Charter Mark update

14 January 2008

A year after receiving their Charter Marks, St Christopher’s Limegrove Hostel and Greenwich Floating Support Services both had successful 12-month Charter Mark follow-up inspections last week.

The Charter Mark is awarded by the Cabinet Office for excellence in public service.  It is only awarded after a very detailed assessment process to ensure commitment to the six Charter Mark criteria:

• set standards and perform well
• actively engage with customers, partners and staff
• be fair and accessible to everyone and promote choice
• continuously develop and improve
• use resources effectively and imaginatively
• contribute to improving opportunities and quality of life in the communities.

The follow-up inspection is a compulsory aspect of the inspection process. It ensures that

• the standards are still being met
• there has been continuous improvement since the original award of the Charter Mark.

In order to qualify for a Charter Mark, a service has to meet 70% of the qualifying criteria.  In the original inspections, our services met over 95% of the criteria, with three partial compliances.

This has now been reduced to only one partial compliance. 

The inspector once again praised the quality of the services and the clear dedication of St Christopher’s staff.