Welcome to our new website!
Robert Breakwell, IRHH Appeals & Communications Director, provides a whlstlestop tour of the new Iain Rennie site.
The new Iain Rennie Hospice at Home website www.irhh.org was launched on Wednesday 9th July. The new site has been developed over the last 15 months and has a stronger focus on our nursing services and makes it easy for anyone who needs information about our work to find the information they need quickly and easily and to contact us if they need our help or wish to support the charity in any way. The new site can be viewed in a range of font sizes and the pages can be read out loud using appropriate software making it more easily accessible for people with disabilities.
Last year, over 110,000 people visited the Iain Rennie website and between them they viewed well over 500,000 pages. Our website has a vital part to play in the delivery of our services to patients and families and in our fundraising, shops, trading and administrative functions.
We've added comprehensive new pages about our adult nursing service, family support and our Pepper Children's Nurses and clear information about how to access these services and where they operate. These pages link seamlessly to pages that take a more detailed look at the realities of the services we offer free of charge to patients across our area.
Our Links pages are among the most popular on the site and these have been updated and made easier to use. They provide a wealth of information for anyone who needs to know more about hospice care or associated services or for those who need to find out about the care they are receiving.
Our history and heritage has not been left behind and Iain Rennie's story is told in full in our About Us section which also has new sections about our Aims, Values and Standards and an introduction to the trustees, departments and other key groups who enable us to provide our services. As always, we continue to publish our latest audited financial information and Annual Review online in full.
Our lively News pages will continue to be updated on a daily basis. A rolling news service on the home page provides a colourful chronicle of events and stories reflecting life at Iain Rennie with in-depth reports and plenty of pictures. Subscribing to our Doorstep newsletter, Getting Involved magazine and e-News service has been streamlined with easy to use online forms.
With over 400 events each year our What's On pages are among the most visited on the site. This area is always up to date and completely redesigned. It offers a huge range of activities with all the information needed to get the most out of the occasion including helpful maps and links.
New online donation facilities have been added and these include secure online direct debits and credit card payments and even a planned "callback" service for donors in the Make A Donation area. Popular "print out and send" forms are all still available and the Donations pages reflect the need for people to donate in memory or for other reasons.
Full information about all of our shops is available with maps to enable you to find them with ease. Our virtual shop on eBay is clearly signposted and is always worth a visit. We will be relaunching online trading facilities in the autumn when the Christmas ranges are launched with even stronger security for making payments online.
The extended and enhanced Help Us Raise Funds section has even more ways to get involved, more fundraising ideas, dedicated pages for key events such as the London Marathon and Goodnight Walk and information pages specifically pages for grant making trusts and fundraising groups.
A modernised Volunteering and Careers section makes it easy to find out about current vacancies and volunteering opportunities and the ability to apply for jobs online remains in place.
A new online Feedback form make it easy to comment on, compliment or complain about any aspect of the Iain Rennie service and reinforce our commitment to providing a high quality service and listening to the views of those who come into contact with our organisation.
We have also introduced simple, easy to use Contact pages which make it enable visitors to get in touch with the person you need at Iain Rennie and clearly identify where the various teams and departments are based - an important feature for an organisation with 3 office bases and 9 shops! Web-based email contact forms also make it possible to contact individual teams and departments without the need for a web browser.
We would like to acknowledge the generous support of Ambrit of Berkhamsted who have carried out the website redesign for us completely free of charge. The Ambrit team's very considerable skills, flair and talents have enabled us to achieve all of the site's objectives.
Ambrit's Chairman Barry Webb and Designer Tim Waymark hand over the new website to IRHH Volunteer web team, Mike Tant and Hilary Derbyshire
We also wish to acknowledge the enormous contribution of two very special people, Mike Tant and Hilary Derbyshire, who have effectively managed our website over many years and have now committed themselves to managing the new website with its increased facilities and technologies. Thanks also go to our web hosting partner, eLinia, who have generously agreed to host the site for us free of charge.
In conclusion, we would like to thank the many other staff and volunteers who have contributed to the development of the new site and invite you to visit www.irhh.org regularly. We hope you enjoy it.
9th July 2008
