Making It Real

2024 · WordPress, Divi 4

About This Project

Making It Real is a set of co-produced statements that describe what good care and support looks like, developed by Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) and the National Co-production Advisory Group. The statements are aligned to the Care Act and built into the CQC Single Assessment Framework, so they carry real weight across the social care sector. The site is used by councils, care providers, and NHS organisations across the country.

This was my first project with TLAP, and the working relationship has grown from here into ongoing work on their main website and other tools.

The Build

This project was done in partnership Adam from HopeWorks, who led the visual design. My role was taking the designs and building the site in WordPress with Divi 4. HopeWorks delivered a clean, accessible design system with custom illustrations for each of the six themes, and I translated that into a fully responsive Divi build.

The site is structured around six themes (Wellbeing and Independence, Information and Advice, Active and Supportive Communities, Flexible and Integrated Care and Support, When Things Need to Change, and Workforce). Each theme page presents two sets of statements: "I statements" written from the perspective of someone who draws on care and support, and "We statements" describing what practitioners should be doing to make those real. The structure needed to feel clear and navigable without oversimplifying the content, which is aimed at both professionals and the people they support.

Beyond the theme pages, the site includes a stories section, a news and blog area, a network signup, and a resource library.

Working With Design Agencies

Not every project needs one person doing everything. In fact, some of the best results come from keeping design and development as separate disciplines, each handled by someone who specialises in it. That's exactly how this project worked.

HopeWorks Branding is an award-winning design and communications agency, and it shows in the work. The design system they delivered for Making It Real was thoughtful, accessible, and perfectly pitched for the audience. My job was to take that work and build it faithfully into a responsive WordPress site that the TLAP team could maintain themselves. No compromises on the design, no shortcuts in the build.

I've known Adam at HopeWorks for a while, and this kind of collaborative setup is something I quite enjoy. A good designer and a good developer working to their strengths together will almost always produce something special.