Improvement Service

Eight Scottish councils and their partners have been honoured for outstanding quality of service to the public at the 2012 COSLA Excellence Awards.

West Lothian, Glasgow City, North Ayrshire, and City of Edinburgh Councils, along with South Lanarkshire Council and Strathclyde Police, all took first place in the main categories of the Awards. Glasgow City Council also scooped the Chairman's Award, while the SOLACE Best Team Award went to Midlothian Council. A ground breaking partnership of councils to deliver the M74 Completion Project was also recognised for Delivering Excellence by the Scottish Government.

Customer First has again played a leading role in the development of the new Android version of North Ayrshire Council's successful 'Report It' App.

The free App was officially launched on 15 February 2012 as part of the wider Customer First Channel Shift programme across Scotland, which is focused on taking cost and demand out of council systems by making more key services available online.

Scotland's First Minister, Rt. Hon. Alex Salmond MSP, will address the COSLA/Improvement Service Annual Conference this week (16-17 February 2012).

Myjobscotland.gov.uk, the Scottish local government recruitment website, was named a winner at the UK Public Sector Digital Awards.

The contract for supply of ITSO compliant smartcards for the National Entitlement Card Programme, managed by Dundee City Council, has now been awarded to Novacard Informationsysteme GmbH from Germany.

An evaluation report on the 'Embedding an Outcomes Approach in Tackling Poverty and Regeneration' project has been published.

The report highlights the key activities, outputs and learning arising from the work, including a summary of the views of the main partners involved.

The Public Sector Leadership Programme is proud to announce its first graduate at Master of Science level - the City of Edinburgh Council's Lynne Sinclair.

North Lanarkshire Council has announced the completion of a successful customer data cleansing and matching exercise to transform the quality of its citizen records and improve customer service efficiency for citizens contacting the council.

Connect, collaborate, lean, innovate

Knowledge Hub is a new online platform for building professional networks in the local government sector.  The Knowledge Hub uses the latest technology and social networking models to enable individuals to create connections to peers and experts in their fields of interest, helping them share learning, experiences and ideas, and driving sector self-regulation and improvement.

Knowledge Hub offers the opportunity to collaborate in groups around particular themes, connect with colleagues across local government and beyond and follow their activity. You can share and discuss ideas, enhance your expertise, discover more efficient working practices and be inspired to develop new and innovative ways of working.

In addition, Knowledge Hub enables information to flow freely around the system, encouraging open conversations and meaning you don't miss out on valuable learning and experience, even if it is happening in a group you are not a member of.