The British Library has appointed North of England Excellence to help it with its continuous improvement activities at its sites in London and West Yorkshire.

North of England Excellence is running training courses for British Library staff focusing on facilitation and process improvement tools and techniques. The British Library is the national library of the UK and one of the world’s greatest libraries, whose treasures include the Magna Carta, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook and the Times first edition.

The library operates from sites at St Pancras in London and Boston Spa, Wetherby which between them house a collection of 150 million items ranging from newspapers and magazines to manuscripts, maps, music scores and patents. Over 16,000 people each day use the service.

North of England Excellence consultant Dave Rusk said: “The British Library has a guardianship role in preserving our literary heritage and learning, and it has many expert and knowledgeable staff. However at the same time, with many thousands of requests each year, it also operates a high-volume operation, processing orders and handling information.

The environmental regeneration body, Groundwork, has become only the fifth ever charity to have its quality standards endorsed by the Charity Commission.

The move is a vote of confidence in Groundwork’s quality and performance systems, which were developed with help from North of England Excellence.

Groundwork delivers a broad range of services to support communities in need, helping to improve their prospects and the places where they live and work. It also uses its impressive environmental credentials to help businesses to cut costs and be more competitive by adopting effective environmental management systems.

Groundwork has a strong local, regional and national reputation. The endorsement by the Charity Commission means that Groundwork’s network of over 40 trusts throughout the UK will not be subject to the standard regime of review visits by the Commission, because it has confidence in Groundwork’s own systems.

North of England Excellence has helped Groundwork to develop its beta plus™ self-assessment process and its Comprehensive Business Assessment (CBA) process. These are both based on the European Foundation for Quality Management’s Business Excellence Model and are key elements of Groundwork’s more extensive Performance Management Framework.

Northern Rail has been recognised for its success in getting the right people and plans in place to deliver a successful, growing railway across the north of England.

The train operator, the biggest in Britain, runs 2,500 trains each day and has attracted 22 % more passengers since it started three years ago.

In recognition of its success, Northern has been awarded an Achievement Marque in the North of England Marques of Excellence Scheme for driving towards excellence through its business processes.

Heidi Mottram, Managing Director, Northern said: “We’re delighted to have achieved this recognition. We continue to strive towards excellence in everything we do and while this award shows we are on the right course, we are always looking to improve what we do.”

Organisations committed to achieving high standards of performance are being invited to apply for the prestigious 2008 North of England Business Excellence Awards.

Often described as the ‘business Oscars’, the awards are open to private companies, public sector bodies and voluntary organisations of all sizes throughout the North of England.

The awards judge organisations against the principles of business excellence as laid out by the internationally recognised EFQM Excellence Model. Entrants are assessed on all aspects of their operation, including the way their business is run and the results it achieves. Briefing workshops are held for organisations taking part and all applicants receive feedback from a team of independent assessors.

Awards are available for both large and small public, private and ‘not for profit’ organisations. There are also a number of special prizes to recognise businesses that excel in the areas of leadership, people management, customer satisfaction and corporate social responsibility.