Fifteen councils have been awarded Excellence Wales status in the second Welsh local government national awards scheme. Run by the Welsh Local Government Association and funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, the awards were launched to ‘encourage innovation, promote excellence and reward the councils involved'. But according to WLGA director Steve Thomas, the fundamental point of launching the awards was to share good practice across all councils. Speaking at the awards ceremony, local government minister Sue Essex said sharing good practice was an ‘essential part' of improving public services across Wales. ‘The opportunities offered by Excellence Wales to identify, promote and share good practice amongst local authorities cannot be over estimated,' she added. This year's award themes were Our Homes, Our Council, Our Health and Our Older People in which councils were commended and highly commended. New certificates of recognition were handed out to councils to commend ‘smaller pockets' of good practice. A series of learning exchanges and open days will be held in the coming year to showcase and share good practice. Excellence Wales status was awarded to: Our Older People Flintshire CC (highly commended) Bridgend CBC (commended) Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC (commended) Swansea CC (commended) Our Council Carmarthenshire CC (highly commended) Conwy CBC (commended) Flintshire CC (commended) Gwynedd CC (commended) Monmouthshire CC (commended) Newport City Council (commended) Our Health Blaenau Gwent CBC (commended) Carmarthenshire CC (commended) Denbighshire CC (commended) Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC (commended) Swansea CC (commended) Our Homes Caerphilly CBC (commended) Cardiff CC (commended) Conwy CBC (commended) Torfaen CBC (commended) Vale of Glamorgan Council (commended)
