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At the NoEE Award Winners Conference on 1st December, John Bachegalup of Brand-Rex was presented with the North of England Excellence Prize.

The photograph shows John, right, receiving the engraved plaque from Paul Evans, the Chairman of NoEE. As well as supporting Brand-Rex's improvement journey (they won the NoEE Excellence Award in 2009) as his day job, John somehow found the time to study for a BSc in Environmental Science through the Open University and was awarded his degree recently. Congratulations, John!

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A passenger train operator was last night revealed as the overall winner of the North of England Excellence Awards 2011. Merseyrail, which provides rail services within Liverpool and its conurbations, was named Business of the Year and also won a North of England Excellence Award.

Around 400 business people attended the awards ceremony at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club, where the guest speakers were James Hogan, CEO of Etihad Airways, and Adrian Van Klaveren, controller of BBC Radio 5 Live.

Merseyrail has one of the most intensively used networks in the UK, with over 780 trains every weekday carrying some 30 million passengers a year. Nearly half of its passengers are daily users. Assessment showed that Merseyrail consistently achieves best in class performance, has inspiring leaders, empowers its people and has a customer-focused culture.

Meanwhile another rail operator, the York-based East Coast, also had a successful night, winning special awards for both Customer Service and Learning & Development.

Housing associations once again featured in the awards this year. Harvest Housing Group won special awards for both Customer Service and Learning & Development, and Trent & Dove Housing won the Special Award for Leadership.

Trafford Council was another double winner, collecting special awards for Innovation and Leadership. Other special award winners represented a variety of fields, ranging from public sector (Liverpool Direct’s Learning and Development Service and Liverpool John Moores University‘s Department of Infrastructure Services) and business support (ENWORKS) to financial services (The Co-operative Banking Group and the Insurance Partnership), support services (Sabic Maintenance Services Group), recruitment and consultancy (Altremis Ltd & First Recruitment Group) and logistics (3P Logistics).

David Teale, chief executive of North of England Excellence, said: “Our finalists demonstrate the strength of business practice across the North. These awards quite rightly highlight and celebrate the success of businesses committed to continual improvement and innovation, with management and staff at all levels working together to deliver outstanding results."

The full list of winners is:

*Learning & Development Service
**Department of Infrastructure Services

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The controller of BBC Radio 5 Live - one of the BBC departments relocating to Salford's Media City - will be guest speaker at this year's North of England Excellence Awards.

Adrian Van Klaveren will be speaking about the move and its effect on jobs in the region at the awards ceremony on Thursday, 10 November at Lancashire Cricket Club.

Adrian, who took up his current role in 2008, has overseen the biggest audience in the station’s history. Numbers peaked at over 7 million for the final quarter of 2010 and the station has also had an excellent 2011 with a record haul of 9 SONY awards honouring the journalism and broadcasters across its schedule.  

The station started broadcasting from MediaCityUK, Salford Quays on September 19 and will complete be fully on-site by the end of November.

Adrian was formerly Deputy Director of BBC News and Controller, News Production, with responsibility for developing and implementing News' production strategy and for overseeing new services, including news on-demand and the increasing use of user generated content. He is also a former Head of Local Programmes for BBC West Midlands.

Adrian will be appearing alongside James Hogan, CEO of Etihad Airways, sponsor of Manchester City. Etihad recently launched twice-daily flights between Manchester Airport and Abu Dhabi and also announced a ten-year partnership with City which would see the stadium become the focal point of the wider Etihad Campus.

David Teale, chief executive of North of England Excellence, said: “We are delighted to have two high-profile speakers at our awards ceremony. Both are from organisations which have made a major commitment to the North of England and which will have a significant impact on the future development of the region.”

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One of the leading figures in the airline industry is to share his experience of improving business performance at the North of England Excellence Awards.

James Hogan, CEO of Etihad Airways, will be the guest speaker at the event on Thursday 10 November at The Point, Lancashire Cricket Club. Etihad, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, recently launched twice-daily flights between Manchester Airport and Abu Dhabi and also announced a ten-year partnership with Manchester City which would see the stadium become the focal point of the wider Etihad Campus.

James has over 35 years of travel industry experience, during which time he has held senior positions with bmi, Hertz, Forte Hotels and Gulf Air.

