Highfield Services

The challenge: a learning disability care website that works for everyone

Highfield Services are Lancashire's learning disability specialists: a CQC-registered provider supporting adults with learning disabilities across the Hyndburn area of East Lancashire since 1986. Their work is built on dignity, choice and control, helping people live their best lives in their own homes and in their community. The website had to carry all of that, and speak clearly to three very different audiences at once: the people they support, their families, and the local authorities that commission the care.

That raised a bar most sites never have to clear. A site about supporting people with learning disabilities has to be truly usable by people with a wide range of needs, not just visually tidy. It had to present three distinct services without losing the warmth that holds them together, carry the trust signals a commissioner looks for, and be easy for families to find when they search for care close to home.

What we built: an accessible, person-centred website for Highfield Services

We designed and built Highfield a brand-new website on Laravel, styled around their own warm identity: a calm teal and purple palette, soft rounded cards and gentle wave dividers that feel reassuring rather than clinical. It is lightweight, mobile-first and accessible, and it centres the people Highfield support and the choices open to them.

• Three services, each given room to breathe. Supported Living (independent living in your own home with tailored, around-the-clock support), The Base day centre in Great Harwood (activities, supported placements and social opportunities) and Outreach (flexible, community-based support) each get their own section, so a visitor lands exactly where they need to be.
• An About section that earns trust. History and values since 1986, the team, the latest CQC inspection report, staff vacancies and a clear equality and diversity commitment that respects every person's identity, beliefs and background: the depth a family or a commissioner expects before they get in touch.
• One enquiry, handled with care. A validated contact form checks each message, stores it safely and emails the office straight away, alongside a location map and the direct phone lines for the head office and The Base, so nobody has to hunt for a way to reach a real person.
• Guides ready to download. Application forms, the core values, a job description and the supported-living service user guide (offered in an easy-read version as well as the standard one), so the right information is one tap away.
• A site the team keeps current. Team members, testimonials, vacancies and incoming enquiries are all managed from a simple, private admin area, so the people who know the service keep it up to date without needing a developer.

Built for everyone to use

Accessibility here is not a checkbox, it is the point. A prominent visitor toolbar lets anyone resize the text, switch to high contrast, turn on a dyslexia-friendly typeface, or click to hear any passage read aloud, and every choice is remembered in their browser for next time. Underneath, the site is accessible by design: a skip-to-content link, clear semantic structure and labelling for screen readers, live status announcements, visible focus rings and keyboard-friendly navigation (menus that open and close with the keyboard and keep focus while open), generous tap targets, and full respect for a visitor's reduced-motion preference. For a provider whose whole purpose is supporting people with a learning disability, a website that meets people where they are matters more than almost anything else it does.

Found by families searching for learning disability care in East Lancashire

The site is built to rank for the searches that bring families and commissioners to Highfield: learning disability support, supported living, day services and outreach across Great Harwood, Hyndburn and East Lancashire. Every page ships with its own title, meta description and canonical link, plus Open Graph and Twitter Card metadata, and the whole site carries a single block of structured data describing the business (its name, address, phone, email, opening hours, the services it offers and the Lancashire area it covers), the details search engines read to show a provider accurately. A dynamically generated XML sitemap lists every page, and local signals for Lancashire and British English run throughout, so Highfield show up where their community is actually looking.

Common questions about the Highfield Services website

Is the website easy to use for people with a learning disability?

Yes. A built-in toolbar offers larger text, high contrast, a dyslexia-friendly typeface and click-to-read audio, the site is fully keyboard and screen-reader friendly, and the supported-living service user guide comes in an easy-read version alongside the standard one.

Can the Highfield team keep the site up to date themselves?

Yes. Team members, testimonials, vacancies and incoming enquiries are all managed from a simple, private admin area, so updates are a quick edit rather than a job for a developer.

What does Highfield Services offer, and where?

Supported Living, day services at The Base in Great Harwood, and community Outreach for adults with learning disabilities across the Hyndburn area of East Lancashire, CQC registered and caring since 1986.

A warm, deeply accessible website that gives Highfield's three services their own space, remembers each visitor's reading preferences, and helps families and commissioners across East Lancashire find person-centred learning disability care.

The result: person-centred care, easy to find and easy to use

Highfield Services now have a website that reflects the care itself: warm, dignified and open to everyone. Each of the three services has space to explain itself, families and commissioners find the reassurance they are looking for, and the accessibility toolbar means a visitor's needs never get in the way of the information they came for. The team keep it current from one simple admin area, and the whole site is built to be found by people searching for learning disability support close to home. A provider that has cared for its community since 1986 now has an online front door worthy of that work.