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Sydney, 16 November 2023 – Technology company AskYourTeam celebrates the success of client Inner West Council, recognised as the most progressive metropolitan council in all of New South Wales.
Every year since 1945, Local Government New South Wales awards the AR Bluett Memorial Award, in commemoration of Albert Robert Bluett, who served as the Secretary and Solicitor to the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW for 30 years.
Announced in November, Inner West Council was crowned the metropolitan winner for 2023. The award recognises the most progressive metropolitan and rural councils from 128 across New South Wales. It celebrates excellence and is described as “the greatest accolade a council can achieve”.
AR Bluett Award judges noted that Inner West Council had successfully merged three previous councils’ operations into a ‘vibrant, responsive and community focused organisation’, and had delivered $22 million in savings since amalgamation.
Bluett Awards Chairman Les McMahon commended Inner West Council for its customer experience.
“They have outperformed against other like sized councils,” he says.
Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne says that winning the award was a real honour.
“It reflects the commitment to improvement and putting our community at the heart of everything we do at every level across the council,” says Mayor Byrne.
In order to prioritise actions that will make the biggest difference for their people and their community, Inner West Council uses Excellence Manager, a tool from Thrive35, powered by the AskYourTeam people insights platform. Excellence manager empowers them to self-assess their performance against the Australian Business Excellence Framework to help drive change and continuous improvement.
Jared Ingle, AskYourTeam Head of Sales Australia, says AskYourTeam has worked closely with Inner West Council through Excellence Manager and the AskYourTeam Community Voice product to help the council engage with their community to understand what’s most important to them, so the services delivered reflect these needs.
“Everyone at the council is committed to delivering for the community, and the AR Bluett Award is a reflection of that.
“We are thrilled to have the hard work and achievement of the council recognised as the best of its kind in New South Wales, and to have Community Voice play a small but important supporting role in that success,” says Jared.
Mayor Byrne says that Inner West Council is committed to continually improving programmes and services it offers to the people of the Inner West.
"Thanks also to our community who participate in our working groups and engage with us on the issues that matter to them,” he says.