Investors in People

Southwark Council was last accredited as an IIP organisation in 2015 and achieved Gold status. At that time, IiP felt that Southwark was “enhancing a people culture that maximised the value of engaging, developing, managing and motivating staff to perform at their place of work and to have an impact on the wider community that they serve: the residents of Southwark”. Their observation of the council now is that “Three years on, the result of this assessment confirms that the original momentum has not reduced but has gained pace and is applied with greater levels of vigour and tenacity during a time of significant change and challenge within the sector and a tighter squeeze on budgets set by central government. The importance of people is understood by the council, as is the relationship with the wider stakeholder network in the borough, with much focus being placed on community groups and the disadvantaged, resulting in a high-performing council in many areas.”

The IiP inspection regime has been developed to test performance against the organisation’s priorities and outcomes. This is tested through a council-wide staff survey. This is intended to be a challenging assessment, and is acknowledged to be in more depth than the previous assessment approach. Southwark Council has maintained its Gold status against this harder test, with elements of ‘Platinum’ being revealed through the inspection.

IiP notes that Southwark has a culture that incorporates openness, truly supports diversity, trust and willingness to communicate, and involves all people at every level in the work of the council as much as is feasibly possible. These attributes were remarked upon during interviews and were recognised as influencing the high levels of loyalty and pride in working for Southwark, with many people at all levels saying they joined or wanted to come to Southwark because of what it is doing and achieving.

Full details are in the report ^{(PDF, 2.2mb)}.

Page last updated: 25 January 2019