The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Creating a Future-Ready WordPress Platform to Support Trust-Wide Digital Transformation

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Background

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) is one of the largest acute and community providers in the West Midlands, delivering hospital, community, and primary care services to more than 450,000 people. With a workforce of over 11,000 staff across multiple sites, RWT plays a critical role in delivering integrated care across the region.

As the Trust continued to advance its digital strategy, it became clear that its existing website was no longer aligned with operational needs or public expectations. The platform was outdated, difficult to manage, and failed to meet the Trust’s accessibility, content governance, and performance requirements.

6B was appointed to deliver a bespoke, secure, and scalable WordPress platform — one that could serve as a modern digital front door for the Trust while giving internal teams the tools and autonomy to manage content effectively.

The Need

RWT’s previous website struggled under the weight of legacy systems and content sprawl. Information was difficult to locate, service pages were inconsistent, and the CMS lacked the flexibility required for distributed content ownership across departments.

The Trust needed a new platform that could support clear, structured content delivery — particularly for critical areas such as patient services, hospital departments, clinical governance, and recruitment. Accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.2) was essential, as was the ability to integrate with internal systems and third-party tools used across the NHS.

Additionally, the website needed to accommodate future expansion — including sub-sites, microsites for major campaigns, and role-specific access for dozens of content editors. Above all, it had to offer high performance, low maintenance overhead, and rock-solid reliability, reflecting the Trust’s commitment to quality and transparency.

The Solution

6B delivered a fully custom WordPress platform for The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, engineered for flexibility, accessibility, and future growth. The solution was developed using clean, standards-compliant code with no reliance on off-the-shelf themes or page builders — ensuring full control over performance and maintainability.

The CMS was structured using Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) and a library of reusable content blocks, giving internal teams the ability to create rich, on-brand pages without technical support. Custom post types were implemented for services, departments, governance documentation, and news — ensuring content could be modelled, reused, and maintained consistently across the site.

Navigation was reimagined to reflect real-world user journeys, with improved hierarchy, clear calls to action, and intuitive search filters. Key integrations included embedded job listings, real-time service alerts, interactive maps, and content tagging for quick filtering across hundreds of documents.

Accessibility was a core priority. We built the platform to fully comply with WCAG 2.2 standards, using semantic HTML, ARIA attributes, responsive design, and colour contrast checks throughout. Third-party accessibility tools were assessed and integrated as needed, supporting users with diverse needs.

6B also delivered a comprehensive content migration and rationalisation process, working alongside RWT’s communications and digital teams to ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption. Post-launch, we provided live training, documentation, and onboarding support for more than 40 content editors across the Trust.

The Impact

The new WordPress platform has transformed how The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust engages with patients, staff, and the wider public. Service information is now easier to access and manage, content updates are faster and decentralised, and site performance has improved significantly across all key metrics.

By investing in a bespoke WordPress solution, RWT has gained a secure, scalable, and accessible platform that aligns with NHS standards and meets the complex demands of a large, multi-site healthcare provider. The CMS now empowers teams to manage their own content — while maintaining governance, consistency, and control at a Trust-wide level.

With a modern technical foundation in place, the platform is well positioned to support future digital initiatives — from patient engagement tools to campaign-specific microsites — ensuring the Trust continues to lead in delivering connected, user-focused healthcare services.

“We were incredibly impressed with 6B’s understanding from the outset of the magnitude and challenge involved in delivering a new NHS website. They quickly grasped our ambition to create a platform that is not only user-friendly and engaging for our patients but also easily navigable for our valued colleagues. The result of our collaboration is a website that truly empowers us, providing greater control in updating content and ensuring it consistently meets the evolving needs of the diverse communities we serve. We’re absolutely delighted with the outcome and look forward to continuing our partnership with 6B as we embark on the development of the new Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust website later in 2025.”

– Vaughan Browne, Communications Lead, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

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