On 8 February, our very proud Director of People and Learning, Liz Page, travelled to Milton Keynes to collect our Best Companies 2 Star Companies Award.  This is the third time in a row that we’ve received a star rating from Best Companies, and the second year in a row that we’ve scooped the two star rating.

And it’s a rather interesting award for us to get … The Best Company awards, linked to The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies list, are not simply a case of management writing a carefully crafted submission or even a nomination from a third party.  The Best Company rating comes from our staff themselves, and with over three quarters of our 365 staff responding honestly and anonymously, it says a lot about us as an organisation and where we’re heading

Because of this, we’re genuinely incredibly proud to get this award – this tells us that our staff love working here and are involved and engaged with the work that we do.  Particularly interesting was a breakdown of some of the scores: in a time of austerity, it’s fabulous to hear that confidence in our management has increased (+3%) and that there’s been a  5% increase in staff being “excited about where this organisation is going”.  This is due, in part, perhaps to an increased recognition that senior managers truly live the organisation’s values (+3%).

Overall, we heard that even more staff are proud to work for YOU (+2%) and that they feel that their job is secure (+6%).  At a time when we’re having to think creatively about providing excellent services to some of the most vulnerable people in society, it’s fantastic to know that the whole team are behind the organisation and that we’re recognised by Best Companies for being worthy of the Two Star award.