Stratford-on-Avon District Council remains hopeful of receiving its first recognition as a cutting edge organisation under the national Beacon Council scheme. The Council has entered the Beacon awards scheme under the theme of Digital Inclusion and has been short listed along with 3 other authorities to receive Beacon Authority status.
The Councils application is based on the Virtual District project that aims to improve the delivery of services, extend the range of facilities, and improve the accessibility of local public services. Local residents will be able to communicate with the Council and its partners from a variety of different locations including their homes, local supermarkets and hospitals. The Virtual District programme will also enable visitors from around the world to book, transact and even to live the experience before they arrive in our District.
Representatives from the national judging panel were impressed when they visited Stratford last month. They heard a presentation from the Councils Chief Executive, Paul Lankester and other key partners. They also visited a marketplace where Virtual District partners such as Coventry and Wolverhampton Universities, NHS Direct, NHS Warwickshire, Warwickshire Police and the Hub@Blackwell were able to showcase their plans. The marketplace also demonstrated examples of intergenerational working, with students from Shottery Girls Grammar School and residents from the sheltered housing scheme at Melville House in Stratford working together using the Nintendo Wii. The Council also demonstrated its use of technologies such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
Feedback from the Beacon Judges confirms that the visit to Stratford had been an excellent show of buy-in of the digital inclusion concept and the benefits to Stratford-on-Avon to tackling social exclusion and supporting economic development. They added that the Joined up vision focuses on including the excluded and incorporates social, educational and economic strands to tackle identified gaps.
On Monday (12 January) representatives from the Council are making a final presentation to the judging panel in London. The final result will be announced at an award ceremony on 3 March.
Notes to Editor
The Beacon Scheme is a prestigious award scheme that recognises excellence in local government and was set up to disseminate best practice in service delivery across local government. Beacon status is granted to those authorities who can demonstrate a clear vision, excellent services and a willingness to innovate within a theme. Awards are made by government ministers based on recommendations made by an independent advisory panel.
The criteria for the award are split into 6 categories and authorities are scored based on their performance in each category with the maximum score being 6 Outstanding. Stratfords scoring based on the written submission and the judging panels visit is as follows:
- Leadership, Vision and Strategy - Outstanding (6)
- Community and Customer engagement and Empowerment - Excellent plus (5.5)
- Actions - Excellent plus (5.5)
- Partnerships Excellent plus (5.5)
- Outcomes - Very good (4.5)
- Sharing best practice Excellent (5)
