Brimbank Council has scooped the pool by winning both categories in the prestigious 2003 Premier’s Award for Continuous Improvement in Local Government in Victoria. Brimbank won Category A (Whole of Council) for its Best Value process and Category B (Functional Area or Part of Council) for its new Maternal and Child Health Service model, introduced in May this year.
This year, entries were received from 20 Councils. Brimbank edged out Baw Baw Shire Council, the other finalist in the Whole of Council Award.
Mayor Dorothy Costa accepted the awards from the Minister for Local Government, Candy Broad, at the official opening of the recent Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) annual conference held in Melbourne. Councillor Costa said winning both categories of this year’s Premier’s Award was a fantastic achievement for Council and the Brimbank community.
“It has been a struggle since amalgamations in 1994, but things are now really happening in Brimbank, one of Victoria’s largest and fastest growing Councils,” the Mayor said. “With Best Value legislation in December 2000, Brimbank Council has welcomed these principles as they have reinforced Council’s local program of community partnerships, organisation renewal and developing excellent services.
“Best Value principles are applied to all Council services with an emphasis on continuous improvement and an opportunity for creativity and innovation in service delivery. Congratulations must be extended to Council staff who are committed to the Best Value process to deliver improved and cost effective services to our community.”
Brimbank Council has a four year schedule for reviewing its 37 services under Best Value, one year less than the five years specified by the State Government. To date, 33 of Council’s reviews have commenced with 18 completed.
A proposal to move Council’s Maternal and Child Health Service from a traditional single centre based service to a community health model of care, where the service is designed to be more flexible, was endorsed by the Council last year. This new model has led to Brimbank taking out the Part of Council category B Award for 2003. The improvements by Council and its service provider ISIS Primary Care meant better access to the service for Brimbank parents.
Councillor Costa said the new service model is more flexible and has made access to maternal and child health nurses far easier for mums and dads.
“Brimbank is a culturally diverse community and during some periods of cultural confinement, mothers are obliged to stay at home following a birth meaning the child misses out on two key developmental assessments,” she said. “There is also an increasing trend of both parents wishing to attend the service which is difficult during working hours.
“As part of the new service, some existing maternal and child health sites were co located to a more comprehensive service delivered from six key clusters offering more nurses at each site, increased home visits, extended hours, phone consultations and open sessions with no appointments necessary. This revised service is far more customer oriented.”
This Award follows on from Council’s Customer Service team taking out the 2002 Category B Award for improvements to its service delivery following its Best Value review.
