Winner – Local Government Yorkshire and Humber Making a Difference Awards 2009
Efficiency North was announced winner of the ‘Working Together to Improve’ Award at the Local Government Yorkshire and Humber Making A Difference Awards 2009 which took place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on Thursday 26 November that year.
Led by Efficiency North’s Founder Jed Turner and Chair Mick Werritt members of the forum collected the award which was presented by the Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP, Minister for the Yorkshire and Humber Region and Local Government in recognition of the commitment Efficiency North has made to the improvement and efficiency agenda.
The award also recognises where Authorities have successfully collaborated with public service organisations or partners specifically to improve a service or deliver a target.
The government set challenging efficiency targets for local government (£4.9 billion by 2010/11 of which £2.8billion from smarter procurement). Housing construction made up a significant proportion of this spend especially through the Decent Homes programme. This provided an opportunity to drive and harness collaboration within the housing construction sector to achieve better value. Efficiency North has been the vehicle which has driven this within the Yorkshire and Humber region.
The judges reported that the quality of entries was extremely high and to win the award was a great achievement. The organisation was acknowledged as a catalyst for encouraging collaborative working across the industry and across the Yorkshire & Humber region.
At the time of receiving the Award Efficiency North had achieved savings of £89.4m and the creation of 380 apprentice opportunities for local people, particularly in areas of social and economic deprivation. This was accomplished by ‘working together to improve’ and placed Efficiency North in a good position to reap considerable ongoing benefits, not just in terms of efficiency savings
Efficiency North’s Lee Parkinson commented: “winning this award for the ‘Working Together to Improve’ Category is an excellent recognition of the hard work that goes into the efficiency groups and learning events that Efficiency North hosts with its members. Efficiency North’s vision to be recognised across the region as the practitioners’ network for Housing Maintenance and Construction is certainly enhanced by winning this award and we will continue to work hard to develop our activities across our work streams to bring improvement and efficiency to our member organisations.”