scheduled the update for 12:01am on 7 April, when the new rate came into effect.

There were a few bumps (note to self: never forget the Welsh content!), but when 7 April rolled around, the updates went live instantly. You can see one of the updated pages here — and if you’re techy, check the page source for the embedded block.

Previously, updating 4 pages would’ve taken about 40 minutes. With Content Block Manager, it took 7 minutes. That’s an 82.5% increase in efficiency.

What’s next?

Now that we’ve proven the concept, we’re exploring other fact types — starting with contact details, and eventually tackling tax thresholds, VAT rates, and more.

This isn’t just about the website. The same content blocks could power GOV.UK Chat (currently in beta), the upcoming GOV.UK App, and other platforms.

We’re also building a drop-in editor so authors can insert content blocks directly from their publishing app — here’s a demo.

Final thoughts

This project has been a real team effort, and it’s been exciting to work at the heart of GOV.UK alongside some brilliant people. We’ve learned a lot — and we’re just getting started.