Going for Gold at the Cosla Excellence Awards 2015

As a nation, we’re getting better at celebrating team work. At this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow we enthusiastically cheered on those who go above and beyond to achieve success and were rewarded with a record breaking medal haul. Now the party is over, it’s time to celebrate Aberdeenshire.

The Cosla Excellence Awards 2015 are now open and Team Aberdeenshire is looking to build on previous successes by showcasing innovation and high quality service delivery across the council.

Last year, the council was recognised for service delivery excellence with a gold award for the Westhill Men’s Shed

. Can we match and improve on this further, adding to our tally of 1 gold, 1 silver and 13 bronze awards since 2010? We can, but only if your teams step forward and share their successes with us.

Other initiatives and teams that have attracted honours in previous years include The Banff Inclusion Project, Community Asset Transfer, Kaizen for Daily Improvement, and Worksmart and workspace. Could you join them in 2015?

We need you to tell us, and Cosla, about what your team is doing that is

•dynamic and original

•improving efficiency and effectiveness

•delivering early intervention and preventing negative outcomes from arising

In particular, what are your teams doing that is making a real and meaningful difference to people’s quality of life and to our communities?

Ask your managers and team leaders to tell us in a short paragraph where Aberdeenshire is leading the way. They need to tell us what their project is about, what it has achieved, or will achieve, and why it is making a difference and delivering excellence. Cosla is particularly interested in assessing the impact of projects, so teams should have a strong evidence base to support their application.

A small awards panel will then identify which projects should be taken forward to the application stage and will work with teams to prepare a potentially award-winning submission.

As with our Commonwealth Games athletes, everything is won or lost in the preparation so we need the initial paragraph from teams by 29 August 2014. Submissions should be emailed to performance officer Beth Reader at beth.reader@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Full submissions will then be drafted for the shortlisted projects and finalised during September. The management team will sign off applications in early October in time for, pending any changes, submission to Cosla by 24 October 2014.

For further information, please contact Beth Reader or visit the awards webpage

.