Create and update 'consultation' on GOV.WALES

Before you create or edit content, you need to read and understand:

• the style guide
• writing for GOV.WALES

You should also have a version of the content ready for publication.

Use for:

• formal consultations with a WG number
• joint consultations held by Welsh Government and another public body
• consultations held by a public body listed as an organisation on GOV.WALES

Do not use:

• for any other purpose

Follow these steps when the consultation documents are published to GOV.WALES. If we are linking to consultation documents published outside GOV.WALES, for example GOV.UK, then create a consultation where the detail is on an external site.

1. Log in to GOV.WALES and LLYW.CYMRU.
2. Select the Workbench view in GOV.WALES (you must start on the English site).
3. Select Create content.
4. Select Consultation.
5. Complete the Title field.
6. Select Open in the State field.
7. Complete the Summary field.
8. Complete the Launch date with the date that the consultation is due to start in the format dd/mm/yyyy.
9. Under Authoring information, put the same date as the launch date in the First Published and Last Updated fields.
10. Complete the End date with the date that the consultation is due to close in the format dd/mm/yyyy.
11. Add the Consultation description. This develops the summary, adding brief extra important information about the consultation.
12. Refer to Add a document to a consultation to add the documents which form the consultation (except for impact assessments)
13. Complete Impact assessments to add impact assessments. Each is published separately as a publication: impact assessment. Use the Details section of the impact assessment to link it to the consultation using ‘This impact assessment is for the proposals in the following consultation: changes to school admission appeal arrangements’.
14. You may use the Additional information. It must not contain information essential for users to complete the consultation. Examples of when it may be used include for engagement activities separate to the formal consultation or to mention other closely related consultations.
15. You may use the Help and support field. It must not contain information essential for users to complete the consultation. An example of when it may be used is to provide contact details for questions about the consultation.
16. Complete the Respond - email field with 'Complete and return to insert email address'. Include the actual email address instead of insert email address.
17. Link the email address by highlighting it and select the @ button. Select email from the Link type menu, and then fill out the Email address field. You can also fill out the Message subject and Message body fields.
18. Complete the Respond - post field with 'Complete and return to:
    (use this address format, but change the details)
    Environmental Quality & Regulation
    Cathays Park
    Cardiff
    CF10 3NQ'
19. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Save and Create New Draft
20. Select NEW DRAFT.
21. Scroll down to the ‘Respond – online’ field and enter 'Respond online'
22. Look at the URL of the page you are on. It will look something like https://gov.wales/node/xxxxx/edit. Copy '/node/xxxxx/edit' and replace 'edit' with 'respond-online' to get ‘/node/xxxx/respond-online’.
23. Highlight the text 'Respond online' and select the link button. Paste ‘/node/xxxx/respond-online’ in to the URL field in the pop-up window, select Save.
24. In the External online form field insert the URL of your Smartsurvey online response form.
25. The Outcome summary field should be blank when creating a consultation.
26. Tag to relevant Topics.
27. If content is from or about an organisation complete EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS.
28. Add INTERNAL LINKS (NODE) to no more than 5 pages on GOV.WALES which are closely related to the consultation. The pages must not be essential for users to respond to the consultation.
29. Do not usually complete INTERNAL LINKS (TERMS). Either the consultation is relevant to a topic therefore tagged to it or linked to pages meeting specific user needs.
30. To link to another website Add External Link. Use this for content closely related to the consultation but not essential for users to respond to the consultation.
31. Fill in the Review Date field if required. You can see a full list of all items flagged for review on your Workbench under Needs review.
32. After the consultation is closed you can add a summary of responses. Select Add new consultation document.
33. To save and edit again before publishing select Save and Create New Draft. To save and specify when to publish in the future, set a date and time in SCHEDULING OPTIONS (expand this field which is usually to the right of the main editing fields). Then select Save and Approve to go live.
34. To add the Welsh content, select TRANSLATE.
35. Select Add from row labelled Welsh.
36. Update fields with Welsh language content.
37. To save changes without making them public select Save and Create New Draft (this translation). To save and make changes public select Save and publish (this translation). To save and publish on the date set in step 33, after selecting Save and Make Draft (this translation) select Save and Approve to go live (this translation).
38. Ensure the Welsh and the English are in the same published state and check both languages, for example layout is correct and links work.

