About Aylesbury Vale District Council

Health Awareness campaigns receive positive feedback from staff at AVDC. The aim of all of the campaigns is to raise employee’s awareness and educate to potentially avoid future health issues. Campaigns delivered to date include the topics of Breast Cancer Awareness, Prostate Cancer Awareness, Healthy Eating, Men’s Health week, Healthy Heart, National Stress Awareness Day, Back care and Bowel Cancer Awareness. In November 2011 AVDC delivered a week long campaign “Stress Awareness week”. Stress Awareness week will incorporate additional training for manager, information for staff on topics such as personal resilience, diet and exercise Tackling stress. AVDC has with the support of unions, introduced an individual stress assessment to pro-actively address individual absences due to stress, which enable an action plan to be developed to identify causes of stress and facilitate a return to work. HR officers have provided support and guidance to managers in these situations. AVDC also offer counselling which is a popular benefit.

AVDC is committed to place making and taking a leading role in improving the quality of life for people who live work and visit the Vale. It has an ambitious redevelopment programme for the county town, Aylesbury, and has used its own property assets and capital to fund an award winning new theatre, Waitrose, hotel and car park. The council’s decision to invest its resources in this way has been applauded by the local community and described as bold and courageous by peers. The benefits to the local community of the redevelopment so far, extend far beyond the new facilities. The developments are acting as a catalyst for wider new investment in the town centre. New restaurants and cafes have opened, new retail traders are being attracted to the town and one of the private shopping centres is significantly investing in its centre to improve its quality and range of shops.

AVDC holds the Star Awards annually which reward and recognise excellence performance. The Awards are linked to their Organisational Values. They are different from other reward schemes, in that there is no restriction on who can nominate for an award, so AVDC often find colleagues nominating other colleagues or other teams. This makes for a more inclusive scheme. AVDC have a judging panel which includes the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive, but they also have one category, ‘Outstanding Individual achievement’ which is voted for by staff, again with the aim of being inclusive. The effectiveness of the scheme is demonstrated by the fact that each year they receive a high volume of nominations from staff who see it as the route for recognition at AVDC.