He has overseen rapid growth of the UAE’s national airline since his appointment, and under his leadership, Etihad has become the fastest growing airline in aviation history. The airline currently operates to 72 destinations with a fleet of 63 modern, environmentally friendly aircraft.
In 2008, he signed one of the largest aircraft orders in history for up to 100 aircraft worth approximately US $22 billion, to meet the airline’s ambitious long-term growth plans. CEO Magazine named him Aviation CEO of the Year in 2008 and Visionary of the Year in 2010.

David Teale, chief executive of North of England Excellence and a former managing director of Manchester Airport, said: “We are delighted that James has accepted our invitation to speak at the awards ceremony. He is one of the best-known figures within the industry, and is now at the helm of a fast-growing, dynamic airline which has strong connections to the North of England. He will no doubt be able to share some valuable insights into business excellence.”

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For several years, North of England Excellence has worked hard to make the EFQM Excellence Model more accessible by customising the terminology to be relevant to those in the public and voluntary sector. The self assessment booklet, The Excellence Toolkit, has been tailored for the Education and Housing sectors and a version for those in the social care sector is being launched in September.

For 3 years, NoEE has supported the improvement journey of Community Integrated Care (C-i-C), whose Head Office is based in Widnes, Cheshire (see panel, right).

There are two unique features to C-i-C's 3rd cycle self assessment using the EFQM Model:

1. A cross section of C-i-C staff will be completing Toolkit for the Care Sector booklets which use relevant language and ask people to reflect on how C-i-C stacks up against what approaches a world class care organisation would be using and what results it would be achieving
2. Views of staff assessors will be complemented by input from a sample of C-i-C "customers" or Service Users as they are known in the care sector. These views will be obtained via special focus groups facilitated by NoEE, using innovative and creative ways, such as visual, aural and sensory media, to ensure that the views of all are fairly and accurately captured and scored, particularly as many have learning and/or physical difficulties.

The care sector has been under the spotlight recently with disclosures about patient abuse and the financial difficulties of the Southern Cross group. With the sector growing, not least due to the increase in the elderly population, it is vital that all care homes continually improve and can demonstrate their rate of improvement. Also, commissioning authorities and families of those who need care deserve to have a wide and objective system to evaluate the excellence of care homes to help them make more informed choices and decisions. Therefore, NoEE plan to roll out the Toolkit for the Care Sector later in the year and to discuss with the Care Quality Commission its role as a regulatory framework.

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We have recently been delighted to present the Housing Commitment Marque of Excellence to both Bernicia Group and Habinteg Housing Association Limited.

The Bernicia Group provides more than 8000 homes throughout the North East of England, with almost 6000 located in South East Northumberland, and over 2000 within the Tyne and Wear conurbation.

The photograph, left, shows members of Habinteg staff proudly showing off their Housing Commitment Marque award outside their offices in Bradford.

Habinteg Housing Association provides homes right across the country and operates to a "social model of disability" which gives a clear focus to the economic, environmental and cultural barriers encountered by people who are viewed by others as having some form of impairment.

The Housing Commitment Marque of Excellence certificate is jointly signed by NoEE CEO, David Teale as well as by David Orr, CEO of the National Housing Federation who support and recognise the use of the Housing Toolkit by their members.

To be accredited, a housing association has to use the Housing Toolkit (a version of the EFQM Excellence Model customised for the housing sector) and show an external assessor that it has:

• conducted the Toolkit self assessment fairly and effectively
• prioritised the improvements identified and integrated the action plans into the business planning process
• progressed them in a systematic and "project managed" way
• demonstrated that the senior team are sincerely committed to continuous improvement

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Twenty-four organisations have been selected as finalists in the 2011 North of England Excellence Awards.

The shortlist includes organisations of all sizes from the public, private and voluntary sectors throughout the North. The winners will be announced at the awards dinner on Thursday 10 November at The Point, Lancashire Cricket Club, where the guest speakers for the evening will include James Hogan, CEO, Etihad Airways and Adrian Van Klaveren, Controller, Radio 5 Live

The awards, now in their 18th year, are organised by North of England Excellence. David Teale, chief executive of North of England Excellence, said: "Our finalists demonstrate the strength of business practice across the North. It shows that business here is committed to continual improvement and innovation, with management and staff at all levels working together to deliver outstanding results."

