Charter Mark Award for Performance Management and

The Performance Management and Information and Information Management Teams at Education Leeds have gained Charter Mark – the Government’s UK-wide standard for excellence in public service. The award was made following a two-day assessment by SGS UK Ltd in March 2006. The two teams are responsible for supporting strategic and service planning within Education Leeds, and for providing high quality management information to schools, services and other partners. “We have very good partner relationships with both our internal and our external customers,” says Liz White, Performance Management Officer at Education Leeds. “We were looking for evidence to support what we do and Charter Mark supplies that evidence.” Why Charter Mark is Important to Education Leeds “The Charter Mark challenges our assumptions and will make us think more clearly about our performance and standards. Especially it will help us to be even more customer-focussed in our work,” says Liz White. “And in the longer term the award will bring rigour to how we perform and ensure we have systems in place to enable feedback from our customers.” Assessing The Performance and Management Information Teams “We chose SGS United Kingdom Ltd to carry out our assessment because we already have a relationship with them. There are a number of other Charter Mark-accredited services in Education Leeds,” says Liz White. “They understand our work and what we are trying to achieve. It ensures there’s no duplication of effort.” Prior to the assessment the teams submitted their evidence and how far they met the criteria for the award. SGS informed them in advance where they needed to make improvements. “For the onsite assessment we invited a range of our customers (including head teachers and school staff, representatives of partner organisations and senior managers) to supply objective evidence. Their views are very important to us because of the customer focus of Charter Mark,” says Liz White. During the two-day onsite assessment SGS reviewed documentation and interviewed a cross section of customers. Charter Mark Report In their report the assessors made a number of positive observations of good practice: both teams have excellent and committed staff who understand the concept of customer service; they are motivated and committed to service improvement; they have excellent partnerships with both their internal and external customers. The report also highlighted four key contributions the teams have made to the work of Education Leeds and its customers: • Levels of consultation are high, making the teams very responsive to the needs of their customers. This contributes greatly to a solution-driven energy throughout Education Leeds • Support for performance management, including support for service planning, is widespread throughout the organisation • Good working relationships have enabled critical challenge and support to customers and partners in service planning and essential change management • The effective use of performance data has had a profound impact on the organisation that has contributed significantly to turning the Chief Executive’s vision into reality. Notes for Editors Education Leeds Education Leeds is a not-for-profit company, wholly owned by Leeds City Council. The company was established in April 2001 and is a unique partnership between Leeds City Council and Capita, operating under a direction from the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. Education Leeds is responsible for providing all education support services that relate to children and young people of statutory school age in Leeds. Education Leeds has a vision that all its schools are to be good schools, improving schools and inclusive schools, places where every child and every young person can be successful and high achieving…whatever it takes. SGS United Ki

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