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The Marches District: Jobcentre Plus which encompasses the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire. Introduced office activity journals' to capture staff involvement in planning services.
The journals help provide key evidence for the districts Charter Mark co-ordinator in preparation for formal assessment.
Following the expansion of the Marches District to include an additional county, the logistics of evidencing adherence to the Charter Mark standard were reviewed.
An office activity journal was devised, which is completed electronically by each office across the District on a quarterly basis and returned to the Charter Mark co-ordinator.
The stencils ask for details of any relevant individual's activity, office activities, activities involving partnerships and evidence available, evaluation/outcomes and any planned future action as a result.
All staff meetings are recorded; office events, partnership working, external meetings, presentations and consultation.
In smaller sites one person may complete the form, in larger sites all team leaders and the manager would input to the final collation.
On receipt by the co-ordinator extra evidence may be requested, or the journals themselves may be submitted as evidence for Charter Mark assessment.
Any example of Good Practice can then be quickly highlighted and disseminated around the District, with the shared benefits for both employees and customers.
Keswick Jobcentre Plus provides a case study example of Improving opportunities and quality of life in the community.
Keswick Jobcentre is located in what was once the dancehall of a large hotel; it includes seven full-size and unique stained glass windows depicting scenes of the Lakes, famous Poets and Philosophers.
The windows are mentioned in several guide books of the area and highlighted as a place of interest by the local Keswick Museum.
'Visitors often call into the Jobcentre asking if they may view the windows': says Clive Richardson Charter Mark Co-ordinator Cumbria district office.
The office staff, (when work pressures permit) are pleased to show off these beautiful features to the general public by escorting interested visitors who enquire.
'Charter Mark and criteria six in particular raised our awareness of this opportunity to add to the quality of life within the community.
The standard certainly gets you thinking about the many ways you can contribute to the community outside of the normal job role'
Shrewsbury Jobcentre Plus invited local Banks into the branch to provide customer choice on banking and payment methods.
Shrewsbury Jobcentre Plus brought in local banks to advise customers on payment methods, an innovative idea which is now set to be taken up nationally by the organisation.
Four major high street banks spent two weeks at the local office speaking to customers about their options and helping people to open new accounts. In all over 150 customers were seen and 105 opened accounts.
The scheme proved a huge success; both banks and customers involved provided excellent feedback. The event shows how partnership working can improve customer choice.
'By providing first hand advice on alternative payment methods we have provided the transition path which was needed due to the withdrawal of order books and giros'.