Environment team scoop top accolade
West Lothian Council’s Environmental Health team have been recognised as the best in the UK.
Staff were awarded the best performing Environmental Health team trophy at the 2019 Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE) awards recently.
The team were also finalists in the most improved service category of the awards.
These awards are made by APSE as part of the annual benchmarking information submitted by local authorities throughout the UK.
The Environmental Health team cover a variety of public health and safety regulatory duties, for example – food safety, workplace safety, public health, housing, noise, air quality, water quality and safety, pest control and animal control.
Executive councillor for the environment Tom Conn said: “Congratulations to our dedicated Environmental Health team on this prestigious national award. To be recognised as the best performing service in the UK by APSE demonstrates the excellent service the team offers on behalf of local residents.”
The benchmarking information compares local authorities costs, service delivery and outputs in a number of different areas.
The APSE performance measures allows comparison between councils across a range of factors including customer satisfaction, enforcement activities and service costs.
Environmental health and trading standards manager, Craig Smith, added: “We are delighted with this award, which is the culmination of continuous improvements in service delivery over recent years. The award was achieved thanks to the dedication and hard work of our officers, as we continue to achieve a high level of service, while being one of lowest costing Environmental Health teams in the UK.”
APSE chief executive Paul O’Brien said: “By using the hard evidence of data collected across the largest voluntary benchmarking service in UK local councils, we know that these winners and finalists in the APSE Performance Networks Awards 2019 are amongst the best in local government.”