Highland Council shortlisted for four national awards – 'you are a credit to the communities you serve'

The Highland Council has been shortlisted for four APSE Service Awards which celebrate excellence in local public services.

Chair of the communities and place committee, Cllr Graham MacKenzie commended the council staff, saying: “I am very pleased to advise that the Community Operations and Logistics Section has been short listed in three categories in the 2022 Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Awards."

The nominations are for:

• Best Public/Private Partnership Working Initiative – for expanding the Highland Comfort Scheme and working with local businesses to open their toilet facilities to the public in return for a monthly payment.
• Best Collaborative Working Initiative (with other public sector or third sector) – for its work in converting three articulated units to create mobile clinics to deliver Covid-19 community testing and vaccination programmes for NHS Highland during the pandemic.
• Best Team, Transport and Fleet Maintenance Services – throughput the pandemic maintenance staff across workshops embraced the challenges and delivered excellent services to our internal customers supporting other council colleagues to deliver critical services across the council
• The council has also been shortlisted in the APSE – Best Climate Action or Decarbonisation Initiative – for the Hydro Ness project, the ‘Archimedes Screw’ hydro-electric scheme on the River Ness in Inverness.

The APSE Awards are specific to frontline services provided by UK local authorities. The awards are agreed by a panel of expert judges.

The winners will be announced at the APSE Annual Charity Awards Dinner on Thursday, September 15.

Speaking about the awards, Paul O'Brien, APSE chief executive, said: "The APSE Service Awards are uniquely placed to recognise the enormous effort and dedication of our vital frontline services.

"We received an overwhelming number of submissions for the awards this year, with each one demonstrating a clear commitment to the goals of continuous improvement and the delivery of excellence in public services. On behalf of everyone at APSE I would like to say a massive thank you to all of our finalists – you are a credit to the communities you serve."

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