Blaby District Council has been awarded the highly respected Customer Service Excellence Standard for a second year running.

External assessor Neil Potentier visited the Council on Wednesday 5 February, where he spent the day speaking to staff, customers, members, partners, and visiting A Place to Grow and the Pavilion to view improvements made since last year.

He confirmed the retention of the award and where the Council continues to go above and beyond the standard in three areas:

· Challenging ambitions in customer service

· Partnership work (work on anti-social behaviour, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse)

· Supporting local communities (for example A Place to Grow)

He also highlighted three additional areas:

· Corporate commitment to excellent customer service

· Staff feeling empowered to deliver services that matter to the customer

· Customer insight incorporated into service delivery

Neil Potentier, Customer Service Excellence Assessor, said:

“I congratulate Blaby District Council for the challenging standards it sets itself and for its transparency; it is the best partnership organisation I have come across.”

Sandra Whiles, Chief Executive at Blaby District Council, said:

“At Blaby we pride ourselves in being a bit different and have often been described as doing things ‘the Blaby way’.

“This means putting our customers at the heart of everything we do and trying to make sure that when customers and partners interact with us that we make a real difference. I am really pleased with how hard all our staff work to make this happen.”

Customer Service Excellence was launched by the Government in 2007 as part of its drive to improve customer service in the public sector. For more information visit www.customerserviceexcellence.uk.com