European quality award for Margaret Blackwood

Margaret Blackwood Housing Association has become one of the first housing associations in Scotland to achieve the European Foundation for Quality Management’s Committed to Excellence.

Stephen Gallagher, depute chair of Margaret Blackwood, accepted the award from David Bradley, chief executive of Quality Scotland, the organisation which carried out the external assessment.

Stephen Gallagher told us, “Excellence and continuous improvement lie at the very core of our strategic aims of providing the best accessible housing and the best personal care and support services to people in Scotland. The EFQM Excellence model provides a framework within which we can achieve these goals in the years ahead.

“We are already undertaking a programme of rapid improvement initiatives across a number of aspects of our business. The first benefits will reflect in a more integrated approach to delivering our Planned Maintenance programme. We aim to minimise inconvenience to tenants, reduce installation times and defects by getting things right first time, and drive up satisfaction levels as a result.

“Winning this award is recognition of the hard work and commitment of our staff and my thanks go to them.”

David Bradley added, “Margaret Blackwood joins a community of 30,000 organisations Europe-wide using the Committed to Excellence model. Research shows that substantial gains are made in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, innovation, reliability, and customer and staff satisfaction.”