The Eildon Group has received the prestigious recognition of being given four stars through the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Recognised for Excellence (R4E) framework at the Scottish Business Awards in Edinburgh.

R4E is an international recognition scheme for organisations that demonstrate high levels of performance against the nine criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model.

Eildon’s chief executive, Nile Istephan, said: “This is another fantastic recognition for the work of the Eildon Group and all of our staff who work hard to deliver ever improving services to our customers. To have achieved such a speedy progression through this demanding framework in only three years is a great achievement and we are very proud of our colleagues for their efforts.

“This award demonstrates our continuing focus on business improvement, building on the organisation’s strengths to attain even higher levels of excellence throughout our entire operation and we are absolutely delighted to receive 4-star recognition.

“We plan to use this as a springboard for further improvements as we work through our record breaking expansion of our housing and care business serving the communities of the Scottish Borders.”

Offering her congratulations, Claire Ford, chief executive officer of Quality Scotland, said: “Eildon Housing Association’s achievement of Recognised for Excellence 4 Star, in their first assessment, is a clear demonstration of an organisation’s drive and desire to achieve sustainable business excellence and truly embed a culture of continuous improvement. Congratulations on this global level of recognition and all the hard work and effort that has gone in to achieving it.”