The award was presented to the Council Leader, Councillor Roger Stone, at the 24/11/04 meeting of the Borough Council Cabinet by the Chief Executive of ISOQAR, Frank Livesey.
Certification to the ISO9001.2000 Quality Management Standard followed a week-long external audit of the EDS Quality Management System.
ISO9001.2000 is the internationally recognised standard for quality management in both the public and private sectors. It applies to all the processes that are used to deliver services and requires systematic control of activities to ensure a consistent level of quality is achieved and that the needs and expectations of customers are met.
Richard Garrad, the Performance and Quality Manager for EDS said the team had put a massive amount of hard work into helping a wide variety of EDS services pass the tough inspection process.
"Achievement of Certification is a statement of the EDS commitment to quality, to our customers, and to continually improving the service efficiency. It demonstrates that EDS operates an effective quality management system that satisfies the rigours of an independent, external audit," he said.
"An ISO9001.2000 certificate enhances the organisation's image in the eyes of customers, employees and partners alike and gives a competitive advantage in the market place.
"It is the directoprate wide nature of the award that makes it most remarkable. Whereas other councils have achieved ISO Certification for a limited number of individual services, the EDS award covers the entire EDS directorate and all the diverse range of services we provide.
"Certification for such a broad range of local authority services is, if not unique, extremely rare, " he added.
Three auditors from ISOQAR - the International Organisation for Standardisation's Quality Assurance Register - spent a week in EDS interviewing staff at depots, schools, business centres, markets and the Visitor Centre as well as in Bailey House itself.
They audited nearly 30 areas of activity, ranging from building cleaning to emergency planning, economic strategy and highway maintenance.
Peter Par, the lead auditor commented: "This is one of the largest local authority organisations we have certified and are really impressed with the commitment of the directorate in wanting to provide excellent services to its customers."
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