DEFRA
Revolutionising government forms for the digital age
We built the Digital Express Toolkit (DxT) to transform paper-based government forms into accessible, compliant online services handling 14 million+ transactions annually.
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GovTech
Public sector digital services that pass assessment
Stratatech designs and builds accessible, compliant digital services for the UK public sector, aligned to GDS-style service standards and WCAG 2.2.
Public sector teams carry a hard brief. The services you run have to work for everyone who needs them, meet a published standard, and keep operating while the rules and the demand keep changing. We help government departments, arms-length bodies and other public organisations design and build digital services that meet that bar and keep meeting it.
Stratatech is an independent digital product consultancy based in London, working with public sector clients across the UK and internationally. We do not sell seats by the day and disappear. We assemble a cross-functional cell, designers, engineers, delivery and product people in one squad, and aim to deliver value from the first weeks rather than at the end of a long programme.
Accessible, compliant services by default
We design services around the people who use them, not around the internal structure of the organisation. That means user-centred discovery first: understanding who the service is for, what they are trying to do, and where the current process fails them. From there we build iteratively, putting working software in front of real users early and shaping it on what we learn.
Accessibility runs through that work rather than sitting at the end of it. We aim for WCAG 2.2 AA across what we deliver, and we align to GDS-style service standards so the service holds up to scrutiny. To be clear about what we are: we build services to those standards, we do not act as GDS and we do not issue official service assessments. Our job is to give your team the strongest possible position going into one.
Turning paper and legacy into reliable online services
A lot of public sector work still runs on paper forms, spreadsheets and ageing systems that are expensive to maintain and frustrating to use. We have a track record of replacing that with online services that scale. For DEFRA we built the Digital Express Toolkit (DxT), which transformed paper-based government forms into accessible, compliant online services handling more than 14 million transactions a year. That is national-scale public service delivery, designed to be reliable and to stay reliable under real load.
Delivering new public sector capabilities
Some of the work is not about replacing an existing process but standing up something new. For the British Council, a UK public body, we architected and delivered AiBC, an AI-powered English learning platform that lets millions of learners practise speaking with real-time feedback. It shows the range we cover: from high-volume transactional services to AI-driven products that reach a worldwide audience.
How we help
- User-centred discovery that pins down who the service is for and where the current process breaks.
- Service design and delivery aligned to GDS-style standards, built and tested for WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility.
- Replacing paper and legacy processes with online services that operate reliably at scale.
- New digital products and capabilities, including AI-driven services, delivered by one cross-functional squad.
- Capability building so your own people can run and improve the service after we step back.
Building capability inside your teams
We would rather leave a public body more capable than dependent. Working as an embedded cell, we share the design, engineering and delivery practices that keep a service healthy, so the people who own it day to day can run and evolve it themselves. Where the gap is wider, we help stand up new ways of working through our digital capabilities service, and our digital transformation strategy guidance sets out how that fits into a longer plan.
Working with the public sector
We serve public sector clients in the UK and worldwide. We build accessible, standards-aligned digital services and transfer the capability to run them. We do not claim G-Cloud or DOS framework membership, security clearances or formal accreditations beyond what is stated here. If you have a service to fix or build, talk to us about what good would look like.
Frequently asked questions
Do you work to GDS service standards?+
Yes. We design and build digital services aligned to GDS-style service standards, with user-centred discovery, accessible interfaces and iterative delivery. We are not GDS and we do not issue official service assessments, but our work is shaped to give teams the best chance of passing them.
Do you build accessible services to WCAG 2.2?+
Accessibility is built into how we design and test, not bolted on at the end. We aim for WCAG 2.2 AA across the services we deliver, covering keyboard navigation, screen readers, colour contrast and content that works for people with a wide range of needs.
Can you handle high transaction volumes?+
Yes. The Digital Express Toolkit we built for DEFRA turned paper-based government forms into online services handling more than 14 million transactions a year, so we have delivered public services that operate reliably at national scale.
Do you transfer capability to civil service teams?+
Yes. We work as a cross-functional cell alongside your people and leave them able to run and evolve the service themselves. We can also stand up new capabilities and ways of working inside a public body so the dependency on outside help reduces over time.