This is only required when the consultation details are not on GOV.WALES. For example UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) Authority: free allocation.

1. Select the Workbench view in GOV.WALES (you must start on the English site).
2. Select Create content.
3. Select Consultation.
4. Complete the Title field.
5. Select Open in the State field.
6. Complete the Summary field.
7. Complete the Launch date with the date that the consultation is due to start in the format dd/mm/yyyy.
8. Under Authoring information, put the same date as the launch date in the First Published and Last Updated fields.
9. Complete the End date with the date that the consultation is due to close in the format dd/mm/yyyy.
10. Consider adding a Consultation description. This develops the summary, adding brief extra important information about the consultation. It may not be necessary if the title and summary provide enough information for the user to decide whether to visit the external site.
11. In the External consultation link section, paste into a link to the page where the consultation is hosted in the URL field.
12. Insert the name of the site, for example GOV.UK in the Link text field. The name of the site will automatically be prefixed with 'This consultation is being held on'.
13. The Outcome summary field should be blank when creating a consultation.
14. Tag to relevant Topics.
15. If content is from or about an organisation complete EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS.
16. Add INTERNAL LINKS (NODE) to no more than 5 pages on GOV.WALES which are closely related to the consultation. The pages must not be essential for users to respond to the consultation.
17. Do not usually complete INTERNAL LINKS (TERMS). Either the consultation is relevant to a topic therefore tagged to it or linked to pages meeting specific user needs.
18. To link to another website select Add External Link. Use this for content closely related to the consultation but not essential for users to respond to the consultation.
19. Fill in the Review Date field if required. You can see a full list of all items flagged for review on your Workbench under Needs review.
20. To save and edit again before publishing select Save and Create New Draft. To save and specify when to publish in the future, set a date and time in SCHEDULING OPTIONS (expand this field which is usually to the right of the main editing fields). Then select Save and Approve to go live.
21. To add the Welsh content, select TRANSLATE.
22. Select Add from row labelled Welsh.
23. Update fields with Welsh language content.
24. To save changes without making them public select Save and Create New Draft (this translation). To save and make changes public select Save and publish (this translation). To save and publish on the date set in step 20, after selecting Save and Make Draft (this translation) select Save and Approve to go live (this translation).
25. Ensure the Welsh and the English are in the same published state and check both languages, for example layout is correct and links work.
26. To save and specify when to publish in the future, set a date and time in Scheduling options (expand this field which is usually to the right of the main editing fields). Then select Save and Approve to go live.
27. Ensure the Welsh and the English are in the same published state and check both languages, for example layout is correct and links work.

This is only required when the consultation detail or outcome is on GOV.WALES.

Consultation HTML Document

1. Select Consultation HTML Document from the dropdown list and select Add new consultation document.
2. Complete the Name field. ‘Consultation document’ for the consultation document, ‘Summary of responses’ for the summary of responses and ‘Response form’ for the response form.
3. Choose the correct Consultation document type from the dropdown list. Consultation document for the consultation document, Outcome document for the summary of responses and Response form for the response form.
4. Search and select the correct document in the HTML document field.
5. Tick the box labelled Display the Name field instead of node title (HTML document).
6. If the document is only available in English or Welsh, select that language from the Language availability menu.
7. When all fields are completed, select Create consultation document.
8. Repeat steps 1 to 7 to add more HTML consultation documents.
9. If you were creating a consultation, go to step 13 of create a consultation.
10. If you were adding a consultation response, go to step 5 of add a consultation response.

