Stratford-on-Avon District Council set out in 2005 to be recognised as 'excellent'. It has now achieved that ambition and been short-listed for national recognition for its Virtual District programme.
The Council was rating 'good' in 2007 by the Audit Commission through its Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), and took the decision to aim for excellence through the European Foundation Quality Model (EFQM).
The District Council put itself forward for assessment under the EFQM 'Investors in Excellence Standard' in September. This judges all-round performance, provides a systematic framework for pursuing continuous improvement, but more importantly it compares and assesses the way the Council runs its business with the private and voluntary sector.
Gaining EFQM recognition confirms that a small District Council, employing around 370 people delivering services across a wide, predominantly rural area can provide high quality, value for money services.
The feedback provided by Investors in Excellence and the CPA assessors also provide robust improvement plans to ensure the District Council not only maintains excellence, but continues to identify areas for further improvements, efficiencies and changes.
In addition, to achieving the Investors in Excellence Standard, the District Council has also been short listed for this year's Beacon Scheme Award for its work on the Virtual District Programme under the theme of 'digital inclusion'.
The Virtual District initiative is designed to address one the Council's major challenges - to ensure it continues to deliver the same high quality of services to every town, village and parish. Whilst the District is viewed nationally as fairly affluent, an increasing number of residents and business are facing difficulties in accessing services and facilities.
The Virtual District is a key partnership programme aimed at reducing exclusion and improving the quality of life for all residents, especially the most vulnerable. Our partners include Warwickshire County Council, Warwickshire Police, NHS Warwickshire, NHS Direct (West Midlands), BT, Stratford on Avon College and the Council for Voluntary Services, supported by Coventry and Wolverhampton Universities.
However, whilst the key driver is improving quality of life for residents there is also a significant focus on improving opportunities for business and using technology and innovation to improve tourism and improve the economy of the District.
The District Council is working with its partners and supporters to ensure that the District fully exploits the latest technologies.
The District Council will know in March 2009 if it has been successful, but being short listed further validates that its plans and priorities are focussed around improving the quality of life for the District's residents and businesses. It also ensures the District Council continually improves and learns from the best in the private, public and voluntary sector.
"When I became Leader of a 'weak' Council 4 years ago, I made it quite clear to all Councillors and staff my ambition was to be an excellent Council within 3 years. Thanks to the hard work and support of all Councillors and staff we became a 'good' Council in 2007 and 12 months later achieved the Standard of 'Excellence'. This was achieved after a challenging external assessment by a panel of private sector judges. Alongside this, we have also been short listed for Beacon status by national government for our innovative best practice," Says Councillor Les Topham, Leader of the Council.
"This is a tremendous achievement and provides private and public sector validation that, not only do we continue to deliver high quality, value for money services for our residents, but we have in place a programme of continuous improvement to ensure that we maintain excellence across all our services."
"This achievement of this Standard of Excellence and being short-listed for Beacon status shows how much the Council has improved but this is not the end of the journey as there is still more we can do to improve our services for the benefit of our residents and communities. What we have achieved to date is a result of the hard work and dedication of staff, Councillors and our partners' and my thanks to everyone for their continued support," Says Paul Lankester, Chief Executive.
