National recognition for council team

East Devon District Council’s Revenues and Benefits team have received national recognition with two awards from a professional association.

The team are responsible for collecting council tax and for processing claims for council tax support, housing benefit and other assistance for people who may be struggling to pay their civic bills. Their work involves a great deal of contact with customers, many of whom are experiencing difficulty in making ends meet and so need to be treated with respect and sensitivity by council staff.

Last year the team was twice highly commended for communications excellence for the authority’s Council Tax Benefit changes and they have been recognised internally for improvements resulting through adopting systems thinking.

Now they have received further recognition from their professional association, the Institute of Revenues, Rating & Valuation (IRRV).

Earlier this year, the service entered an annual event to win two national awards from the IRRV. These prestigious awards were for Revenues Team of the Year and Benefits Team of the Year.

Both private and public sector Revenues and Benefits services compete across England, Scotland and Wales and this year there was a record number of entries.

The awards were judged on:

• Performance
• Training and development of staff
• Customer satisfaction
• Partnership working and
• Use of technology to improve service delivery

After East Devon was shortlisted among five finalists, an IRRV Inspection team – made up of Revenues and Benefits specialists – carried out two half-day visits to the council’s Sidmouth offices.

Team members from Revenues and Benefits planned and delivered their own presentations to the Inspection teams, capturing the quality of service and best value provided to customers, whilst continuing to build on efficiencies.

The winners were announced at the IRRV Conference last week and East Devon District Council was awarded:

• Silver award for Benefits Team of the Year
• Bronze award for Revenues Team of the Year

Congratulating team manager Libby Jarrett at a meeting of EDDC’s full council on Wednesday, Chairman Graham Godbeer said: “These two awards represent external validation, and I am really proud of these achievements. The Gold award for the Benefits team went to a Scottish authority, so we can say that East Devon has the best Benefits team in England!!

On behalf of all Members I would like to thank and congratulate Libby and her team on their success”.