01Our commitment

Council People is run by Career People Ltd. We want everyone to be able to search and browse local government vacancies, whatever device they use and however they navigate the web. Accessibility isn't an afterthought for us: the people using this site to find work in the public sector include disabled jobseekers, and a barrier here can be the difference between applying and giving up.

We have designed and built this website to be usable with a keyboard alone, with screen readers, at high zoom levels, and by people who do not use a mouse. This statement sets out honestly where we stand.

02The standard we follow

We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, Level AA. WCAG is the internationally recognised benchmark for web accessibility, and Level AA is the level most organisations and public bodies work to.

As a private company we are not bound by the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018, which apply to councils and other public bodies. We nonetheless treat WCAG 2.1 AA as our target because it is the right standard for a service built around local government recruitment.

03How accessible this website is

This website partially conforms with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. "Partially conforms" means most of the site meets the standard, with the specific exceptions listed in sections 4 and 5.

Based on our own testing, the parts of the site we build and control meet the Level AA criteria. In particular:

• every image has a meaningful text alternative, or is marked as decorative;
• the site can be operated entirely by keyboard, including the search box, the career pathway explorer, the job listings and all navigation;
• there is a visible focus indicator so keyboard users can always see where they are;
• a "Skip to main content" link lets keyboard and screen-reader users bypass the header on every page;
• colour contrast meets the AA threshold for normal and large text;
• headings are structured in a logical order, with one main heading per page;
• interactive components built by us — including the career pathway tabs — expose the correct roles and states to assistive technology and support arrow-key navigation;
• form controls have labels, and the page language is set so screen readers pronounce content correctly.

04Known limitations

We want to be open about the areas we are still working on. At the date of this statement, we are aware of the following:

• Third-party platform components. Parts of the site are provided by our job board platform. We have reviewed and corrected the components we found, but we cannot guarantee that every element supplied by the platform meets AA at all times.
• Aggregated vacancy content. Many listings are drawn from councils' own published sources. Where a council's original wording is unclear or incomplete, that may carry through to our listing. We show the vacancy and link to the council's own advertisement.
• No independent audit yet. Our assessment is based on our own testing (see section 6), not on a formal audit by an external accessibility specialist. We may not have found every issue.

None of these prevents you from browsing, searching, or reaching a vacancy. If any of them causes you a problem, please tell us — see section 8.

05Applying for jobs on council websites

The application process, forms and any documents at that stage are provided and controlled by the council, not by us. Their accessibility is the responsibility of that council, and is covered by the council's own accessibility statement.

If you have difficulty applying on a council's website, the council's HR or recruitment team is best placed to help, and most councils can accept applications by alternative means on request. If you're not sure who to contact, email us at support@councilpeople.com and we'll point you in the right direction.

06How we tested

We assessed this website ourselves against the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria. Our testing covered the main page types — the homepage, job search and listings, individual vacancy pages, the pricing page, the career pathway explorer, the about page and these legal pages.

Testing included checking colour contrast against the AA thresholds, confirming the site can be operated by keyboard, verifying a visible focus indicator, reviewing the structure of headings and landmarks, checking that images have text alternatives and that form controls are labelled, and confirming that the interactive components we built expose the correct information to assistive technology.

This assessment was carried out in July 2026. It was an internal review; the site has not yet been independently audited or certified.

07Compatibility

This website is designed to work with:

• current versions of the major browsers — Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari — on desktop and mobile;
• keyboard-only navigation;
• screen magnification and increased browser zoom;
• modern screen readers.

We test functionally across these, but we cannot test every possible combination of browser, operating system and assistive technology. If you use a particular set-up and something doesn't work, please let us know — it helps us improve.

08Reporting a problem

Email support@councilpeople.com. Please tell us the page or feature, what happened, and — if you can — the browser and any assistive technology you were using. That detail helps us reproduce and fix the issue quickly.

We aim to acknowledge accessibility reports within 5 working days and to explain what we can do and by when.

09Your rights

Under the Equality Act 2010, service providers must make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage. We take that duty seriously, and improving the accessibility of this website is part of how we meet it.

If you contact us about an accessibility barrier and you are not satisfied with our response, you are entitled to seek further advice about your rights under the Equality Act. In England, Scotland and Wales, the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) provides free advice on discrimination and human rights issues.

10What we're doing next

Accessibility is ongoing, not a one-off task. As we add features and content we test them against the same standard, and we act on the feedback we receive. Our current priorities are to keep the components supplied by our platform in line with AA as they change, and to seek an independent accessibility review as the service grows.

11About this statement

This statement applies to the Council People website at councilpeople.co.uk, councilpeople.com and their associated pages.

It was first published on 11 July 2026 and reflects the state of the website on that date. We review it when the website changes significantly, and at least once a year.