When I first heard that more than fifty UK councils share one Drupal distribution, I assumed there was a central mandate behind it. There isn't. LocalGov Drupal grew because councils chose to collaborate, and that is the lesson for federal agencies.

Shared problems, shared code

Councils publish the same kinds of content: bin collections, planning applications, service pages. Federal agencies do too, with press releases, regulations, grants and contact pages. Building each of those in every agency costs a lot of money, and the bespoke versions are usually worse.

What made it work

  • A small, stable core with optional feature modules
  • Fortnightly product meetings that are open to every member
  • Funding from many councils in small amounts, so no single one is carrying the cost
  • A shared design system that each council can theme

What we're trying

A group of us on GDDN have started a discovery into a shared "federal content toolkit", starting with the Grants content type. Read the discovery notes in the project pipeline, and if your agency needs it too, tell us.