Charter Marks
We aim to deliver high quality services. We adopted Charter Mark in 1992 as an independent quality assessment scheme which was in line with our approach to service planning and improvement and the way we deliver our services. The Charter Mark scheme was promoted by the Cabinet Office as a national standard to recognise the highest quality standards in the public sector.

The criteria on which our services were judged were:-

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

We have achieved continuing success as a national leader for the number of services with Charter Mark awards. We held 25 awards as a result of our continuing improvement and a cumulative total of 86 awards since the scheme began.

The Charter Marks we held were:

• Best Staff Suggestion (Register Office)
• Business Rates Collection
• Council Tax and Benefits
• Crime Prevention Services
• Economic Development Office
• Education Welfare
• Electoral Registration
• Environmental Services
• Graffiti Removal Service
• Hartfield House
• Home Ownership Unit
• Housing Estate Services and Emergency Control
• Income Collection Service
• Internal Audit
• Leisure and Amenity Services Department
• Occupational Therapy Service
• Parking Service
• Pensions Service
• Planning Service
• Register Office
• Rent Collection Service
• Road Safety Education and Training
• Student Finance
• Wandsworth Interpreting Service
• Wardens Services/Sheltered Housing
• Community Safety

A decision was made in October 2008 not to adopt the government's new scheme, Customer Service Excellence which replaced Charter Mark. It was considered that the new scheme did not address the important issues of providing good quality, cost effective services and as such did not meet our key objectives.