We were contacted by the Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council shared planning service division to explore the possibility of achieving ISO 9001 Certification for their forward-thinking department and put the seal of approval on the best practice implementation of their public services.
The local authority set up a working group to manage the project and we set about laying the groundwork to ensure that the process went as smoothly as possible. The working group and various departments within the planning function set about analysing their processes and documenting them into a central wiki structure. This helps to enable the effective planning of resource within the department and align a common structure for the management of planning applications and other planning related services.
We then set about defining the Certification Plan to ensure that resources could be made available for the Stage 1 and 2 of the Certification process. The assessment and certification process was planned over 3 days and consisted of a hybrid model of remote and site based auditing to understand the complexities of the planning processes. The assessor was very complimentary of the management system and the enthusiastic nature of the approach taken by both the working group and staff within the various sections of the shared service. Improvement actions were addressed and the Certification Audit was completed in June 2023.
The shared service has now expanded the scope of certification to include other departments within the planning service to maximise the benefits of best practice implementation across the division.
We are proud to have worked with the Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council shared planning service and look forward to observing the benefits of formal certification as part of our ongoing annual audits going forward.
The shared planning service provided the following quote:-
"We are incredibly proud of the ISO9001:2015 accreditation, the team at the Council has worked hard to achieve this and have seen the benefits it has given to the service. The staff and auditors at CQS were incredibly supportive throughout this process. - Continuous Improvements Manager, Cambridge City Council"
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The Council is committed to sustainable growth in housing, jobs, and community infrastructure, while upholding climate change policies.
- Location Cambridge, England
- Industry Government Administration
- Size 501 - 1,000 employees
Certifications Achieved
Background / Challenge
The Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council’s shared planning service division sought ISO 9001 certification to formally recognise and strengthen their best practice approach to delivering public services. To prepare, they established a dedicated working group tasked with analysing and documenting processes, creating a centralised wiki structure to improve resource planning and standardise management of applications. Given the scale and complexity of planning functions, the councils required a structured certification plan that could coordinate multiple departments and ensure a smooth assessment journey.
