NAPA – National Activity Providers
The brief
NAPA – the National Activity Providers Association – is the UK’s professional body for activity providers in care. Founded in 1997, they support over 2,700 care services with training, resources, professional development and a sector voice. Their mission is straightforward and important: meaningful engagement, real connection, better lives for people receiving care.
Their website wasn’t doing justice to any of that.
The site had accumulated years of workarounds – 187 pages, many of them static link collections that had long outgrown their structure. The Activity Shed, NAPA’s core member resource library, was held together with static pages and link lists. Worse, their hosting provider had refused to give NAPA admin access to their own website. When things broke – and they did break – NAPA couldn’t fix them without going back through an unresponsive third party.
They needed a full rebuild. A proper home for a serious organisation, with a functioning member library, a community space their members would actually use, and control over their own site for the first time in years.
The challenge
This was one of the more complex projects I’ve taken on – not just in terms of technical scope, but in terms of getting the foundations right before a line of code was written.
The discovery audit revealed several layers of problems:
A site that was broken at the infrastructure level. The existing site served a JavaScript challenge to anyone visiting without JS enabled, which meant Google's PageSpeed tools couldn't analyse it. The hosting was US-based, adding 80-150ms of latency for UK visitors - a real problem in care settings with slow Wi-Fi. There was no uptime monitoring. A recent login outage had gone undetected.
A membership system that had grown beyond its original design.
4,152 user accounts, managed through a spreadsheet-based workflow with membership numbers as usernames - a sensible system for NAPA's team, but implemented on creaking infrastructure. Members had to navigate to a separate login page, then got redirected away from where they were trying to go.
An Activity Shed that wasn't really a library. NAPA's flagship member resource - over 800 individual resources - was organised as a series of static pages with link collections. Outdated content sat alongside current content. There was no search, no filtering, no way for members to find what they needed quickly. A section originally set up as a proper resource library had been abandoned and left empty since 2021.
No way out. The previous developer held the hosting relationship and had declined to give NAPA admin access to their own site. The rebuild had to happen entirely independently, with a DNS switchover when the new site was ready.
There was also a practical saving on the table: NAPA were paying £2,136 a year for FlippingBook, a digital magazine platform. A proper rebuild could eliminate that cost entirely.
The approach
I started with a full discovery audit – front-end analysis, backend access review, content inventory, and conversations with Hilary (CEO), Gianna (content), and Karen (membership). That produced a detailed specification before any build work began: architecture, content structure, technical stack, migration plan, and a firm quote. No surprises later.
The rebuild ran on SiteGround GoGeek hosting (UK-based), with Elementor Pro, JetEngine, JetSmartFilters, and a Fluent suite handling the membership and community layers. The .co.uk domain moved to .org.uk as the primary address.
The Activity Shed was redesigned from the ground up as a proper searchable library. Every resource became a custom post type with title, description, featured image, downloadable PDFs, and a full taxonomy – categories, sub-categories, tags, and format types. JetEngine powers the card-based display. JetSmartFilters adds keyword search, category dropdowns, tag checkboxes, and format filtering – all AJAX-powered, no page reload. Resources tagged for Easter appear automatically on Easter listings; Gianna doesn’t need developer involvement to manage the library day-to-day.
The membership and community system was built using Fluent CRM, Fluent Cart, Fluent Auth, and Fluent Community. Membership numbers from NAPA’s Sage invoicing system generate usernames automatically – preserving Karen’s existing workflow but on solid infrastructure. Members log in and land in the Shed, not on a generic homepage. The community portal space has become a live hub where members share ideas, ask questions, and stay connected.
The impact page was built to give NAPA something they could take into funder conversations: a clear, visual summary of their reach and outcomes. It’s become one of their most-used pages internally.
FlippingBook was removed entirely. All magazine content migrated to direct PDFs, saving NAPA £2,136 a year from day one.
The outcome
NAPA launched in summer 2026 with a site that finally matches the scale and seriousness of the organisation.
The Activity Shed now works the way a library should – members can search, filter, and find what they need in seconds rather than scrolling through pages of static links. New resources can be added and categorised in minutes, without a developer.
The Fluent Community space has exceeded expectations. Members are logging in regularly, engaging with each other, and getting up-to-date information directly through the portal. NAPA’s team has seen a significant reduction in email outreach as a result – members are coming to the information rather than waiting to receive it.
The impact page has become a genuine tool for the team, supporting funder conversations in a way the old site never could.
And for the first time in years, NAPA have full control over their own website.
£2,136 saved annually by replacing FlippingBook with direct PDF delivery
A searchable member library replacing hundreds of static pages of link collections
A thriving community portal that's cut email outreach as members log in to find what they need
NAPA – National Activity Providers
Location
Year
Industry
Services
Website design
Website development
Membership platform
Community portal
Content migration
Hosting & care package
"I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your hard work on our website. I'm delighted with how it's turned out. You've been great to work with, and you've made the whole process so much easier than it could have been. I really appreciate your patience, your ideas, and all the little tweaks you've made along the way. The website looks great, and we are all really pleased with the result."
Credits
NAPA - National Activity Providers
WordPress
Louise Rankin
Louise Rankin