Monday 26 July 2010

My colleague Jenny Marshall who is Communications Manager in the nerve centre here at Merrion House sent me this bit of good news this morning...

"Good morning Chris, What a wonderful way to start the week. I have just received our customer service excellence report and it states that our accreditation is continued. This is the culmination of a massive amount of improvement work undertaken by Education Leeds over the past few years working with our customers, partners and stakeholders. The report states that 'following the assessment, Education Leeds was found to have a deep understanding and commitment to Customer Service Excellence. The commitment was found from senior management levels through to operational and front line staff. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in the overall assessment process. I has been a great pleasure meeting with your team and having an opportunity to see your service in action.'
Areas of good practice identified by the assessor included:

  • Education Leeds’ success in the Times 100 attaining a top 75 place for public sector employees to work in;
  • The success of on line admissions and the innovative ways being undertaken to operate more efficiently and effectively;
  • Progress in the City Learning Centres;
  • The implementation of the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard;
  • The implementation of the new Governors clerking services and the team meeting the target for new Governors, training and e learning;
  • The welcome at our reception on 10th Floor and the presentation undertaken by our talented team of receptionists; Camille, Emma and Thomas;
  • The work on outdoor activity, the healthy schools approach and the free school meals toolkit;
  • The improved filing systems data protection and security procedures at Blenheim;
  • The attendance team who are well organised and who have set up frameworks for improvement.

As you can see the assessor saw a whole cross section of the company and was impressed with all the improvements we have made over the past 3 years he has visited us. We have a fantastic project board and champions group which embeds a customer focus environment. I am sure we can bring that ethos to the new Directorate and champion the needs of all our customers. Personally, this is my last Customer Service Excellence message as I am retiring shortly but it has been a privilege to work with so many talented and committed colleagues. Best regards, Jenny."

Jenny has led this work brilliantly over the last three years and under her passionate, enthusiastic and determined stewardship we have seen the commitment to customer service improve and develop to the point where Education Leeds is now recognised as a real beacon of customer service excellence locally, regionally and nationally.
Chris

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