When the HIE network was awarded Charter Mark - the Government’s national standard for customer service for public sector organisations - for the fourth time in December 2004, six elements were identified as areas of partial compliance. These six elements formed the basis of a further external assessment in December 2005.

Evidence was submitted in the form of a written action-plan, and a subsequent one-day assessment was undertaken via video conference by an external assessor from SGS Ltd.

Main findings from the assessor’s report

The overall result of the assessment was on-going compliance with the Charter Mark standard.

Two areas of partial compliance were identified for improvement:

• benchmarking our performance against other organisations
• benchmarking financial indicators and cost effectiveness against similar organisations

Future action

Achieving and maintaining Charter Mark status is an on-going activity for HIE and it is important that the Network continues to meet the requirements of the Charter Mark criteria throughout the award's three years' duration.

The external assessor asks that we complete the written action plan document - detailing actions to be taken to ensure improvement in the two areas of partial compliance - and return to them within three months.

Staff members on the HIE Charter Mark internal review group will meet on a regular basis with view to maintaining continual improvement and compliance.

Charter Mark is a status that is earned through commitment to customer service, and is something the Network must strive to maintain and improve upon at all times.

Link to Charter Mark web pages