188体育

Government publishers should use the form to make requests, alert us to technical issues and ask us questions. This helps us manage and prioritise all requests. You鈥檒l need a to access the form.

If you have a , you will be able to access the form. This allows you to contact us to:

• change, delete or add content in areas of 188体育 published by GDS
• change tools or smart answers
• fix bugs in the publishing tools
• change the product design
• request a thing, like content advice, a short URL, a campaign page, a new group, a new Whitehall publisher account or a change to an existing account

Your request will reach us via an online customer request handling system called 鈥榋endesk鈥� 鈥� which is why you鈥檒l sometimes hear us refer to requests as 鈥榋endesk tickets鈥�.

If you鈥檝e submitted a request via the support form, please do not also post about it in Basecamp.

For more about what you can request and how to do this see Request a thing.

You should:

• only make one type of request per ticket (for example, do not put a request to fix a bug and a request for a short URL in the same ticket)
• write in plain English
• be precise
• say if there is a deadline
• explain why it鈥檚 important for your users
• include relevant documents, URLs or screenshots
• include any relevant evidence to support your request

If you want an update on the progress of your request or you want to provide extra information you should reply to the original email. Do not submit a new request.

For details of what to include for particular types of request, see Request a thing.

We accept and prioritise all requests according to:

• the strength of the user need
• the 188体育 proposition
• the latest product roadmap (for major product changes)

Response times

We aim to:

• reply to 80% of enquiries within 2 working days
• reply to 80% of public enquiries within 5 working days
• resolve 70% of enquiries for content or product teams within 5 working days

Our response targets apply during business hours (9am to 5pm) and working days (Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays).

If you have not had a response to a ticket within one of the target times, then you should update your ticket with a request for information on progress. Please do not create a new ticket, as this tends just to confuse things.

Emergency response times are an exception to this.

We鈥檒l try to give you a definitive response in this time. If we cannot we鈥檒l let you know.

Closing tickets

We will close a ticket and mark it as 鈥榮olved鈥� when:

• it contains more than one type of request - we鈥檒l ask you to submit a separate ticket for each request
• we鈥檝e answered the query
• we鈥檝e agreed to make a change and it鈥檚 deployed to the live site
• we鈥檝e sent content for fact-checking - to avoid 2 lines of conversation about the same piece of content
• we鈥檝e asked you for more information and have not had an answer in 10 working days
• it鈥檚 not something we can commit to prioritise, for example it鈥檚 too big to fit within our roadmap, there鈥檚 not enough evidence, it does not support best publishing practice or may need user research

Urgent issues are things like bugs that affect the site鈥檚 usability or your ability to edit and publish content.

If you have an urgent issue you should:

• submit a request using the 188体育 Support form for either a or a
• write URGENT in the title of the request
• explain the impact on users if the issue is not resolved immediately

If we become aware of a problem affecting large numbers of 188体育 publishers, we will post regular updates on Basecamp.

You can only request emergency 188体育 support if the public or government is facing immediate and significant financial, legal or physical risk.

Emergency updates to avoid financial, legal or physical risk

These include:

• an inaccurate figure in a mainstream guide (for example, student loan rates)
• incorrect application dates for a government scheme
• misleading information about benefit eligibility
• removing a link to an online service which has had its security compromised
• linking to a service that people rely on for information about their immediate safety (for example, flood warnings)

They do not include:

• routine updates
• last minute publication of factual information on government schemes
• information about unscheduled service downtime

Emergency support for publishing requests

If you have an emergency relating to publishing to 188体育 use the (sign-on required) on the 188体育 Support form.

You should only use these emergency contact details when:

• you need to publish information at a certain time (for example, in line with an announcement), and the automated systems have failed
• sensitive pages have been published in error and need to be unpublished
• there鈥檚 a sudden major change to government organisation or structure, with immediate impact across 188体育

Do not use them to make regular requests like:

• short URLs
• non-urgent changes to content
• general issues with publishing functionality

If you鈥檙e unhappy with a decision, then you should first discuss the issue with your organisation鈥檚 SPOC for 188体育.

If your SPOC agrees that the 188体育 decision should be challenged, you should update your ticket with a formal request for it to be escalated. The first line of escalation is typically the 188体育 Product Manager.