Council Division Snaps up Quality Mark
November 2004
Last month The Economic and Development Services (EDS) of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council were awarded certification having met the considerable requirements of ISO 9001:2000 and commended by inspectors for its excellent internal and external consultations.
Economic and Development Services is a major Snap software user and is planning to set up and lead a council-wide user-group to promote and improve usage of the software as part of the Council’s e-government initiative which will meet the Central Government deadline in 2005.
The ISO 9001:2001 is by definition, an internationally recognised standard that requires evidence of the existence of a customer-focused culture backed up by effective quality management systems.
At the heart of EDS’s assessment was its established consultation processes, where Snap plays a valuable role. To meet the standard, EDS had to demonstrate it had consultation and feedback processes in place for monitoring and measuring the needs and satisfaction of its customers and staff.
EDS provided evidence of this in the form of internal and external surveys designed and processed in Snap. The latter category included the sending out of feedback forms to all service users on a public consultation on town centre regeneration. Other processes included the internal benchmarking surveys that are now helping to improve service delivery standards across the department.
Reflecting on the certification, Cathie Jones, EDS’s principal Snap user said, “It was a tough process and we are all proud of the achievement. We did particularly well in the consultation element where we made good use of Snap.”
The Council is now focused on the E-government target where all customer facing council services must be available online by 2005. Snap software will again be employed to full effect as an ideal online feedback service tool. Cathie Jones also believes it could be just as helpful in meeting the targets as it was in the ISO certification process. “Snap has been a success so far and we hope it will be helpful in respect to the e-government targets.”