Birmingham City Council named overall winner at Guardian Public Services Awards » Local Government » 24dash.com

Birmingham City Council, in partnership with Heart of Birmingham PCT, has been awarded the top prize at the Guardian Public Services Awards 2009, sponsored by Hays Specialist Recruitment.

As well as the Overall Winner Award, the council also scooped the Diversity and Equality prize for their Gym For Free initiative, which enables all residents in the Ladywood Constituency to use council sporting facilities for free.

At the awards ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London last night, broadcaster Jeremy Vine, who hosted the event, said: “Birmingham City Council is the ‘winner of winners’.

Birmingham’s ‘Gym for Free’ scheme started in the Ladywood Constituency – one of the most deprived and fractionalised in the country, where life expectancy rates and childhood obesity figures are a real concern.

“By enabling all of its residents to use council sporting facilities for free, Ladywood has seen the number of gym users rise from 90 to 27,000 in just over a year – half of whom are women or from ethnic minority communities.

"The judges praised Birmingham for showing real community engagement and were impressed with how they challenged and broke down the barriers to exercise – making it inclusive.”

David Brindle, The Guardian’s Public Services Editor, said: “This is a fantastic example of a local authority and the NHS thinking imaginatively and working in partnership to make a real difference to people's lives.

"The impact has been simply stunning. The scheme proved so successful, so quickly in the Ladywood district that it has now been extended across the whole of the city. And the judges thought the approach could easily be replicated on a national scale.”

Birmingham beat Ashton Leigh and Wigan Community Healthcare and South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust to win the Diversity & Equality Category, Sponsored by Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Overall they competed against twelve other category winners to win the top award.

The Guardian Public Services Awards 2009 winners:

SERVICE DELIVERY

Children and young people (Sponsored by Children’s Workforce Development Council)
Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, for their Beacon Project - an educational learning experience, encouraging self-development of young people through fire service principles of self-discipline, leadership and teamwork.

Complex needs
Derwent Living, for the Butterfly Project; a supported housing scheme in Derby for women with complex needs fleeing domestic violence.

Carers, families and communities (Sponsored by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and Crossroads Care)
Carers Direct (NHS), for providing the only single service (combining web/email and phone) dedicated to carers information needs, and linking them with local advice and support.

Care of older people (Sponsored by Department of Health)
Arts for Health Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, for embedding the arts into nursing and residential homes, day care settings and hospital environments where care of older people takes place.

Housing and regeneration (Sponsored by Chartered Institute of Housing)
Poplar HARCA, for their Family Intervention Project, which aims to change the anti-social behaviour of local families and support them in their homes.

Transport and mobility (Sponsored by Mouchel)
Gloucestershire County Council and National Star College, for their Learning Independence for Travel Programme (LIFT) which provides travel training for young people with physical and learning disabilities.

INNOVATION AND PROGRESS (Sponsored by NESTA's Public Services Innovation Lab)

Sustainability (Sponsored by Capgemini)
Ministry of Justice, for their innovative and sustainable procurement solution to prison mattress supply and disposal.                                       

Transformation (Sponsored by Matrix Knowledge Group)
Care4you - Sheffield City Council (a social care provider, predominantly to older people and their carers), for the redevelopment of their staffing structure and encouragement of integrated working.

Customer service (Sponsored by Institute of Customer Service)
Pensions, Disability and Carers Service - Motherwell Pension Centre, for setting up a dedicated bereavement team to respond quickly and efficiently to the needs of their most vulnerable customers.

Partnership working (Sponsored by Office of Government Commerce)
HMG, Tell Us Once Programme led by DWP on behalf of the Government to transform the way people inform both central and local government about changes in their circumstances e.g. births/deaths etc.

Diversity and equality (Sponsored by Equality and Human Rights Commission)
Birmingham City Council in partnership with Heart of Birmingham PCT, for Gym for Free, enabling all residents in the Ladywood Constituency to use council sporting facilities for free.  OVERALL WINNER

Frontline engagement (Sponsored by the Cabinet Office)
City of Edinburgh Council, for the Right-First-Time Project, created by frontline staff to improve services to customers and local communities.

SPECIAL AWARDS

Citizenship and Volunteering (Sponsored by CSV)
Minds in Motion, a community project set up by students from the University of York to help support local people with dementia and their carers. 

Public Servant of the Year (Sponsored by Unison)
Steve Richards, senior park ranger, Burnley Borough Council