News

The Borough of Poole has been awarded Investors in People status, an award which recognises the authority’s commitment to its employees and their training and development needs.

The Borough has gone through two stages of application, firstly all 23 Service Units and the Policy Directorate were inspected separately and all received their own Investors in People awards. After all Units had their awards the Borough moved to the second stage by applying for Investors in People for the Council as a whole - after an inspection in October the Borough of Poole has now been awarded full Investors in People recognition.

Colin Hague, Head of Personnel & Training Services, said: "People are the lifeblood of Poole Council. The work of all involved, from Councillors to individual members of staff in pursuing high standards of people management and the recognition of our hard work, is very positive. The Borough is determined to provide the best possible service for residents in Poole and we recognise this is only achievable through our employees. For this reason we have gone through the award process in such a rigorous way."

Cllr Brian Clements, Leader of the Council, said: "I would like to pass on my own congratulations, as well as those of all Liberal Democrat members at Poole Council, to the large number of people who have been involved in this activity. The achievement by each service unit individually, before seeking corporate accreditation, is a particularly commendable approach. It demonstrates the Council’s awareness of the importance of supporting people as an on-going process rather than just seeking a badge of achievement. We now need to build on this through the People Strategy. I hope that we can involve the development of members in the process so that we too can maximise our contribution to the organisation."

Cllr Ann Stribley, said: "The Conservative Group is delighted the high level of professionalism and commitment of the Council’s staff at every level has been officially recognised by the achievement of this award and we offer our unqualified congratulations to all concerned. Very well done indeed!"

Cllr Jason Sanderson, said: "On behalf of the Labour group I would like to say that it's excellent that we have driven ourselves through this process in order to ensure that Poole can deliver the very best services to users throughout the Borough. It is also excellent that our high commitment to staff development has been praised by others and I hope that this investment continues, well done to all involved!"

The Borough of Poole achieved the award by meeting the four principles of the Investors in People standard; commitment to invest in people; planning how skills, individuals and teams are to be developed; taking action to develop and use necessary skills; evaluating outcomes of training and development for employees’ progress. The Borough of Poole is committed to continue to invest in high employment standards and recently approved a new People Strategy to support this process, a copy of the document can be obtained by contacting Sue Bennett on (01202) 633465.

A copy of the People Strategy from Personnel and Training Services is available from the PR Office, (01202) 633060.

Investors in People is the national standard which sets a level of good practice for training and development of people to achieve business goals.