Friday, March 16, 2007

Edinburgh Building Services (EBS) has won a national excellence award at a gala ceremony held in St Andrews last week (8 March 2007). Promises Into Action, an EBS project, won the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) award for “Securing a Workforce for the Future”.

This award follows an innovative cultural change programme led jointly by Pinnacle and the City of Edinburgh Council, which focussed on improving communications and team-work and on recognising good performance and customer care.

Councillor Sheila Gilmore, Executive Member for Community Safety and Housing, said, “It is encouraging to see the hard work that has been done and the changes that have been made as a result of this project is being recognised on a national level. I would like to congratulate the team and thank COSLA for recognising these achievements.”

Pinnacle’s Director, Steve White, and his team accepted the award at the prize ceremony. He said: “When we first begun working with EBS, we would never have believed that within just three years, we would be winning national awards for excellence. Through Pinnacle’s partnership with City of Edinburgh Council, we focused on changing cultures, nurturing talent and delivering outcomes and as a result, EBS has been transformed into a high achieving organisation with a culture that is inclusive, open and trusting.

“The EBS team should feel justifiably proud of such an outstanding achievement.”

John Swinney, Chief Executive of Pinnacle, said: “EBS continues to go from strength to strength – this is the second national award for excellence that it has achieved in just six months. It highlights, yet again, the real benefits of public/private sector partnerships working together to achieve sustainable improvements for communities and customers. Congratulations again to the EBS team.”

EBS provides a range of building maintenance services for Services for Communities and other departments of the City of Edinburgh Council. Pinnacle began work with Edinburgh Building Services in 2003.