East Northampton Council received the news that it has maintained its ‘Investors in People’ status. The prize is awarded to organisations that efficiently teach their staff to learn new skills so as to facilitate customer needs.

This year’s appraisal placed a greater importance on management development and leadership as opposed to previous evaluations which took place in 2005 when the Council first became ‘Investors in People’.

Following a full external review and discussions with employees throughout all the departments, the Council was congratulated for indicating excellent procedure in a variety of areas. Particular emphasis was on its open culture of trust and respect. Their commitment to training, as well as encouragement of team work, highlight a significant performance improvement.

Chief Executive David Oliver said: “This demonstrates that East Northamptonshire Council is committed to providing staff with job satisfaction, a good working environment and opportunities to train and develop. The ultimate aim of this is to ensure that we can attract and retain good staff to ensure that we can provide the best possible service to our customers. The ‘Investors in People’ award recognises this and congratulations are due to our staff for their efforts that have enabled us to achieve the award for the second time.”