Consultation document

1. Select the Consultation document type from the drop-down list and select Add new consultation document.
2. Complete the Name field. 'Consultation document' for the consultation document, ‘Summary of responses’ for the summary of responses and ‘Response form’ for the response form.
3. Choose the Consultation document type from the dropdown list. Consultation document for the consultation document, Outcome document for the summary of responses and Response form for the response form.
4. Select the document to upload by selecting Choose file under Add a new file.
5. If the document you are uploading is a PDF tick the Generate thumbnail box.
6. If the document you are uploading is not a PDF, you must create a thumbnail and upload it. The thumbnail should be 160px (W) x 230px (H). Use the Thumbnail field to upload the thumbnail.
7. If the document is only available in English or Welsh, select that language from the Language availability menu.
8. When all fields are completed, select Create consultation document.
9. Repeat steps 1 to 8 to add more consultation documents as files.
10. If you were creating a consultation go to step 13 of create a consultation.
11. If you were adding a consultation response, go to step 5 of add a consultation response.

Once a consultation has been published it should not be changed. Changes risk users responding based on different information. You can change the following without approval: 

• correct minor spelling errors or typos unless they change the meaning
• after the consultation is closed add a summary of responses (details on GOV.WALES) or add a summary of responses (details on an external site) 

Any other changes should only be made after the policy owner has considered the risks and sought advice from sustainable.futures@gov.wales. 

Consultations are closed automatically based on the end date:

• the text above the consultation title will change from OPEN CONSULTATION to CONSULTATION CLOSED.
• the Summary will change to ‘This consultation ended [date]’
• the original summary will appear on a new heading on the page Original consultation
• a new section will appear below the Summary titled Reviewing responses
• the How to respond section will be removed.

1. Find the existing consultation either by browsing the public site or select Workbench then All recent content. You must do this on GOV.WALES as the English content must be edited first.
2. Open the consultation.
3. Select EDIT DRAFT or NEW DRAFT.
4. After a consultation has closed you can add a consultation outcome by following the steps in Add a document to a consultation.
5. You may also add a short text summary of what happened following the consultation to Outcome summary. Usually, only a summary of responses document is published on GOV.WALES in which case do not use Outcome summary.
6. Complete Revision log message (all languages) with brief summary of changes.
7. To save and edit again before publishing select Save and Create New Draft. To save and specify when to publish in the future, set a date and time in Scheduling options (expand this field which is usually to the right of the main editing fields). Then select Save and Approve to go live.
8. Select TRANSLATE to amend the Welsh.
9. Select Edit from row labelled Welsh.
10. Amend the Welsh to add a add a document.
11. To save changes without making them public select Save and Create New Draft (this translation). To save and make changes public select Save and publish (this translation). To save and publish on the date set in step 7, after selecting Save and Make Draft (this translation) select Save and Approve to go live (this translation).
12. Ensure the Welsh and the English are in the same published state and check both languages, for example layout is correct and links work.

When you add an outcome document:

• the text above the title will change from CLOSED CONSULTATION to CONSULTATION OUTCOME
• the section below the Summary will change from Reviewing responses to Details of outcome

1. Find the existing consultation either by browsing the public site or select Workbench then All recent content. You must do this on GOV.WALES as the English content must be edited first.
2. Open the consultation.
3. Select EDIT DRAFT or NEW DRAFT.
4. Complete the Outcome summary to link to a summary of responses or government response on a website outside GOV.WALES.
5. Complete Revision log message (all languages) with brief summary of changes.
6. To save and edit again before publishing select Save and Create New Draft. To save and specify when to publish in the future, set a date and time in Scheduling options (expand this field which is usually to the right of the main editing fields). Then select Save and Approve to go live.
7. Select TRANSLATE to amend the Welsh.
8. Select Edit from row labelled Welsh.
9. Amend the Welsh to add a add a document.
10. To save changes without making them public select Save and Create New Draft (this translation). To save and make changes public select Save and publish (this translation). To save and publish on the date set in step 6, after selecting Save and Make Draft (this translation) select Save and Approve to go live (this translation).
11. Ensure the Welsh and the English are in the same published state and check both languages, for example layout is correct and links work.

Lists which components are available and how to use them if they are allowed.

Paragraphs: content

You must use the content paragraph for the majority of the page content.

Paragraphs: accordion

Do not use the accordion paragraph on consultations.

Paragraphs: related links

Do not use the related links paragraph on consultations.

Paragraphs: call out message

Do not use the call out message paragraph on consultations.

Paragraphs: iFrame

Use only to embed a YouTube video.