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.

COSLA President Councillor Pat Watters CBE, who chaired the judging panel, described the entries for the awards this year as inspiring:

“The COSLA Excellence Awards showcase and celebrate the very best of Scottish Local Government.  The sheer impact being achieved by these projects is proof that Scotland’s local services are in great shape.”

Councillor Watters continued: “All those who took part- and we had more entries from more organisations than ever before- can be proud of their achievements. The Scottish local government family faces major challenges over the next few years, and now more than ever, the COSLA Excellence Awards have a vital part to play in translating real success stories into more responsive, efficient and effective local services across the country.  Where these projects are leading, others will follow, and that makes the future very bright indeed.”

Find out detailed information about all of the winners by downloading our press release:

The aim is to provide a coordinated financial advice and support service for customers with long term heath conditions at the point of diagnosis to alleviate the stress and the additional financial hardship experienced as a result of their condition. The project is an excellent example of key partners across the public and voluntary sector coming together to tackle the health inequalities in Glasgow to make a real difference in improving the overall health and well-being of our customers. Since 2009 the project has delivered £15 million for more than 5000 customers.

Download the application form: TII23 Long Term Conditions and Macmillan project

It provides an alternative to the M8, significantly improves journey times for businesses and opens up brownfield and under-utilised sites in the West of Scotland for new development. It will deliver a wide range of immediate and longer term benefits. These include new jobs, assisting local community regeneration, improving road safety and reducing traffic congestion. Associated environmental benefits will include air quality improvement, new habitats and cleaning up contaminated land. From the start, there has been a strong emphasis on partnership working and this has been crucial in the successful delivery of this complex scheme, 8 months early and around £20m below budget.  Additional information at:  http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/road/projects/m74-completion

Download the application form:  SSC 22 M74 Completion

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The key success of the process has been the improvements that are being developed by our services that are driven and designed by the feedback of customers.   This kind of participation and co-production with our local community is so valuable and usually comes with the result of expensive, high volume, repeated interface through a myriad of engagement.  By investing in our citizens we are building capacity in people that we will continue to nurture and engage in our council improvement processes.

Download the application form: OTW 07 Citizen Led Inspection

The Academy was conceived to address the challenges the service faces in recruiting and retaining suitably qualified and experienced staff for its core business activities of cleaning and catering.  The project is meeting its primary objectives in ensuring and developing a first class workforce for the future: problems with staff continuity have been addressed; employees obtain food and nutrition qualifications before they start work at each site; staff cooking skills have improved, and the service receives very positive Environmental health reports. The Academy has also contributed to the Council’s success in increasing the uptake of school meals, which in many other areas is currently falling, and has generally promoted healthy eating through the provision of training events for pupils, parents and the general public.

Download the application form:  SWF 08 Eddlewood Training Academy

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Glasgow now has the largest credit union membership of any city in the UK. From a membership of 3% in 2001, membership has grown significantly to 22% in 2010. This equates to over 135,000 members across 34 credit unions, with a financial asset portfolio in excess of £183m. Central to the programme’s success has been to empower credit unions to lead on development activities, in tandem with a phased withdrawal of Council support.

Download the application form:   SSC 12 Credit Union Development Programme

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MTGP operates all year round, 4 nights per week, Thursday to Sunday, from 6-10pm for a minimum of 12 weeks at each location. MTGP has been on-going since October 2008 and has exceeded all expectations. Youth related crimes and incidents within a 1 km radius have been reduced by up to 82%, with an average reduction of 48%. Attendees have gone on to participate in a wide range of alternative activities and interventions which would not otherwise have been undertaken, resulting in sustained crime reductions, aiding communities to flourish by breaking down barriers, encouraging community participation and actively increasing community wellbeing. Extensive evaluation is carried out at all stages of the initiative with attendees, parents, residents and partners to ensure maximum results.

Download the application form: TII01 3 – ‘Move the Goalposts’

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By delivering timely intervention and personalised housing options advice, the service empowers people to make informed housing decisions based on need and aspiration. The outcomes of this approach have attracted national recognition, with the Council being highlighted as an exemplary service by the Scottish Government. Other headline outcomes include the eradication of bed and breakfast usage as temporary provision and greater availability of social rented housing for waiting list applicants.

Download the application form: ABO24 North Ayrshire Homeless Prevention Service

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From a standing start we now know what greenspaces we have, how good they are, what people think about them, and what they want from them. We are now meeting customer needs, delivering innovative and highly effective greenspace services, and becoming internally and externally recognised as being a top performing, evidence based, innovative and continually evolving service that responds with professionalism and enthusiasm to what customers want. Moreover, all this has been achieved on a “more for less” basis.

Download the application form: SII 16 Edinburgh Parks – Making The Matrix Perform

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**BREAKING NEWS**

You can follow all of the results live on twitter @cosla (#coslais12) or watch the website for live updates and case studies about all our finalists.   

The COSLA Excellence Awards celebrate the very best in Scottish local government. Our emphasis is on rewarding the most innovative and passionate developments, and on recognising projects that can demonstrate excellent service delivery to communities.

Full access to information about all the winners, including their application forms and videos about the projects, will be published online straight after the awards ceremony.

All applicants to the COSLA Excellence Awards will receive written feedback about their submission.  Short leeted applicants will receive this now, with all other applicants normally receiving feedback after the Awards Ceremony.

Until then you can view a list of all our finalists here:

For more details about the conference and awards ceremony, visit Great Expectations: The 2012 COSLA and Improvement Service Annual Conference.