What is a fractional CTO, and do I need one?

A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader who works part-time across one or more companies, typically one to two days a week. You likely need one if your team is shipping software but has no senior engineering voice in the room — for hiring, architecture, security, roadmap and tough technical decisions.

How much does a website accessibility audit cost?

A small marketing-site WCAG 2.2 audit typically starts around £1,500, with larger product audits in the £4,000–£10,000 range depending on the number of templates, components and user journeys. Every engagement includes a prioritised issue list and a remediation plan you can hand directly to your developers.

What is WCAG 2.2 and does my site need to comply?

WCAG 2.2 is the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines standard. In the UK, public-sector sites are legally required to meet WCAG 2.2 AA under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018. Private-sector sites are expected to be accessible under the Equality Act 2010 and increasingly under the European Accessibility Act from June 2025.

How long does a website performance audit take?

A typical performance audit takes one to two weeks: lab testing against Core Web Vitals, field-data review from real users, render-path analysis and a written report with prioritised fixes. Urgent engagements can be completed in a few days if the site is small and the issues are obvious.

Do you work with teams outside the UK?

Yes. chrimes.dev is remote-first and based in Leeds, UK, working across UK and European time zones. Most engagements happen over video calls, shared docs and pull requests. I travel to clients in person for kick-offs and workshops when it helps.

What technology stacks do you specialise in?

Modern web stacks — Next.js, React, TypeScript, Node.js, and headless content systems. I have deep experience with design systems (including the NHS and GOV.UK patterns), accessibility tooling and performance engineering. For audits I’m stack-agnostic.

How do engagements typically start?

A short free call to understand the problem, a written proposal with scope, price and timeline, and a signed agreement before any work begins. Audits are fixed-price; retainers and fractional CTO work are billed monthly.

Software Development

NHS website, NHS Design System and COVID-19 services

Helping build and maintain the NHS website, NHS Design System and COVID-19 services at the point the country relied on them most.

Client: NHS Digital
Role: Software Developer
Year: 2021
Duration: 12+ months (during the pandemic)

In short

Front-line engineering on some of the UK's highest-traffic, most trusted public services — during a national emergency.
Work that touched the NHS website, the NHS Design System and bespoke COVID-19 services.
The bar was exceptional. It had to be.

The brief

For a period during the pandemic, the NHS website was one of the most-visited pages on the UK internet, serving millions of people a day with information they needed to make safety-critical decisions. COVID-19 services were stood up at pace alongside it, often under pressure no digital service is normally asked to handle.

My part was as a front-end engineer on the NHS Digital team building and maintaining those services. Every change had to hold up to national-scale traffic, be accessible to the widest possible audience, and be trusted by people in genuinely difficult circumstances.

Approach

Working inside a tight, high-trust team that shipped quickly but never cheaply — every release had been reviewed, tested, accessibility-checked and performance-profiled.

Contributing to the NHS Design System — so the work had value well beyond the specific features we were shipping at the time.

Pairing and mobbing on the high-pressure COVID-19 services, to keep quality up while the roadmap moved week to week.

Accessibility as non-negotiable. At NHS Digital scale, failures affect real people.

What I delivered

Features and fixes on the NHS website (nhs.uk)
Components contributed to the NHS Design System
Front-end development on bespoke COVID-19 services
Accessibility testing and remediation

Outcomes

A body of code serving hundreds of millions of people during a national emergency
Patterns and components now embedded in the NHS Design System and re-used across the NHS
A demonstration that the NHS Digital delivery model holds up under extreme load

Software DevelopmentKainos (for NHS England), 2026

NHS Online service

Helping build NHS Online — a new national digital hospital launching in England by 2027, connecting patients to specialists via the NHS App and easing elective waiting times.

Read case study

Software DevelopmentNHS England, 2025

Manage Your Screening (MAYS)

Lead UI Developer on the Manage Your Screening team — making NHS cancer screening easier to understand, easier to access, and easier to manage.