Council gets Recognition
South Derbyshire District Council’s Housing Department is to be presented with the prestigious Investors in Excellence (IiE) Standard.
The much-coveted accreditation is given to the best private and public sector organisations in the country.
It assesses performance across nine key areas, including customer service, leadership and policy and strategy.
External inspectors visited the Civic Offices in Swadlincote to view first hand how the department is operating.
They ruled the Council was meeting the standard and exceeding it in several areas.
Assessor Carole Smythe said: “Staff spoken to at the visit enjoy working for housing services. There is a culture of continuous improvement.”
She added: “The organisation actively endeavours to maintain excellent and lasting relationships with its customers.”
Ms Smythe described the ‘considerable and growing level of consultation with tenants’ as a key strength, while stating that the Telecare alarm service fitted in homes has ‘received considerable praise’.
The Housing Department will receive its award at a ceremony in Birmingham on February 3.
Cllr John Lemmon, Chairman of Housing and Community Services at South Derbyshire District Council, said: “Being recognised as an IiE is a tremendous achievement for our housing department.
“This process has helped us to promote our significant strengths and reflect on potential areas for improvement.
“The comments of the assessor demonstrates the hard work staff have put in on behalf of our residents and communities.
“We will continue to focus the efforts of the housing department on providing excellent services for South Derbyshire.”
Ian Nield, chief executive of the IiE, said: “We’ve been hugely impressed with the attitude and commitment shown by the Housing team at South Derbyshire District Council to achieving the Investors in Excellence Standard.
“They have demonstrated a clear focus on continuous improvement and are effectively using the Standard to deliver better and more efficient services to customers.”
The award comes after a Housemark benchmarking exercise looked into the performance of local authority housing services across the country.
Performance, satisfaction and costs were compared across 38 measures.
South Derbyshire District Council was judged to be above average in 35 and amongst the best in the country for 25 categories.