02 June 2021

The customer comes first in Development Management

The Development Management Team within Aberdeenshire Council’s Planning and Environment Service is delighted to have been awarded the Cabinet Office Customer Service Excellence Standard – a prestigious national award for excellence in customer service.

This follows two years of hard work across the team and a two-day audit in March earlier this year culminating in the award of 50 compliances - out of 57 components - seven partial compliances and six areas of good practice having been identified.

During the independent assessment, customers noted that Development Management has improved consultation and engagement over the last year and they welcomed this increased interaction. 

The Customer Service Excellence Standard is not only an independent validation of achievement, it forms a crucial skills development tool and driver for continuous improvement and culture change, ensuring that the customer is always at the heart of the decision-making process when planning service change and improvements.

Paul Macari, Head of Planning and Environment, said: “The team is delighted to have attained the standard. It has been two years of hard work, implementing many service changes driven by the customer, staff and Covid-19. The next stage is to map out a continuous improvement programme for reaccreditation in March 2022.”

Accreditation to the standard will now evolve into an annual independent audit assessment programme to ensure that standards remain high and improvements to the service are continually being implemented.