COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2016
02
APPLICATION FORM
Please refer to the ‘2016 Guidance for Applicants’
before completing this application form.
The application form is split over four sections. It is up to you to decide the content and length of each section, but your application must not exceed three pages in total (excluding the cover pages).
Please ensure that your application covers the key criteria that we are looking for and is effectively presented. Any questions relating to your application or the submission process should be directed to or 0131 474 9275.
The deadline for submission of entries is 5pm on FRIDAY 23 October 2015.
Submitting Your Application Form
Please use our online application portal to submit this application form.
PLEASE PROVIDE SOME DETAILS ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION:
CATEGORY APPLIED FOR / Service Innovation and ImprovementPROJECT NAME
(as you wish to see it published) / The Challenge for Consistency – Improving Recycling in Inverclyde
LEAD ORGANISATION / Inverclyde Council
DEPARTMENT/TEAM / Waste Strategy
PARTICIPANT NAMES OR PARTNER ORGANISATIONS / Ian Moffat / Head of Environmental and Commercial Services
Kenny Lang / Team Leader – Waste Strategy and Technical Support
Angela Hughes / Waste Strategy Officer
CONTACT NAME / Kenny Lang
CONTACT DETAILS / / 01475 715906
CAN WE PUBLISH THIS APPLICATION FORM ON OUR WEBSITE? / YES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / In one short paragraph please describe this project is about, what it has achieved, and why it is delivering excellence.
Please note that we may use this summary for promotional purposes on our website and elsewhere.
Inverclyde Council has built on previous year’s successes, rising from a relatively low position to become the top performing Council in Scotland for recycling in 2014. Additionally, Inverclyde Council consistently achieves the lowest combined cost of waste management services across Scotland. This has been attained through prudent management which focuses on the highest quality of service at the lowest cost to our customers. Services are delivered with the needs and expectations of our customers as a priority, acknowledging that high levels of performance and quality cannot be achieved without the co-operation of our residents.
PLANNING / What is your project about, and why is it important? What are you aiming to achieve, and how does this fit with the bigger picture? Does it tackle the issues that matter most to your community or your organisation?
The aim of the project was to combine all elements of the Waste Strategy Service by streamlining the delivery to Inverclyde households and businesses.
We based our Strategy on 7 C’s:
Customer Care
The Waste Strategy Team prides its self in delivering high levels of customer service to Inverclyde’s residents by providing a selection of recycling options and offering a tailored service to meet individual needs e.g. additional containers for large households, face to face support to encourage recycling, assisted uplift service for elderly and infirm residents and a ‘one stop shop’ approach to service delivery.
Collaboration
Inverclyde Council has adopted the principles of the waste hierarchy by offering Real Nappy grants and supporting reduction campaigns such as Stop the Drop and Love Food Hate Waste. We are in partnership with Valpak and The British Heart Foundation to maximise reuse opportunities of Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment. We work closely with ZWS and actively support the work carried out alongside the Scottish Retail Consortium, encouraging manufactures and business to reduce the amount of packaging that is used in their products. We recently helped launch Material Recycling Facilities (M.R.F.) Code of Practice which will monitor the quality of input and output materials at M.R.F.s.
Communication
We operate a two way communication process with our residents, ensuring they feel listened to and are aware their opinions are important and valued. To tell our customers about the introduction of new services, we devised a communication strategy. This strategy was used successfully to roll out our food waste service in 2012 and its format has been widely adopted by a number of other Councils. During 2014/15, nineteen Information Sessions took place, when we engaged with more than 1200 people, allowing householders to see how the new kerbside glass collection service would work in practice, with the feedback being used to inform elements of the new service. For example, some residents in flatted properties told us they would like to share glass recycling boxes and we were able to modify the box delivery schedule and collection service accordingly. Additionally, we devised promotional materials with Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) which used good practice gained through the implementation of glass collections throughout Scotland.
Co-operation
By tailoring our services to suit the needs of our customers, we receive the help and support of residents who co-operate and ‘buy in’ to the recycling message, helping us achieve our recycling targets. With our Elected Members’ support, we were awarded a capital allocation to enhance our Recycling Centres with our Pottery Street site benefiting from a £1.25 million refurbishment. The improved facilities include a new access road for cars and vans and a one-way loop providing access to a series of designated recycling bays and bins. These developments have been well received by householders and operational staff, with positive feedback regarding the user friendly layout and safe working environment.
