Culture and Leisure Department – Service Standards

Our mission is to make sure that high-quality cultural, sport and leisure services are available to people who live in and visit the city. We hope that these services will improve people’s quality of life, personal wellbeing and lifelong learning opportunities, and will contribute to the city’s economic development and social regeneration.

The standards you can expect from us as we deliver our services to you:

Standard

Provide clear and straightforward information about our targets and achievements.

We will publish this information in the Culture and Leisure Annual Service Plan, and make it available on the City of Edinburgh Council’s website at www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Continue to consult you to find out how we can improve our services.

We will carry out regular customer surveys and consult you through the Local Development Committees Network.

Be open to new ideas, and use customer feedback to develop and improve our services.

We will encourage people to suggest new ideas through the customer comment and suggestion schemes.

Continue to develop partnerships to make sure we effectively deliver the wide range of services we offer.

These partnerships would be with a variety of organisations, including different departments within the City of Edinburgh Council, other local authorities, central government agencies, local amenity groups, the voluntary sector, the general public and so on.

Make sure that staff are fully qualified and trained in all aspects of their work.

Staff will provide services and accurate, up-to-date information in a helpful and friendly way. They will be trained to offer you clear answers to your questions.

Develop our services so everyone can use them.

We will aim to provide an efficient and effective service that meets the needs of all customers at all times using the resources that are available.

Encourage people to use our services by promoting them and targeting them to specific groups of people.

We will advertise and promote all facilities and events, and keep users and potential users up to date through Capinfo (the City of Edinburgh Council’s public information system), the City of Edinburgh Council’s website and the media.

Work to achieve good practice and best value through continuous improvement.

We will identify and develop new procedures through working with partners and carrying out benchmarking exercises to compare our own performance with others on a regular basis.

Work with you to develop and protect our city and make everyone more aware of the environment.

We will increase community and partnership involvement in environmental projects. We will also make sure that the materials we buy come from companies with long-term management policies.

Work with our partners to make sure that Edinburgh remains a city of national and international status.

We will continue to develop, support and promote international events, shows and festivals.

Because we continually aim to provide the highest-quality service, we would welcome your comments on these standards as we are going to review them every year. Please use the our feedback form to tell us what you think.

Key contacts

Director of Culture and Leisure Herbert Coutts tel. 0131 529 7735

Head of Libraries and Information Services Bill Wallace tel. 0131 529 7790

Head of Museums and Arts Lynne Halfpenny tel. 0131 529 3657

Head of Parks and Sport Jim McKay tel. 0131 529 7911

Head of Support and Quality Gwen Doswelltel. 0131 529 7742

General enquiries Reception tel. 0131 529 7844

When to contact the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

If you are still not happy after you have gone through the Council’s complaints process, you have the right to take your complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, 4 Melville street, Edinburgh, EH3 7NS (phone 0870 011 5378).

Generally, if you want to do this, you must contact the Ombudsman within one year. If you have any questions, you can phone 0870 011 5378 or e-mail enquiries@scottishombudsman.org.uk