Melton Borough Council is '˜best' at social inclusion

The council won the award in the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation Performance awards, also coming in as a finalist in the ‘excellence in partnership working’ and ‘excellence in staff development’ categories.

Leader of the Council Pam Posnett said: “Winning the award for social inclusion recognises the hard work of all our staff who strive to deliver better outcomes for the community.

“We recognise that to enable people in Melton to live their lives independently we must identify and tackle the underlying barriers. We have a considerable track record of helping people to live more independently. We have pioneered leading-edge partnership and information sharing practices that have enabled us to work in this more holistic and joined up way. I am very pleased that yet again Melton Borough Council is providing award winning services.”

The council was visited by members of the awards panel during September with the results announced at an awards dinner at Telford on Wednesday, hosted by Comedian Lee Hurst.

Staff have worked hard with partners to develop an integrated approach to reducing social inclusion through organising services around the customer and putting individuals and families first. The focus and culture of the council has shifted to identifying and tackling the root causes of problems and investing in early interventions. This approach focuses on problem solving to help people achieve improvements and better outcomes in their lives.