Double success for council at prestigious awards

The council had a remarkable double success at the Scottish Awards for Business Excellence 2017, organised by Quality Scotland.

The awards recognise commitment to organisational excellence, continuous improvement and quality.

We collected a prestigious Recognised for Excellence 4 star award. This is awarded between 3 and 5 stars and is based on a points system across a range of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) ‘Concepts.’ It follows a visit to the council earlier this year by a team of assessors who spoke to employees in interviews and focus groups to find out more about our work. The council also submitted a detailed report with supporting evidence for assessment.

The council’s award reflects that we:

• Perform well and take change seriously
• Get things done and can demonstrate we have invested in practices that will lead to success
• Are going in the right direction

At the awards, it was said that the council “is committed to working with its partners and the people of the community it works within. The organisation is able to demonstrate a full understanding of its customer groups, existing and future, and uses a range of channels to anticipate changing needs. As a strategic focus they have set out four key priorities with the overarching aim to reduce inequalities.   A Transformation Programme is in place, the purpose of which is to move from improvement to excellence and there are lots of examples where staff are encouraged to become involved in improvement and innovation activity.”

We also received Quality Scotland’s Good Practice Award for the ‘Developing Organisational Capability’. The assessors highlighted that the council “clearly has a culture of working in partnership that is deployed right across the organisation,” with partners and staff encouraged “to look at how they can better work with others both inside and outside the organisation”.

The success of our six Area Partnerships was also highlighted, with the assessors remarking that they are “society driven and focus on the benefits to the community and towns that this organisation works in”.

Chief Executive Angela Leitch said:

“This double awards success is fantastic recognition for all of the hard work, collaboration and commitment to continuous improvement which is demonstrated across all East Lothian Council services, employees and our partners.

“The comments made at the awards’ ceremony are greatly encouraging for everyone in the council. It shows we are on the right track in progressing our plan to realise the vision of an even more prosperous, safe and sustainable East Lothian.

“Well done and thank you to all council colleagues who made this possible.”

Council Leader Willie Innes added:

“This is further confirmation that we are high-performing council with a clear plan in place to continue delivering excellent services to local residents. My thanks and congratulations to all council staff for this terrific achievement.”

Iain Clark, Chair of Musselburgh Area Partnership, said:

“It is great to see the council recognised for their collaborative working and the success of the six Area Partnerships. These Partnerships have been a key driver and enabler in East Lothian towards providing communities with greater influence. This structure provides community empowerment at a local level enabling communities to make real differences by delivering key projects in a local partnership working environment which aim to improve local communities and reduce inequalities. It is heartening to see that Area Partnerships and their volunteers have been seen as good practice as they continue to evolve and I congratulate the Council for receiving these awards.”

The EFQM Excellence Model (European Foundation for Quality Management) is the most widely use continuous improvement tool in the world. It can be used by any organisation regardless of size or sector.

The model allows organisation to evaluate their current performance to identify strengths and areas they would like to improve. It provides an overarching framework to guide continuous improvement projects or large transformation programmes and ensure they deliver tangible results.