*Department of Infrastructure Services

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North of England Excellence were delighted to award a prize at Liverpool John Moores University’s 14th July 2011 Graduation Ceremony to the graduate with the highest marks in the Master of Business Administration degree programme.

The photograph, right, shows Professor Michael Brown, Vice Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, presenting this year’s award to Val Davies, the successful student, in the presence of Pete Macartney, Associate Director, Education and Training for North of England Excellence, and Nick Hawkins, Head of Executive Programmes for the Liverpool John Moores University Business School.  Nick was Val’s dissertation supervisor and Head of the Master’s programme.

Val, shown here proudly displaying her award in the company of Pete and Nick, was a very worthy winner – scoring 88% for her Master’s Dissertation.  This was the highest mark in the five year history of this award and was described as “exceptional” by the external examiner !

Val commented: “As a very mature student who didn't go to university after leaving school, achieving a masters degree has been a wonderful but stretching experience. The reason I undertook the course was having left Trinity Mirror North West and North Wales as Business Development Director in 2006 to become a self employed business consultant, I felt my experience, largely spent in the media, could well be too narrow to support other businesses in their growth plans. The Programme helped me to broaden my knowledge, and my thinking, and I now feel equipped, and much more confident, to provide a professional service to my clients”

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Congratulations to Liverpool John Moores University on being 1 of just 2 UK businesses to be amongst the 18 finalists from the whole of Europe in the 2011 EFQM Excellence Awards.

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Congratulations to First TransPennine Express, NoEE Governing Members and holders of 5*EFQM Levels of Excellence accreditation, on having their train operating franchise extended until April 2015.

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Up to £1000 in grant funding is now available to help business leaders pay for training to grow their organisations. Through the Leadership and Management Advisory Service, senior leaders of businesses and social enterprises with the potential to achieve high growth have a great opportunity to develop their leadership and management skills. This offer is available to private sector businesses or social enterprises with:

• fewer than 250 full time equivalent employees
• at least one employee in addition to the senior leader
• the potential for high or fast growth

Contact www.business-enterprise.net/leadership 

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January and February saw accreditation success for three North of England Excellence members.

Merseyrail (Electrics) 2002 have been recognised as an Investor in Excellence. Pete Macartney, the assessor, said "Merseyrail is successfully striving to understand and meet or exceed the needs of all its stakeholders and to provide value to its customers. Its leaders have a clear vision for the business, and are clearly communicating this."

Meanwhile, another rail operator, Northern Rail, was accredited to the EFQM Recognised for Excellence standard (R4E) at the level of 5 stars. The assessors commented: "Northern Rail has a leadership team dedicated to being visible and promoting a culture of Excellence across the organization. In almost all attributes of service, customers now have a more positive perception of Northern Rail than when the franchise started in 2004."

Meanwhile, South Yorkshire Probation Trust have also been accredited to EFQM R4E achieving the 4 star level. Their feedback report noted that committed leadership, driving a vision and culture of performance and continuous improvement has moved the Trust from being in the bottom 5 (out of 35 Trusts) in 2006 to consistently being one of the best 5 in England and Wales today.

NB: EFQM Levels of Excellence (R4E) is proving extremely popular with NoEE members in that it delivers a detailed improvement agenda within a feedback report as well as European wide recognition for those accredited. So, these benefits are similar to entering an Excellence Award, except that all those whose EFQM score is externally verified at over 300 points will gain recognition.

Photo Shows SYPT Chief Executive Ros Brown receiving the R4E framed certificate from NoEE Board member Terry Boynes

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Parkway Green Housing Trust is delighted to announce it has been awarded the North of England Excellence Continuity Marque

The national UK standard has been developed to inspire and encourage organisations of all sizes and sectors to drive towards excellence, through self assessment and the implementation of real improvements.

Chief Executive of Parkway Green Housing Trust Nigel Wilson said "We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded the Marque as it's testament to the hard work of our staff but also demonstrates to our customers that we are continuously trying to improve our services for them and delivering on our promise to truly put tenants at the heart of our business"

Photo Shows (Centre) Chair of the PGHT Board Cllr Tony Burn Receiving the Award from Pete Macartney who carried out the assessment from North of England Excellence, alongside all the Parkway Green Staff who took part in the assessment

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