Renfrewshire Council come top in the local government ‘Oscars’

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Council gets national recognition for its innovative projects

Renfrewshire Council was awarded gold last night at COSLA’s Excellence Awards 2006, for improvements made to its housing and council tax benefits service.

The Council's benefit service was up against 34 other projects from local authorities across Scotland for the prestigious 'Service Improvement and Customer Needs' Award.

The award winning benefits service was recognised for improvements it had made to the promptness and accuracy of payments, along with its promotion of benefit take-up and fraud prevention work.

Sandra Black, Director of Finance and IT at Renfrewshire Council, said: “We were delighted to win this award. Not only does it reflect the hard work put in by our benefits team, it is also proof that we are now delivering one of the best benefit services in the country.

“Our housing and tax benefit team provide a vital service to the most vulnerable of our community. The improvements made to this service are real and are already benefiting each and every one of our 22,000 customers who receive benefits. Indeed, we have now managed to dramatically cut our average claim processing time, with around 95% of claims being processed in 14 days. This will help to bring an end to financial hardship and rent arrears brought on with the late payment of benefits.”

Renfrewshire Council’s investment in its benefits service is paying off. The Council has brought on new staff and introduced a comprehensive new training plan for the development of existing staff.

In addition to picking up one of the top awards at the glittering awards ceremony, which is commonly referred to as the ‘Scottish Local Government Oscars', they also scooped another impressive eight awards in the silver and bronze categories. Projects designed to support community vegetable growing and health of communities, along with projects aimed at developing the effectiveness of teachers were honoured.

Tom Scholes, Chief Executive of Renfrewshire Council, said: “Renfrewshire Council strives to provide the best. We are always looking at ways to improve our services. These awards demonstrate the commitment and enthusiasm of our staff to delivering high quality services to the people of Renfrewshire.”

Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, Aberdeenshire and Argyll and Bute councils were also rewarded for their standards of service.

COSLA President Pat Watters, who chaired the judging panel, described the entries for the awards this year as quite exceptional. “The COSLA Excellence Awards are the Scottish Local Government Oscars and year on year they live up to this billing, with the standards of entries going from strength to strength.

“What is also pleasing is that year on year we are seeing more innovative and exciting projects designed to meet specific needs. This proves that local government does not just deliver the everyday services that we all take for granted but that it provides imaginative solutions to complex situations throughout the year.”

Renfrewshire Council won the following awards at the COSLA Excellence Awards 2006:

Gold Award

1. Performance Management: Turning our Benefits Service Around

Silver Award

1. Renfrewshire School of Sport Education
2. Digital Inclusion Project
3. Harvest for Health

Bronze Award

1. Handheld Computers for Performance Management
2. Estate Management Development Group
3. Customer Service Centre - recruitment and training
4. Developing our own Social Workers (Joint project with Inverclyde and East Renfrewshire)
5. Developing Effective Teachers

You can also view the awards that Renfrewshire Council have received in past years by following this link.

Press Release: Wednesday 21 June 2006