Public sector excellence

This paper describes the lessons learned by four of the UK public sector organisations that have been part of a research programme run as a joint activity by the British Quality Foundation and the University of the West of England to test the assumption that the commercially developed Business Excellence Model and technique of Self Assessment are applicable and can provide valuable assistance to public sector organisations (PSOs). The paper briefly describes the historical development of the Business Excellence Model and Self Assessment, the creation of a group of UK public sector test sites and some of the lessons that have been generally found in these pilot units. The bulk of the paper then provides a detailed report of the developments in four of the test sites.