Member Article

Bernicia secure Housing Achievement Marque

Bernicia has become the first registered social housing provider to be accredited with the Housing Achievement Marque by North of England Excellence.

The scheme seeks to inspire and encourage organisations of all sizes and from all sectors to drive towards excellence through self-assessment and the implementation of sustainable improvements.

Using a special toolkit, developed by the National Housing Federation, a group of staff from various service areas of the business attended a series of workshops.

Here, based on their own experience and information gathered from colleagues, they highlighted the company’s business strengths and areas for where they felt things could be done more effectively.

As a result, an improvement plan was developed and submitted to the Bernicia Executive Team, which gave its commitment to fulfil the improvements identified through continued investment in customers, staff and the community.

An independent validation took place just before Christmas and this week, North of England Excellence awarded the Achievement Marque accreditation.

On behalf of North of England Excellence, Alan Trueman, said: “I would like to congratulate Bernicia for being the first housing company to gain the Housing Achievement Marque. This recognition is not just for excellent results but for the way in which those results have been achieved.”

Bernicia’s Strategy and Compliance Officer, Laura Rusby, who coordinated the project, added: “This was a valuable exercise involving colleagues from across the business. I think receiving this accreditation is a great testimony to how hard everyone works to continually improve and develop the services we offer to customers on a daily basis.”

John Johnston, Deputy Group Chief Executive with Bernicia, said: “Whilst formal accreditation awards are important, it is the journey we go through to get there that matters the most and special thanks must go to the staff for their involvement and dedication in helping Bernicia to gain the Housing Achievement Marque”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .