Serco contact, Walsall Children’s Services, has developed a borough wide consistent approach to anti-bullying by establishing close working partnerships with the wider community. By involving pupils in the development of the strategy, the team has generated greater commitment and increased participation of some of our most vulnerable groups such as our Looked After Children it has given many children the chance to share their experiences and thus raise awareness of how to combat such problems. A key challenge for the team was establishing a baseline of bullying incidents across schools and getting schools to develop a consistent approach to recording and monitoring incidents. This system has now been live for a year and the first baseline figures are now successfully been compiled with over 70% of schools compared to 20% the year before.

Businesslink is a Serco contract responsible for the delivery of the Business.Gov Programme which is an government initiative aimed at making it easier for businesses to deal with the Government and to access business support. The primary product is the award winning businesslink.gov.uk website. Since Serco was awarded the contract in 2005 the team have transformed the programme from a minor business support service into a highly regarded and effective delivery organisation recognised across Whitehall as the Government’s principle online channel to deliver economic policy initiatives which support the UK’s business community.

The Crane Nursery Team at Yarl’s Wood Immigrantion Removal Centre (IRC) is a small team of six led by Jackie Dines. The team has transformed the under fives provision at the centre so much so they received a coveted “outstanding” from Ofsted in 2008. This is an outstanding achievement for a service in an institutional setting. An important role is building strong relationships with parents and their children, to gain traust and earn respect. To be able to put a parents mind at rest in this type of setting can lift a huge weight off the shoulders and enable them to focus on the other things that may be happening in their lives.

Previous to Serco John McInnes worked within the Black Watch Regiment for 24 years. During this time he selflessly raised £30,000 for a variety of local and nationally recognised charities earning him the “Charlie Hawkins” trophy for his fund raising efforts. When John joined the Electronic Monitoring team in Scotland his charitable efforts didn’t stop there. He has recently returned from Tanzania having scaled Mount Kilimanjaro bare legged in his kilt. His efforts raised £3,500 for Bravehearts Children’s Trust. John’s charity work has had a ripple effect within Electronic Monitoring Contact in Scotland with all his colleagues supporting his endeavours. In the midst of his work outside of work he has recently been selected to participate in a pilot of the new developed Scottish Vocational Qualification – Community Support through Electronic Monitoring enhancing his skills and abilities as a Field Monitoring Officer.

Linda Green began her career in the railway industry in 1983 spending the majority of her 25 years serving the public at Redcar Central booking office. Almost everyone in Redcar knows Linda and members of the public often comment on her patience, knowledge and cheerfulness. Linda is also a volunteer with the Northern Rail Incident Care Team (ICT). She recently had to demonstrate the skills learnt after being call to a local hospital following a rail replacement bus service incident. Linda showed no hesitation and in assisting an injured passenger and his wife. Although Linda volunteered her time and received training for such events it takes a special person to display such skills.

The Wounded Warrior Call Center Employees exemplify enthusiasm, professionalism and commitment to their mission. Their mission is to provide much needed assistance to wounded and ill marines and sailors attached to military units, this includes family members, throughout the recovery process. Since the inception of the call center in November 2007 the staff have conducted approximately 35,000 outreach calls and fielded 3,800 incoming calls from marines in need of assistance. The commitment of the call centre employees strengthens communities and the country. Due to the exceptional performance of the call centre, Serco has been awarded additional funding and authorization to increase personnel through an amendment to the contract.

During 2007 the Merseyrail network suffered a major crisis in wheel wear across the system. The cause of the problem was the responsibility of the infrastructure provider and was completely outside of Merseyrail’s control as the transport operator. In response to these problems the Merseyrail Engineering Team came together forming a 12 strong working group to analyse the problems and look for solutions. Actions from the working group were implemented during March 2008 and made an immediate impact achieving a 31% improvement in train reliability and 10% improvement in train availability and delivering 100% availability for many special events.

Apart from the punctuality and reliability of train services, personal security is a major factor which influences choice of transport. A perceived lack of personal security and the fear of crime is one of the reasons people choose not to use public transport. In order to improve public and staff confidence Merseyrail in partnership with British Transport Police introduced a number of measures tackling serious assaults and vandalism. The measures have generated new expectations from Merseyrail passengers and as such the new Byelaw Enforcement Team was created. This team tackles anti-social behaviour which includes “feet on seats”. An estimated 80% of passengers reactions have been positive and a number of other train operating companies have visited Merseyrail to learn from their experience.

Nicole Chamorro was tasked with leading a project to develop and deliver the ultimate in deluxe rail service experiences for guests on The Ghan, operated by Great Southern Rail. In the months leading up to the launch, Nicole led a team within Guest Services that mapped out the journey service through a model that identified every “TouchPoint” of guest interaction. At each “TouchPoint” service inclusions were created that anticipated and responded to each aspect of guests needs and expectations. From indepth research Nicole developed a report identifying where to match other world-class rail services and where to exceed the services offered. Over a six month period she created the Platinum Service blueprint, developed the concept in details, trained 20 carefully selected team members in three different crews and led the smooth transition into service. Through her personal commitment, dedication and leadership, Nicole has ensured Platinum service onboard the Ghan is a resounding success story.

Through tireless entrepreneurial focus and excellent bidding skills Robin Davies, Marketing Director for Serco Local Government has driven the business development team to deliver almost £1 billion of orders within just five years, including the transfer of over 1,000 new colleagues to the team. His range of customer-needs based marketing “products” has allowed Serco to stand out in our marketplace as a next-generation service provider. Robin has taken innovation and creativity to a new level in the industry. He has recognised particular and often non-service related customer needs, which he has branded and developed into products which have added huge value. Robin has truly made a phenomenal impact to Serco Integrated Services over the past five years.

In 2008 Serco Integrated Transport formed a partnership with the Scouts Association to launch the Personal Safety Badge for Cub Scouts. This badge allows the Cub Scouts to undertake an educational course in the safety and dangers surrounding railways in the United Kingdom. The Serco and Scout initiative team demonstrated excellent entrepreneurial skills in developing a sponsorship of a scouts badge into the success it is today and at the same time raising the profile of Serco within the rail industry. They also demonstrated great partnership skills pooling resources across all interested parties. In its debut year the Serco sponsored Personal Safety Badge for Cub Scouts has achieved the greatest response from scout members in the history of the association – circa 100,000 downloads so far.