Consultation Consultation with our communities forms an integral part of our service design. For example, feedback from our Citizens’ Panel, which comprises 1,000 local residents, indicated a desire for more recycling services and we responded by rolling out a kerbside glass recycling service to around 28 000 households in December 2014.
Challenge
Prior to the introduction of any new service we are challenged by rigorous scrutiny processes from the Council’s Corporate Management Team, Finance Team and the Committee structure.
The Council has a vision of Getting it right for every child, citizen and community. Through the Waste Strategy team’s drive for continuous improvement, we engage with, listen to and develop services which ensure residents and businesses can contribute to recycling in a way which is meaningful to them and ensures they have a degree of ownership of the services they utilise. This contributes to the achievement of a Nurturing Inverclyde and in particular meeting the wellbeing outcomes of achieving, respected, responsible and included.
Consistency of Service
Through use of this methology, we developed a comprehensive project management plan in partnership with ZWS, using our front line staff as ambassadors, supported by an established communication strategy and strong recognisable branding. By taking steps to ensure residents are able to recycle at home, school and work consistency of service is achieved.
DELIVERING / How have you carried out your project? How did you ensure that this was done effectively? What are you doing to continue to improve?
To complement the recycling services used by domestic customers, we offered a food waste collection service to our existing commercial customers, as required by The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012. Inverclyde Council initially offered this service to Council educational establishments as a trial prior to the deadline of January 2014. Building on the success of this, we provided the service to all customers who produce greater than 50kg of food waste per week in accordance with the requirements of the regulations. Working with ZWS, our residents and businesses, Inverclyde Council is now compliant with regard to the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012. By introducing the service to our customers who produce 5 kg or less of food waste per week, we are on track to meet the 2016 targets.
INNOVATION & LEADING PRACTICE / Why is your project innovative? How is it helping to prepare for the future? What is happening to help other organisations benefit from your approach?
The provision of recycling services enables Inverclyde citizens to play an active part in the Council’s Single Outcome Agreement 2013-17, specifically the delivery of the Environment Outcome: All children, citizens and communities in Inverclyde play an active role in nurturing the environment to make the area a sustainable and desirable place to live and visit. We have encouraged other Councils to share our good practices. Scottish Borders replicated our Hazardous Analysis and Critical Control Point plan which is integral to the safe storage of food waste at a transfer station and approved under the Animal By-Products Legislation administered by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA).
RESULTS & IMPACT / What impact are you having, or expect to have? Are you delivering what you set out to achieve? How are you measuring this?
The Waste Strategy team continues to demonstrate the ability to achieve targets and satisfy customer demand whilst supporting delivery of the local community planning partnership’s vision of Getting it right for every child, citizen and community. These successes are achieved year on year, proving that high quality services and customer satisfaction can successfully be delivered in a challenging climate.
Inverclyde Council is consistently one of the top performing Councils for cost of service delivery and recycling. Through hard work and dedication, the Waste Strategy team enabled Inverclyde to rise from 5th to 1st for recycling performance in Scotland in 2014.
Key areas we will be working towards include:
· we will continue to roll out the food waste recycling service to those commercial customers who produce sufficient quantities of food waste
· we will continue to identify resource efficiencies, solutions and opportunities as we work towards the Scottish Government’s 2020, 60% household waste recycling target
· in autumn/winter 2015 we will consult again with members of the Citizens’ Panel to seek their views on our recycling services
· the service will re-structure routes and identify improvements in capacity, where possible
· we will review our existing residual and Materials Recycling Facility contracts with a view to identifying improvements in service delivery and opportunities to improve our recycling performance accordingly
A door step surveys were conducted to gain feedback from the householders on the promotional materials and communication methods used so far and what types of media they would like to see used in the future. The feedback will be analysed and used to inform our forthcoming campaigns.
In recognition of the Council’s achievements, the Waste Strategy team was awarded the Chartered Institute of Waste Management’s Local Authority Waste Hierarchy award in 2014. Additionally, the team was recognised at Inverclyde Council’s Pride of Inverclyde Awards in 2014 when it was presented with the Chief Executive’s Award.
Please limit your application to 3 pages or less and use font size 11or greater
NEXT STEPS
ü Have you answered the criteria set out in the guidance?
ü Is your application form 3 pages or less. (Anything more, including appendices, will be automatically rejected)
ü Has your application form been authorised by an appropriate person?
ü Have you indicated whether you wish the application form to be published?
ü Have you provided details for someone we can contact about your application?
SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION
PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION BY 23 OCTOBER 2015 USING OUR ONLINE APPLICATIONS PORTAL: